I Thirst

John 19:28-37

INTRODUCTION

Gladys Aylward was a missionary to China and her labors were chronicled in the film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness.On one occasion she suffered terribly during a journey across the mountains of China in order to bring a hundred orphans to safety. Ranging in age from four to fifteen-years-old, these children were saved because of Gladys’s faithful obedience to God. But it was not without cost. When she arrived with the orphans, she was gravely ill and almost delirious. She suffered internal injuries from a beating by the Japanese invaders in the mission compound. In addition, she suffered from relapsing fever, typhus, pneumonia, malnutrition, shock and fatigue.

Through her ordeal Gladys learned more about obedience to Christ.She learned to choose Christ over everything else life had to offer, so much so that when the man she loved came to visit her as she was recovering and asked to marry him, she declined. In her heart she knew she could not marry him and continue the work God had for her among the orphans of China. Out of her obedience to God, she went to the train station with the man she loved and said good-by to him and they never met again(Character Forged From Conflict)

Gladys continued serving God faithfully in China and England until her death.Obedience to God is not always easy, nevertheless, it is something God expects from us.

The fifth word from the cross speaks to us of Christ’s obedience to the will of the Father. It speaks of the suffering Christ endured in obeying the will of God. It was His only reference to the unbearable physical pain He endured. Our text informs us that Jesus instinctively uttered a spontaneous cry of intense suffering when he shouted, “I THIRST.” “Up to this moment no word of his own need had escaped his lips.His thoughts had been for others. It was not until all else had been accomplished - his murderers forgiven, his loved ones provided for, a penitent thief welcomed home to paradise - that our Savior thought of the agony racking his tortured body.” It is worth noticing that Jesus did not ask for liquid to quench His burning thirst but simply stated the fact of His physical need. When our Lord cried out from the cross saying, “WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?”, it was a cry of spiritual desolation. When He cried saying, “I THIRST”, it was a cry of physical desolation. “It is well known that thirst was a supreme cause of distress for those who were put to death by crucifixion.The need which wrung that complaint from Jesus’ lips must have been bitter beyond all our understanding.

He must have been wracked with pain in every muscle of his body and in every fiber of his being while he hung there on the cross. With the coming of the hot sun, he finally realized the point where the anguish of a fevered body was unbearable.It was as though all the pains of death were absorbed in a single conscious feeling, and the terrible suffering of nerves and limbs was all expressed in the lament, “I THIRST.” That cry of physical desolation has not been lost or silenced as it comes hurdling down through centuries of passing time.

THE OBEDIENT SERVANT OF GOD

The cry of our Lord, “I THIRST” speaks to us of His obedience to the Father. While praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, our Lord wrestled with the pain and agony of His crucifixion. He wanted the “cup to pass from Him”; He wanted to avoid the pain of the cross. Nevertheless, He prayed, “NOT MY WILL, BUT THINE BE DONE.” Jesus wanted God’s will not His own will.God’s will was for Him to die on the cross to pay the just penalty of our sin. Hundreds of years before Christ came to earth, Psalm 69 prophesied that in “HIS THIRST THEY GAVE HIM VINEGAR TO DRINK.” Obedient to God, this prophesy came to pass. Jesus was as Philippians 2:8 declares, “OBEDIENT UNTO DEATH,EVEN THE DEATH OF THE CROSS.” Christ was obedient to the will and plan of the Father. His fifth word from the cross, “I THIRST,” is a reminder to us that, no matter what the cost, we have been called to a life of obedience. Such obedience is essential for our personal well-being.

OUR PERSONAL WELL-BEING

Some years ago, a TV news camera was on assignment in southern Florida filming the widespread destruction of Hurricane Andrew. In one scene, amid the devastation and debris stood one house on its foundation. The owner was cleaning up the yard when a reporter approached him. “Sir, why Is your house the only one still standing?” asked the reporter. “How did you manage to escape the sever damage of the hurricane?’ “I built this house myself,” the man replied. “I also built it according to the Florida state building code. When the code called for 2X6 roof trusses, I used 2X6 trusses. I was told that a house built according to code could withstand a hurricane.I did, and it did.” When the sun is shinning and the skies are blue, building our lives on something other than the guidelines of God’s Word can be tempting.But someday, somewhere there will be a price to be paid. Obedience to the revealed will and ways of God is definitely in our very best interest. God made us and He knows what is best for us. Sometimes we think that great blessing and happiness will come to us if we disobey a particular moral, ethical or spiritual law of God or ignore His will for our lives.So we succumb to the false promise of sin and disregard God’s standards. We do it our way.We eventually discover that our happiness was short lived and the disobedience costly. Heartache, regret and guilt become our unwanted companions.The peace and joy and fulfillment we sought pass us by. It can’t be otherwise as they are the result of obedience not disobedience. We need to trust God enough to be willing to say, in every situation, “NOT MY WILL BUT THINE BE DONE.”