I Understand
John 19:28-29
Intro: Easter is almost here. Two more weeks and it will be upon us. We have spent the last several weeks looking at the cross of Jesus and the last words of our Savior on that cross. This morning we are going to look at the shortest saying as they are called.
. I want to start this pre Easter sermon this morning with a Christmas story.
. The story is called The Christmas Storm and it was written by Paul Harvey.
. "This is about a modern man, one of us, he was not a scrooge, he was a kind, decent, mostly good man, generous to his family, upright in his dealings with others. But he did not believe in all that incarnation stuff that the Churches proclaim at Christmas time. It just didn’t make sense to him and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just could not swallow the Jesus story about God coming to earth as man. I’m truly sorry to distress you, he told his wife, but I’m not going with you to church this Christmas Eve. He said he’d feel like a hypocrite. That he would much rather stay home, but that he would wait up for them. He stayed, they went. Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier, then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound. Then another and another. At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. Well, when he went to the front door, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They had been caught in the storm and in a desperate search for shelter they had tried to fly through his large landscape window. Well, he couldn’t let the poor creatures lie there and freeze. He remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter -- if he could direct the birds to it. He quickly put on his coat and galoshes, trampled through the deepening snow to the barn, opened the door wide, and turned on a light. But the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in and he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow making a trail to the yellow lighted wide open doorway of the stable, but to his dismay the birds ignored the bread crumbs, and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them, he tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms -- instead they scattered in every direction except into the warm lighted barn. Then he realized they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature, if only I could think of some way to let them know they can trust me. That I’m not trying to hurt them, but to help them. How? Any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him. If only I could be a bird myself he thought. If only I could be a bird and mingle with them and speak their language, and tell them not to be afraid, and show them the way to the safe, warm barn. But I'd have to be one of them, so they could see and hear and understand.
At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sound of the wind. He stood there listening to the bells. And he sank to his knees in the snow.
. He finally understood that for mankind to believe that God loved them and understand them that He had to come to them as one of them.
. In order for mankind to trust Him, He had to show them that He was willing to experience what man experiences.
. There is an old American Indian proverb that says in order to know a man, you must first “walk a mile in his moccasins”.
. Jesus not only walked that mile, He lived and experienced the joys and heartache of His creation in order to show His love for us.
. In our scripture this morning, we see the humanity of Jesus.
. Jesus had been nailed to the cross at nine am and sometime between then and noon he spoke His first words since being crucified.
. He asked God to forgive those who were crucifying Him when He said “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34).
. Then He spoke to the criminal on the cross next to Him saying to him “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43).
. Then He voiced His concern for His mother when He told her that she should depend on His friend and the disciple that He loved John when he said, ““Dear woman, here is your son” and to John, “here is your mother” (John 19:25-27).
. Then scripture tells us that at noon darkness fell across the whole earth and after three hours of darkness Jesus cried out the saying , “My God My God, why have you abandoned me.” (Matthew 27:46)
. We looked at this last week and today we look at John 19:28-29.
. Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.”29A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips.
. Kind of short and simple here isn’t it.
. How are we going to learn anything from this little simple statement of “I am Thirsty”
. We are taught in seminary to exegete the scripture as we study and prepare for a sermon.
. Part of that exegesis is what we just did in leading up to our scripture this morning.
. We are also taught to expose the scripture or to give its meaning.
. If you will look at verse 28, you will see that John writes that Jesus did this to fulfill scripture by saying : “I am thirsty.”
. We can look back at two psalms and know what John is relaying to us.
. In psalm 22, David writes about the coming Messiah and in verse 15 he writes: 15My strength has dried up like sunbaked clay. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.You have laid me in the dust and left me for dead.
. David writes out that the Messiah will cry out for thirst.
. verse 29 takes us to another prophesy of David about the coming Messiah. John writes that,
. 29A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips.
. In psalm 69:21 David writes: But instead, they give me poison for food; they offer me sour wine for my thirst.
