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I Thirst Text:
John 19:28-29 “Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips.”
John reports that this word from the cross was spoken “so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.” What scripture? Well, I suppose we could site Psalm 69:21, “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.” And maybe we would look to Psalm 22:15, “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.” But when you think about it, Jesus' thirst was even more than that.
When Jesus said, “I thirst,” he embodied in himself the beatitude, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” [Matthew 5:6]. Yet, as the Righteous One himself, his physical thirst on the cross, indeed his crucifixion in all its details, is the demonstration of the extent to which God thirst's for reconciliation with his world.
Jesus became the Thirsty One in order to quench the spiritual thirst of the world of people who spend their days dried and cracking under the death-load of sin. To a Samaritan woman at a well he once invited her with the words, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" [John 4:13-14]. Yet this was the price to be paid in order to provide those living waters, the emptying of his life for us.
One practical reason he requested something to drink as the last moment on the cross approached, was so that his final, victorious word might be said in a loud voice for all to hear.
He had spoken in a loud voice occasionally before. Once, St. John tells us, Jesus went secretly to the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach.
During the days of that feast, each morning at the time of the sacrifice, a priest would go to the fountain of Siloah with a golden pitcher, fill it with water, and, accompanied by a solemn procession, would take it to the altar of burnt sacrifice. There he would pour the water, together with a pitcher of wine from the drink offering, into two perforated flat bowls. The trumpets sounded and the people sang Isaiah 12:3, “Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation.” It was a ceremony commemorating the water gushing out of the rock at Meribah which was intended to quench the thirst of the multitude in the desert.
John reports, “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.'” And John explains, saying, “By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive” [John 7:37-39]. The result was that the people were divided in their opinion of who Jesus was. But this is the invitation to eternal life, to come and drink once only and never thirst again. Life once received lives on and on. He who comes to Jesus not only finds his own soul satisfied but also becomes a channel, if you will, for conveying the same spiritual satisfaction for others. What is the apostolic Word itself through which we believe; what are the confessions of the church, in harmony with which we believe; what are her hymns, her prayers, her sermons, all the testimonies of her faith and love in saving word and sacred conversation—what are they but rivers of living water flowing from the body of the Church?
Now, on the cross, his physical powers were fading as death drew near. Now only a deathly silence matched the deathly darkness as the sun refused to shine—the creation itself closing its eyes to the great mystery. Yet here was the price of God's thirst for us.
The
sainted O. P. Kretzmann said, “If you have ever asked for a glass of water,
He belongs to you. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities. ...He knows them all. There is no need through
which He has not made path. Perhaps we are not very important. But His complete
humanity makes Him the Lord of little things. The broken pencil of the child,
the broken home, the broken life—nothing is too small or unimportant to Him
who sees a sparrow fall and here, as He was saving the world, was thirsty.” Yet how does one respond to God? Surely the nameless volunteer who lifted the sponge of wine vinegar reveals our poor response. Here is God, the Son of God, quenching our thirst with living water, and we repay him with our sour praise. Here is he who feeds us with the richest banquet and feast of his Word and we give him only the scraps and leftovers of our devotion.
Yet, as Dr. Kretzmann said, because we have in him a high priest who can sympathize with our weakness, therefore, not only our thirst, but our pain, our loneliness, our weakness, our sin—we can bring it all to him, for he knows our weakness, and he suffered and died that we might have hope.
Jesus said, "I thirst." He knew all was accomplished. There was one more announcement to be made. Even this small detail, this Word, this act was foretold and happened to fulfill the Scripture. Now, on the other side of victory, however, we find that Jesus still says, "I thirst." But now he thirsts for human souls. In him the ancient invitation of Isaiah is renewed, "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost" [Isaiah 55:1]. We can no longer satisfy him with a sponge of cheap wine, but we quench his thirst for human souls by giving him our own.
And this is the invitation extended as long as we are given Good Fridays to celebrate. For God's thirst for souls is given also to his Church. Therefore we say in the words of Revelation 22:17, The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.____________________
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