Jn. 19.28 "I Thirst"
1. [Play CD] Out of all of the statements we’ve heard so far, this is the most basic. "I am thirsty". If I had a nickel for every time I heard one of my children say, "I’m thirsty," I could preach here and not take a salary. I wonder if his mom had flashbacks to his childhood when she heard him say, "I’m thirsty". I wonder if her first thought was to try to find a way to satisfy his thirst? To try once more and to meet the needs of her son. I wonder how her heart broke as she stood at the cross and watched Him die this excruciating death, knowing she could do nothing about it. A mom unable to help her son. The one thing a mom knows she is always supposed to do. And now her son cries, "I’m thirsty."
2. But have you ever wondered why Jesus would cry, "I’m thirsty?" Why was this one of the last statements we hear Christ making? I’ve said before that last words are very important, but these words almost seem too simplistic to mean much. These words seem too ordinary. I mean children and adults alike say, "I’m thirsty". Is there any real significance here? Let’s discover the reasons that John may have recorded these words.
3. First, the cross was an excruciating way to die. Physically, it broke down any individual and Christ particularly having been a carpenter and walking throughout His ministry would have been physically fit. And one of the side effects of the crucifixion is dehydration. The truth is, Christ spoke what was taking place in His body. "His [Jesus’] loss of blood, his nervous tension, and his exposure to the weather had generated a raging thirst." (Merrill C. Tenney, Expositor’s, p. 183) So Jesus’ cry, "I’m thirsty" is a physical reality of His condition. With every normal person, Christ was experiencing the effects of the cross. And this may be one of the reasons why John records this statement in his gospel. You see, very early on, there was a philosophical group called "Gnostics". And they believed that everything that had to do with the material world was evil, while everything in the spiritual world was good. Therefore, Christ could not be God because if He had been human, that meant a spiritual good became joined with a material evil. And they didn’t believe that could happen. So to fit their views, they proposed that Christ had come but not in an actual physical body, but only as a phantom. He only appeared to be with them although He wasn’t physically with them. And their teaching began to take hold in the early church, particularly to the people to whom John was writing. So a part of John’s intention in adding this statement, "I thirst" was to demonstrate that Christ was "in the flesh" and not a phantom. He was a real person who suffered real pain and died a real death on a real cross. It was all real. It really did happen.
4. But John also records an interesting statement here, which tells us that there is more here than simply a physical thirst. John says, "knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled". It is in connection with this phrase that we hear the words, "I thirst", so we know that Jesus is not simply stating a physical reality but He is commenting on the spiritual as well. But how?
a. First, Jesus as well as the Old Testament scripture equated "thirst" with a desire for God. Jesus had said to His followers, in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled." Also, when Jesus had been speaking to the woman at the well, He told her, "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." Again, this wasn’t only with Jesus but in the Old Testament as well, thirst was an indication of a desire not for a drink but for the Divine. Psalm 42.2 says, "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?" and Psalm 63.1 says, "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water." and Psalm 42.1 says, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God." and Isaiah wrote, "The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them." (41.17). So when Jesus cries out, "I thirst". He may be referring not only to the physical need for a drink, but to this idea that He thirsts to meet with His Father and for His Father’s presence. He had just cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It would make sense that He would now thirst for His Father.
b. And there is still another reason as to why Christ may have said, "I thirst". There is a scene we have of Jesus in the garden, praying beside a rock, asking, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." (Lk. 22.42). Some have suggested that when Christ cries out, "I am thirsty." He is once again submitting Himself to the will of His Father to "drink the cup". To reaffirm that all that has been done has not been in vain but that it has fulfilled the will of the Father in returning humanity to Himself. It is Christ not wanting to do only a portion of what the Father wills, but to drink the entire cup, to complete the will of the Father, to finally redeem all of humanity.
c. A third way to understand Christ’s statement, "I thirst" is to consider once more the earlier statements that John made when he wrote his gospel, he said, "knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled," suggesting that this statement points us back to earlier prophecies about the Messiah that are now understood as pointing to Jesus Christ. And there are two major passages of scripture that the author has in mind at this point. The first is Psalm 22. Turn there with me this morning. This is a lengthy passage we will be reading but I think you’ll understand why. [read Psalm 22], and turn with me to Psalm 69. We could read all of this but let’s read one verse this morning, v. 22. [Read Psalm 69.22]. You see, another reason Christ called out, "I thirst" was to demonstrate that He is the promised Messiah. It was to fulfill the scriptures that pointed to the coming Messiah that Christ cried out on the cross, "I thirst".
5. Now, I’ll not stand here this morning and give you a definitive reason as to why Christ is recorded as saying, "I thirst". What I will tell you is it’s possible that every single one of these reasons is why Christ cried out, "I thirst". He cried out to His Father because, He was physically thirsty, meaning He had a real body that experienced real suffering and pain. He did thirst for the presence of God because He had experienced His absence. He demonstrated by the way of the cross that He was willing to fulfill the will of His Father entirely, and He is the promised Messiah who the Jews were looking for and are still looking for. It has been said that there are 300 Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah that Christ fulfilled in His lifetime. "Peter W. Stoner (Mathematician & scientist) calculated one man fulfilling just 8 Old Testament prophecies: 1 in 10 to the 17th power! 100,000,000,000,000,000!! 100 quadrillion. And Victory Publishing Company out of Denver, CO has a standing offer to anyone who can find someone, other than Jesus, who can fulfill just half of Jesus’ 330 Old Testament prophets. If you can find that person, Victory Publishing will give you $1,000. By the way, the chance of any one man fulfilling all 300 prophecies, as Jesus did, is 1 in 840 untrigintillion… that’s 97 zeroes!" (Bill Boyce, pastor, Church of Christ, Havana, Illinois)
6. You see, any of these reasons on their own is enough to cause Christ to cry out, "I thirst." But I’ll believe there is some truth to all of them today, which only affirms to me more, that Jesus Christ is indeed my Savior. He is indeed the one who came to redeem me from death and eternity spent away from God. I believe that I need Christ more than He needs me. And I’m glad I’ve put my faith in Him. How about you? Have you received Christ yet? Do you know this one who was willing for all these reasons to cry out, "I thirst"? Do you have a thirst for Him today? If so, I want to invite you to the altar where you can find the water that gives eternal life.
7. Our closing hymn is . . .
