John 19:28 Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.
The thirst of Jesus is very real, it is not imaginary, it is not literary, nor is his thirst illusionary; Jesus does not thirst for illustrative purposes. Jesus does not thirst for symbolic description. Jesus’ thirst is not metaphorical, allegorical or parabolic.
Jesus’ thirst is a genuine tangible thirst.
Root Beer Thirst
As a kid in High School, I loved to go to amusement parks, and so did my friends. We only had a couple of amusement parks in the SF Bay Area and my high school buddies and I were able to convince our parents to drop us off at one of these amusement parks that was like a six flags park about four times a summer.
So this one particular summer day, me and four of my friends were dropped off at 11:00 am and were to be picked up by the parent at about 10:00 pm. A whole day at the amusement park, this was going to be great!
Admission gave us access to all the parks attractions, but we needed extra money for lunch and dinner. We all had a few dollars extra for food and drink...but, being 15 year olds, the reality of budgeting had not yet been realized in our financial minds.
So, after a few games of shuttle ball, games where we tried to win stuffed animals, trying to trick the guy who guesses your weight and age, and playing various video games, we were all out of money - it was 1:00 o’clock in the afternoon. We only had 9 hours until a parent picked us up.
At first, it was no big deal. We just started to ride the roller coasters and those rides that spin you around until you’re just shy of losing your stomach. But, you know, all that screaming, spinning and g force makes a kid thirsty, especially on a summer day.
Finally, we were all desperately thirsty, so we checked the park diagram and made our way to the free public drinking fountain. It was out of order. We made our way to the one other free public drinking fountain on the other side of the park, and amazingly, it was out of order as well.
So we came up with a plan, we would just grab a few coins out of the ponds and fountains that were here and there throughout the park and gather enough money to buy a drink. That plan didn’t go so well. Security caught us standing in a fountain and threatened to throw us out of the park.
We resorted to looking for coins dropped on the ground.
Amazingly, by the grace and mercy of God, my friend Bill found a crisp one dollar bill. We all rejoiced. One dollar was not enough to buy a coke at the amusement park, you know how they hike up the price of food and drinks like a movie theater, however there was this root beer attraction in the park, and this was the answer to our thirst.
The amusement park had this section that was made to look San Francisco during the gold rush days. There they had this saloon where guests would come in, 25 at a time, and sit down at the long wooden bar. Once seated the bar tender would slide each customer a frosty mug of root beer and at the sound of a bell, everyone would chug down the root beer in a frenzied root beer drinking race.
Each root beer was only 10 cents. For a dime we could each get at two frosty mugs of root beer. They were small root beers, about the size of a sippy cup, but, it was a drink.
Bill decided that he should go first, since he found the dollar. Then he would come out with the change and we all would get our turn chugging frosty root beer mugs. So we waited outside….and we waited, and we waited. We couldn’t imagine what was taking Bill so long. What was taking Bill so long was Bill was drinking all our root beer. The guy drank ten root beers in a row and then had the nerve to tell us that it was his dollar so he could do with it what he wanted.
So we ditched Bill for the rest of the day.
A thirst must be satisfied. There’s no question about it.
When we thirst, we seek satisfaction. Thirst is not simply a desire, a want or “that would be nice.” Thirst is a core part of our being, and must be addressed. A thirst must be satisfied.
Jesus’ Thirst.
First we see that Jesus’ cry, “I thirst” is a physical reality of his condition. One of the enhanced effects of crucifixion is dehydration. Jesus has not had anything to drink since the passover meal and his body is aching for hydration. The loss of sweat, blood and the extended period of time without a water build up until Jesus cries out, “I thirst.”
Sure Jesus cries out, “I thirst” to fulfill prophecy, Psalms 69:21 “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.” Yet, Jesus does not robotically preform actions without any reference to reality. Jesus is not an actor acting out a script. Jesus really is thirsty, and in his real thirst, Jesus cries out for satisfaction.
This drink they give Jesus, wine vinegar sounds horrible. But, what it was, was a cheap drink. What Roman soldiers would do is bring this wine vinegar with them to a crucifixion so they would have something to drink while they waited for the victims to die. It is like Walmart brand wine, the soldiers used it to wile the hours away.
This is what they give Jesus, mercy to a dying man.
Jesus thirst is not merely a physical thirst, is it? We as humans thirst for many things. Yes, we thirst for a cool drink of water, but we also thirst for other things as well. We thirst for knowledge, we thirst for success, for peace, for love….for relief, and the fulfillment of our hopes and dreams. Jesus does not only physically thirst, Jesus cries out for thirst in another way also.
Jesus cries out to have his spiritual thirst quenched as well.
How can this be? Is’t this the man who told the woman at the well, John 4:13, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but 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.” Isn’t this the one who said, John 7:37“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
How can the one who claimed that he will satisfy any and all spiritually, how can he claim to satisfy thirst, and yet be thirsty himself?
Jesus is not merely hanging on the cross dying as thousands of others before him. Jesus death is not just a simple crucifixion. The Lord Jesus Christ is taking upon himself, the sins of humanity for all time. Here, the sinless one, 100% God, 100% human experiences the weight of sin upon him - and so Jesus thirsts for the Father, Jesus thirsts for the Holy Spirit.
What does thirst do to our mind? Thirst drives us to focus on fulfillment. We can only ride the roller coasters for so long, we can only act on normal everyday activities for so long. At some point, our thirst increases to the point where we cannot ignore anything but our thirst. So we take the drink, we work hard in our studies, we seek others to have relationships with - thirst rearranges our priorities. Jesus not only expresses a thirst, Jesus expresses a priority. His priority isn’t physical, instead it is a relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Unsatisfied thirst.
Unsatisfied thirst leads to nothing good, be thirsty long enough and disillusionment sets in. I’ll never finish school, I will never find love, I will never find God.
Believe it or not I played football in high school. Football started in August where I grew up, and in August the daily temperatures were usually 100 - 120 degrees. That’s hot. Of course our brilliant coaches insisted we wear full padding for practice. Further, some einstein purchased uniforms for the football team that were the color - black.
You can imagine thirst quickly set in.
We as a team were not allowed to have a drink until we as a team accomplished whatever the coaches set out for us to accomplish as a team during our practice. Unfortunately we as a team never seemed to be able to accomplish what was set before us. So our thirst grew ever stronger.
It turns out, that I am a person who faints rather easily. The team soon discovered that when I fainted, they received a water break. So the pressure was on for me to faint frequently.
The problem, for me anyway, was this: How we had a water break was that the coaches had filled up a large Colman cooler with water from a hose. They set out little plastic cups, and upon permission the whole team of about 40 guys ran to the cooler and scooped out drinks.
Well, I had fainted. I was out, they were drinking. By the time I got to the cooler for a drink everyone had already had their fill. What remained was a cooler filled with grass, dirt, sweat and other things I just didn’t want to even think about. It was a cooler full of potential disease. One big bucket of disgust.
But, thirst needed to be satisfied.
If a thirst is not satisfied then what is the ultimate conclusion? If a thirsts is not satisfied, then the ultimate conclusion for a thirst not satisfied is, death.
I’m speaking of this not in a physical sense, but here on Good Friday, I am speaking of it in a spiritual sense.
Those who do not quench their spiritual thirst, will eventually experience death. This is why our Lord Jesus tells us that he is living water, that he alone is able to quench our thirst to the point where we will never be thirsty again. Jesus alone, through his death and resurrection is the one who can quench our thirst.
Let us praise our Lord Jesus this day for his wonderful mercy and grace. Amen
