Cross Words 5 - Suffering (John 19:18-19)

There’s something very natural in the fifth word spoken from the cross. On the night before the cross, Jesus had shared in the Last Supper with his friends. But since then, going out to Gethsemane, praying in earnest, being arrested, and tried, and led out to the place of the skull, he hasn’t had anything to drink. His fluid loss, as his blood flows out, must have been reducing. It’s entirely natural that Jesus would be thirsty as he undergoes the agony and suffering of the cross.

As we confess in the Nicene Creed, the eternal Son of God was made man - as fully man as he is fully God. And as man, he has fully entered into our experience with one exception - though he was tempted, he did not sin. And so Jesus experiences life as we know it. He was hungry; he was tired; he wept; and here, on the cross, he was thirsty. One of our natural experiences.

And yet, there is a profound mystery in these words of Jesus. It’s in John’s gospel that Jesus requests a drink of water at a well in Samaria. The question startles the Samaritan woman, because Jewish men and Samaritan women didn’t ever associate with each other. And at that well, Jesus says these famous words: ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him with never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ (Jn 4:13-14)

The woman had been trying to satisfy her thirst in all sorts of ways with all sorts of men - five husbands, and now another who hadn’t even committed to her. Jesus offers her living water to quench her thirst. And yet, on the cross, Jesus thirsts.

Later in John’s gospel, Jesus stands up on the last and greatest day of the Feast, and with a loud voice says, ‘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.’ Jesus is offering the Spirit to all who believe in him.

But for Jesus to offer this living water which will quench our thirst, he had to thirst himself. We know this, because it’s what John tells us in the context of this saying of Jesus: ‘knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”’

By this point, Jesus has endured the agony, the darkness, the weight of our sin. All is now completed - the price has been paid. And Jesus brings to mind all the Scriptures that prophesied his work on the cross. All of them had been fulfilled; we’ve seen some of them in our reflections this week. There was just one that remained unfulfilled. A verse in Psalm 69.

Psalm 69 foreshadows the cross, just like Psalm 22. And the verse that was outstanding was verse 21. ‘They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.’ In order to fulfill the Scripture, and ensure that every part of the plan was completed, Jesus declares: ‘I am thirsty.’

Now, if you’re thirsty, you need a good drink of water. But the cruelty of the cross meant that wine vinegar was offered. A bitter drink; not very thirst-quenching. And yet that was fulfilling the prophecy of David in Psalm 69. They gave me vinegar for my thirst.

There are over 300 prophecies about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus in the Old Testament. And every single one of them was completed and fulfilled. To the last detail, God’s salvation plan has been accomplished.

The man who thirsted on the cross offers you the living water so that you will never thirst again. Jesus offers refreshment and revival if you will but take and drink. Believe in him, trust in him, and that spring of water will well up to eternal life in you. Will you receive from him?

The fifth cross word is a word of suffering.

Jesus says: I am thirsty.

Let us pray.
Heavenly Father,
we thank you that through Jesus’ thirst,
he has opened the fountain of living water.
We turn to you afresh;
will you satisfy our thirst,
and give us this spring of water
welling up to eternal life.
We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.