. The Old Testament is filled with prophecies of the coming Messiah.
. It was no coincidence that Jesus was on that cross nor was it a coincidence that He spoke these words.
. Professor Peter Stoner, in his book, SCIENCE SPEAKS, demonstrates how coincidence is ruled out by the science of probability. Stoner says that by using the science of probability in reference to only eight Old Testament prophecies, we find that the probability that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled eight of the 332 Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah, is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 (1017)! That is ten to the 17th power.
. What is that, a gazillion or something like that.
Suppose that we take those gazillion silver dollars and lay them on the face of Georgia. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one person.
. As we expose this scripture, John says that Jesus spoke these words in order to fulfill just two of these 332 Old Testament prophecies.
. The third thing they teach us in seminary is to apply the passage.
. How does this passage of scripture apply to us and you today.
. At first glance you say, yes I can see why Jesus was thirsty and leave it at that.
. Folks there is so much more that applies to our lives with these three words.
. As we said in the beginning, these three words speak of Jesus’ humanity.
. While Jesus was God, He was also man 100% human.
. Don’t ask me to explain it. All I will tell you is that He is God and He can do anything.
. Jesus thirsted out of His human suffering.
. Jesus thirsted so that we can know that He understands and can sympathize with whatever we are going through.
. When we hurt because someone has betrayed us, Jesus says I understand.
. When things go wrong and we need comfort, Jesus says I understand.
. When life goes awry and we cry out to God why me, Jesus says I understand.
. In our loneliness, Jesus says I understand.
. Jesus says through this three word statement, I am one of you.
. I understand all the worry and pain that come with being human and you can count on me.
. Father Damien was a priest who became famous for his willingness to serve lepers. He moved to Kalawao—a village on the island of Molokai, in Hawaii, that had been quarantined to serve as a leper colony.
For 16 years, he lived in their midst. He learned to speak their language. He bandaged their wounds, embraced the bodies no one else would touch, preached to hearts that would otherwise have been left alone. He organized schools, bands, and choirs. He built homes so that the lepers could have shelter. He built 2,000 coffins by hand so that, when they died, they could be buried with dignity.
Slowly, it was said, Kalawao became a place to live rather than a place to die, for Father Damien offered hope.
Father Damien was not careful about keeping his distance though. He did nothing to separate himself from his people. He dipped his fingers in the poi bowl along with the patients. He shared his pipe. He did not always wash his hands after bandaging open sores. He got close. For this, the people loved him.
Then one day he stood up and began his sermon with two words: “We lepers. . . .”
Now he wasn’t just helping them. Now he was one of them. From this day forward, he wasn’t just on their island; he was in their skin. First he had chosen to live as they lived; now he would die as they died. Now they were in it together.
One day God came to Earth in the person of Jesus Christ and began his message: “We humans. . . .” Now he wasn’t just helping us. Now he was one of us. Now he was in our skin. Now we were in it together.
. Just before His arrest and crucifixion we see His understanding of what He was about to go through and His submission to the will of the Father.
.In Luke 22:42 we see Him in the garden there on the Mount of Olives.
. He and the disciples had just had their last meal together and He had instituted what we call communion. He left and went into the garden to pray.
. In His humanity He knew what was about to happen and the pain and agony that He was going to have to endure and this was His prayer.
. Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
. Folks those three words; “I am thirsty” speak volumes.
. They speak of obedience and love and understanding.
. In His humanity, Jesus feared the suffering that He knew was to come but in His obedience to God, He said not my will but yours Father.
. His love for mankind brought Him to us in all humanity.
. His life and death and all the experiences that were part of that give us hope and an assurance that He understands
. He is always with us when we accept Him for who He is and what He did for us on this cross that day.
. In His humanity, Jesus says “I am thirsty”
Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources:
The Holy Bible, NLT
The Fifth Word: Suffering, Freddy Fritz
“I Thirst”, Dave McFadden
I Thirst, David Swensen
