Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - John 19:28-29 Lent 5

Thirst is powerful. Dehydration is deadly. Although the Gospel writers generally avoid mentioning Jesus’ reaction to the physical pain that He had to endure, this fifth statement from the cross gives us a glimpse into the torment that Jesus suffered for us.

We have already considered the agony of abandonment: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Now we are reminded that He had to endure intense physical pain as well.

When the crucifixion began, they offered Jesus a drink of wine vinegar mixed with gall – which was a pain killer. He wasn’t going to accomplish His work of redemption with the aid of an anesthetic.

By the time Jesus said, “I thirst,” it must have been at least 15 hours since He had had anything to drink. He had told His disciples in the Upper Room that He would not again drink of the fruit of the vine until all things had been accomplished. He hadn’t slept all night. He had been sweating great drops of blood in Gethsemane. He had been repeatedly whipped and beaten. He had been forced to carry His own cross until He finally collapsed under the weight of it. He had been hung on the cross and exposed to the elements for several hours. His head, His back, His hands and feet were bleeding. So it is no wonder that thirst was upon Him.

There is a powerful metaphor that has been suggested by preachers and hymn writers for centuries that while Jesus was hanging on the cross, His thirst for our salvation was even stronger than His desire for something to drink. That is why He went through all of that pain and suffering. He did not want us to join the rich man in hell who pleaded in vain with Abraham to send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and give him a single drop to cool his tongue.

Jesus did not want us to suffer like that. He endured that thirst so that you and I will never have to.

In addition to the thirst for our salvation, there was a physical need expressed when He said, “I thirst.” The reason Jesus said, “I thirst,” is because He wanted a drink. He was thirsty. He was lacking the fluid which is necessary for the support and needs of the body. He was lacking His daily bread.

Throughout this Lenten season, we have seen how the seven words from the cross have corresponding ties to the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. In the Lord’s Prayer, Christ teaches us to pray for our daily bread, which Luther says includes food, drink, clothing, shoes, etc.

As Luther says in his catechism, God has richly and daily provided us with all that we need to support this body and life, so that we do not live out our days with the pangs of thirst and hunger. Physical nourishment of food and water is important to sustain our body in this life.

But more than this, we need and have been given the water of life. And we have that scene described in John’s Revelation as our inheritance: “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst . . . He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

For our sake, Jesus endured the physical pain of the cross -- just as He endured the emotional pain of separation and forsakenness from His Father. And He endured the body’s cravings of thirst so that we can drink of that living water.

Only when all things have been accomplished did He again drink from the fruit of the vine. And because all things are accomplished, we will never thirst again. Amen.

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