I Thirst Series

As God He could say, “ I tell you the truth…before Abraham was born, I am”. And as man He could say, “I am thirsty”. Jesus was not a deified man nor was He a humanized God. He was the God-man: forever God and now, for ever Man.

We can find many examples in the Gospels. For example, as a human being, Jesus was tried and fell asleep in the hull of a ship, but as God a moment later, He was able to still the sea and calm the wind. As a man, Jesus was broken hearted over the death of Lazarus, but as God He raised Lazarus from the dead. As a man he suffered a horrible death on the cross, but as God he was raised the third day.

It seems that a lot of people have a problem coming to grips with the fact that Jesus was God and man. Some seem to be liberal and find it difficult to believe that a man was GOD, and some tend to take a very conservative position and find it difficult to believe in His complete humanity.

It is very important that we accept the fact that Jesus was God and man, and our text this morning should help us to that. It tells us that Jesus was not only God but human also and He suffered like a man. The Bible tells us He said, “I thirst.” Since He felt all the pains of life like we do, He understands the things we go through in Life. Hebrew writer says in Hebrews 4:15, “we can approach His throne of grace…”because we know that, “He sympathizes with our weaknesses.”

He knew we would be grief-stricken, weary, disturbed, and angry. He knew what it was like to be sleepy and hungry. He knew we would face pain of the body and the soul, and that we would be thirsty. We might be thirsty for water, or maybe a thirst for righteousness. You see, He understands our plight in life, and I mean everything about us. Jesus is the perfect High Priest and the perfect one to stand between God and us.

If you think of the logic it will make sense to us, because If we want someone to understand our money woes in life had you rather talk to a billionaire who has been rich all of his life or someone who has been broke before? Who do think would sympathize with our problems because he understands?

The 5th statement Jesus made from the cross means He understands. James 1:5 the Bible says when we go to Him for help He responds, “generously to all without finding fault.” With those three words, Jesus was telling us an amazing comforting fact, “I UNDERSTAND! I-GOD IN THE FLESH-UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE GOING THROUGH!”

3- THE THIRD TRUTH I THINK JESUS WAS SAYING, “GOD’S WILL ALWAYS COMES FIRST.”

I can conclude that because, when Jesus made His 5th statement in verse 28 it says that He said, “AFTER THIS…” Well after what? If you remember the other lessons we’ve had you should remember you’ll see that Jesus expressed His thirst only after He had spoken words of forgiveness to His crucifiers, only after He had lovingly extended His grace to a repentant thief, only after he made provisions for His Mother, only after He had borne the sins of all mankind on His body and experienced the dark forsaken-ness from His Father. Jesus waited until “after this” or until all these things had been accomplished to say, “I’m thirsty.” Really we know He had probably been thirsty from the beginning. I mean the trails and crucifixion had lasted more than twelve hours.