Message
John 19:28
I Thirst
Talk about the effect of the drought in Australia
We understand what happens when you remove water from the land.
We have this vast land called the outback. Beautiful yet it can be deadly.
Move on to drought in other nations.
Everyone in Australia has relatively easy access to water, even those in the outback.
But that isn’t the case in other countries.
The lack of clean safe drinking water is the world's No 1 killer. To fight this global problem the United Nations has proclaimed the decade 2005 to 2015 as the International Decade for Action, "Water for life".
Thirst. All of us have experienced it in some way … some of us really know what real thirst is like. It is a natural human response … a very human response. Now let’s read our text.
John 19:23-30
Stop and think for a moment about some of the sayings which Jesus spoke on the cross.
Father forgive them because they do not know what they are doing.
My God. My God. Why have You forsaken Me?
It is finished.
These are sayings of power aren’t they. They are in character and appropriate for the occasion. Then we get to the words of Jesus in our text ... verse 28.
I thirst.
It seems so mundane.
So ordinary.
... ...
So human.
And that is precisely the point. Just when we think we have the cross nicely packaged, we are given a little reminder:-
Don’t forget that Jesus was human. He had flesh. He knows what it means to be like us.
These words of Jesus show how much Jesus wants to identify with us … and also how willing He is to suffer so that we might be saved. Let’s have a closer look at these words and see just how Jesus does that.
Let’s start by asking the question
What is the cause of Christ’s thirst?
Jesus thirsts because of the physical circumstances He was faced with.
It is quite possible that the last drink Jesus had was at the Passover – early in the previous night. And, since that time, His body has endured much.
His head has been pierced by the crown of thorns.
He has been beaten with a wooden staff.
He has been whipped with lashes across His back.
His hands and feet have been pierced with nails and every time He moves a sharp pain flows through them.
His arms are aching from the need to lift His body so He can breathe.
His chest cavity would be screaming as it fights to take another mouthful of precious air.
Crucifixion is not an easy death. If you were close enough you would hear blood dripping onto the ground into a slimy mess at the base of the cross. No wonder Jesus had a parched mouth and a burning throat – I thirst.
But the physical pain was not the only cause of His thirst.
Jesus thirsts because of the spiritual circumstances He was faced with.
Let’s remember that this fifth word is spoken after the 3 hours of darkness.
And that means the 3 hours of darkness have already passed.
And that means the cry My God. My God. Why have You forsaken Me? has already passed His lips.
And that means Jesus has gone through the agony of having the Father pour our His anger against sin.
It is not a small thing to face the anger and wrath of God.
Nahum 1:6 says Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before Him.
Psalm 2:12 says His wrath can flare up in a moment.
and in Romans 8:32 we are reminded He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all.
No wonder Jesus cries out, “I thirst”.
He has gone to the extremes of pain and endurance.
He has been rejected by men. He has been rejected by God.
Jesus thirsts. Not just because of the physical pain, but also because of the spiritual torment He has just endured.
At times it seems like madness … but there is method to the madness.
Even though he has been dead for quite a while many people still know who Steve Irwin is … he is the crocodile hunter. Most people who saw what he did thought he was crazy.
When he saw the world’s most dangerous, venomous snake he had to pick it up and touch it.
When Steve saw an angry, killer crocodile in a river he would jump in the water with it.
Basically he would get as close as he could. He invaded the environments of these animals so he could understand them, know them, and better help them. It seems like madness, but the madness had a purpose.
It is the same with Jesus. What some say is madness is actually a very purposeful act. Jesus took on the wrath of God and the agony of the cross, and the thirst which came with it, because, through these actions, He is better able to help us.
Why can He help us? Because
Jesus thirst is another guarantee that He is who He says He is.
In the Old Testament there are 332 prophecies and predictions which have been fulfilled by Jesus. Here are a couple of them.
Psalm 69:21
They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.
Psalm 22:15
My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.
As Jesus cries out on the cross “I thirst” He is making another guarantee that He is who He is … the One promised in the Old Testament who would bring restoration, renewal and hope. The One who is the gift of God to cover the sin of men.
Which means that
... we can rely on the promises of Jesus.
... we can rely on the message of Jesus.
... and we can rely on the fact that Jesus can do what He says He will do … in every facet.
The thirst of Jesus says, “I am the real deal.”
But there is more.
Jesus thirsts because He wants us to know that He is willing to condescend to our level.
All history has been about the story of God coming to us and then condescending Himself to our level.
• It happened right after the first sin. God came and looked for our first parents … where are you.
• It happened in the days of Abraham. God shared a lunch of meat and milk under the shade of a tree.
• It happened in the days of Moses. God met with him face to face.
• It happened through the life of Jesus. God coming to show His willingness to take our place.
Time and again God was making His intentions known. Through Jesus God wants us to know that He wants to be part of our lives.
There was a man in Wales who sought to win the affection of a certain lady. For more than 40 years the persistent, but rather shy man, slipped a weekly love letter under his neighbour's door. After writing 2,184 love letters without ever getting a spoken or written answer, the single-hearted old man eventually summoned up enough courage to present himself in person. He knocked on the door of the lady and asked for her hand. To his delight and surprise, she accepted. In 1985, when both of them were 74 years old, and they became "Mr. and Mrs".
That’s a picture of the same dilemma God has faced. Time and time again He tried to get His message of love through to His human creation with little response. Finally, when there was no other way, He wrapped up His message in person. The person of Jesus.
That person came as a child – the product of a virgin birth. A birth which says to the world, “This is how much I am like you. I am God in the flesh, born of a woman in just the same way that you are”.
And this same One … born of a woman … now hangs on a cross. Thirsting. Thirsting because He has taken the anger of God. Thirsting because He has taken the punishment. Thirsting as a man – just to let us know how down-to-earth Christianity really is.
Jesus thirsts because He wants to have first-hand experience of what it is like to live in a sin-stained world.
In a very real and intense way Jesus is showing us how much He really understands about us. He is showing us that He understands what it is like to live in this world.
A world that directs its hate against God and all who seek to represent Him.
A world of disappointment and decisions.
A world of frustrations and fear.
A world of broken relationships and loneliness.
This first-hand experience means that the words of Hebrews 4:15 ring true. We do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are …
When we pray and when we seek the throne of grace, we are not praying to someone who is detached and inexperienced in the difficulty of life – the One to whom we pray knows us intimately, He knows our feelings in every way.
He knows what it is like to be faced with temptation and the path it beckons us to take.
He identifies with the discouragement of being let down by people who say they are your friend.
He appreciates what we feel when our children want different things at the same time.
He relates to the times when we don’t know what to pray, or when we pray in anger.
He understands when we find ourselves faced with more to do then could ever be done.
He knows what we feel when the alarm goes off in the morning, and when work is a chore, and when marriage is a burden, and when we just want to get away, and when weariness has overtaken us, and when we have no reason to laugh and when life is just the pits.
I thirst. This is the voice of the Word made flesh. This is the voice of Jesus the carpenter. This is the voice of Jesus – who is like His brothers in every way except for sin. And because of His experience, He can help us through each day.
So what does all that mean for us?
Don’t play games with God.
Reminder of the fact that Jesus was thirsty because of the physical and spiritual circumstances. Jesus was spiritually separated from God for three hours … and look what it did to Him. How are we going to fare as humans if we end up being separated from God for an eternity? As we look to the cross we see that God is serious about sin … it isn’t something we can play games with.
We constantly need to hold onto the fact that Jesus is the way to salvation. We need to live our lives in connection with Jesus know that our eternal hope is in Him alone. We need to respond to Jesus’ call in our lives to live in obedience. We can’t just play games with faith.
And we need to help not-yet-believers see this same truth. There are so many people – people who sit in our immediate circle – who everyday play games with God. They think they can get by without Him. They think they can live their own life in their own way. But they are wrong.
For all the truth is the same. The Gospel needs to go out.
Know that God doesn’t play games with us.
God sent Jesus as a serious reminder of the fact that He wants us in His family. During His ministry Jesus made this invitation …
Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty … whoever comes to Me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me … For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
John 6:35-40.
This is a promise Jesus has made. A promise which will come to pass because of the sacrifice Jesus has made.
More than 25 years ago Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just after taking off from the Detroit airport, killing 155 people. There was only one survivor: a four-year-old named Cecelia
News accounts say when rescuers found Cecelia they did not believe she had been on the plane. Investigators first assumed Cecelia had been a passenger in one of the cars on the highway onto which the airliner crashed. But when the passenger register for the flight was checked, there was Cecelia’s name.
Cecelia survived because, even as the plane was falling, Cecelia’s mother, unbuckled her own seat belt, got down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped her arms and body around Cecelia, and then would not let her go. The sacrifice of Cecelia’s mother was what enabled Cecelia to live.
I thirst says Jesus. And as He thirsts the sacrifice is made. The sacrifice which shows God is not playing games with us because He clearly wants us to have an eternal destiny which is secure.
Jesus thirsts … so that we have the opportunity to be numbered among those who will never hunger or thirst again.
Prayer
