John 19:28-37
INTRODUCTION
Gladys Aylward was a missionary to China and her labors were chronicled in the film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness.On one occasion she suffered terribly during a journey across the mountains of China in order to bring a hundred orphans to safety. Ranging in age from four to fifteen-years-old, these children were saved because of Gladys’s faithful obedience to God. But it was not without cost. When she arrived with the orphans, she was gravely ill and almost delirious. She suffered internal injuries from a beating by the Japanese invaders in the mission compound. In addition, she suffered from relapsing fever, typhus, pneumonia, malnutrition, shock and fatigue.
Through her ordeal Gladys learned more about obedience to Christ.She learned to choose Christ over everything else life had to offer, so much so that when the man she loved came to visit her as she was recovering and asked to marry him, she declined. In her heart she knew she could not marry him and continue the work God had for her among the orphans of China. Out of her obedience to God, she went to the train station with the man she loved and said good-by to him and they never met again(Character Forged From Conflict)
Gladys continued serving God faithfully in China and England until her death.Obedience to God is not always easy, nevertheless, it is something God expects from us.
The fifth word from the cross speaks to us of Christ’s obedience to the will of the Father. It speaks of the suffering Christ endured in obeying the will of God. It was His only reference to the unbearable physical pain He endured. Our text informs us that Jesus instinctively uttered a spontaneous cry of intense suffering when he shouted, “I THIRST.” “Up to this moment no word of his own need had escaped his lips.His thoughts had been for others. It was not until all else had been accomplished - his murderers forgiven, his loved ones provided for, a penitent thief welcomed home to paradise - that our Savior thought of the agony racking his tortured body.” It is worth noticing that Jesus did not ask for liquid to quench His burning thirst but simply stated the fact of His physical need. When our Lord cried out from the cross saying, “WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?”, it was a cry of spiritual desolation. When He cried saying, “I THIRST”, it was a cry of physical desolation. “It is well known that thirst was a supreme cause of distress for those who were put to death by crucifixion.The need which wrung that complaint from Jesus’ lips must have been bitter beyond all our understanding.
He must have been wracked with pain in every muscle of his body and in every fiber of his being while he hung there on the cross. With the coming of the hot sun, he finally realized the point where the anguish of a fevered body was unbearable.It was as though all the pains of death were absorbed in a single conscious feeling, and the terrible suffering of nerves and limbs was all expressed in the lament, “I THIRST.” That cry of physical desolation has not been lost or silenced as it comes hurdling down through centuries of passing time.
THE OBEDIENT SERVANT OF GOD
The cry of our Lord, “I THIRST” speaks to us of His obedience to the Father. While praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, our Lord wrestled with the pain and agony of His crucifixion. He wanted the “cup to pass from Him”; He wanted to avoid the pain of the cross. Nevertheless, He prayed, “NOT MY WILL, BUT THINE BE DONE.” Jesus wanted God’s will not His own will.God’s will was for Him to die on the cross to pay the just penalty of our sin. Hundreds of years before Christ came to earth, Psalm 69 prophesied that in “HIS THIRST THEY GAVE HIM VINEGAR TO DRINK.” Obedient to God, this prophesy came to pass. Jesus was as Philippians 2:8 declares, “OBEDIENT UNTO DEATH,EVEN THE DEATH OF THE CROSS.” Christ was obedient to the will and plan of the Father. His fifth word from the cross, “I THIRST,” is a reminder to us that, no matter what the cost, we have been called to a life of obedience. Such obedience is essential for our personal well-being.
OUR PERSONAL WELL-BEING
Some years ago, a TV news camera was on assignment in southern Florida filming the widespread destruction of Hurricane Andrew. In one scene, amid the devastation and debris stood one house on its foundation. The owner was cleaning up the yard when a reporter approached him. “Sir, why Is your house the only one still standing?” asked the reporter. “How did you manage to escape the sever damage of the hurricane?’ “I built this house myself,” the man replied. “I also built it according to the Florida state building code. When the code called for 2X6 roof trusses, I used 2X6 trusses. I was told that a house built according to code could withstand a hurricane.I did, and it did.” When the sun is shinning and the skies are blue, building our lives on something other than the guidelines of God’s Word can be tempting.But someday, somewhere there will be a price to be paid. Obedience to the revealed will and ways of God is definitely in our very best interest. God made us and He knows what is best for us. Sometimes we think that great blessing and happiness will come to us if we disobey a particular moral, ethical or spiritual law of God or ignore His will for our lives.So we succumb to the false promise of sin and disregard God’s standards. We do it our way.We eventually discover that our happiness was short lived and the disobedience costly. Heartache, regret and guilt become our unwanted companions.The peace and joy and fulfillment we sought pass us by. It can’t be otherwise as they are the result of obedience not disobedience. We need to trust God enough to be willing to say, in every situation, “NOT MY WILL BUT THINE BE DONE.”
MINISTERING TO JESUS
This fifth word from the cross also speaks to us about ministering to Jesus. After Jesus cried out saying, “I THIRST”, He was offered something to quench His thirst. Although His cry was not a request or an appeal but rather a spontaneous cry of suffering, someone ministered to Him. Matthew 27: 48 says, “ONE OF THEM RAN AND TOOK A SPONGE, AND FILLED IT WITH VINEGAR, AND PUT IT ON A REED, AND GAVE HIM TO DRINK.” “This must have been one of the soldiers who had earlier mocked the pangs of thirst. This was not the first time Jesus was offered something. Just before He was crucified, Mark 15:23 tells us Jesus refused the wine mingled with myrrh, an opiate to deaden his pain. He declined it because he didn’t want to be released from the experience of the crucifixion…..with blunted senses.” A sponge was dipped in the bowl of wine and placed on a long stalk of hyssop and held it up so that the Lord could suck it dry. The tense of the verb implies that he kept pressing it to His lips so that His thirst could be relieved.Jesus welcomed the sponge for the very reason which had constrained Him to earlier refuse the wine and gall; it would recruit His strength and would keep his sense clear when death was at hand.”
“That Roman soldier has left us a good example to emulate. We might well envy him the opportunity of satisfying our Lord’s bodily thirst and of accomplishing the one act of kindness he received while dying as our substitute. Yet to each of us comes the privilege of showing in most practical ways our love and gratitude for our Lord’s sacrificial love.” We love Him because He first loved us. In loving Christ we serve Him and we serve Him by serving others. In serving others, we serve Christ, for did He not say in Matthew 25:40, “INASMUCH AS YOU HAVE DONE IT UNTO THE LEAST OF THESE MY BRETHREN, YOU HAVE DONE IT UNTO ME?”
Edwin Markham illustrates this truth in his famous poem, The Shoes of Happiness. It centers around Conrad, an old cobbler. One night Conrad dreamed that the Lord would come to be his guest. When the dawn was young, he arose and decorated his little shop with flowers, anticipating the Master’s visit. “When the Master comes,” he said to himself, “I will wash his feet where the spikes have been and I will kiss the hands that have been punctured by the nails.” But the Lord did not come. A beggar boy came by and Conrad gave him a pair of shoes. An elderly woman came by hungry and bearing a heavy load. He lifted the load from her back and gave her some food. Finally, just before the day ended, a little lost child wandered into his shop, her eyes wet with tears. Conrad compassionately led her back to her mother. But the Lord never came to his shop; then soft in the silence and from deep within he heard a voice that said,
“Lift up your heart, for I have kept my word.
Three times I came to your friendly door;
Three times my shadow was on your floor.
I was the beggar with bruised feet,
I was the woman you gave to eat,
I was the child in the homeless street.”
And then it hit him; in serving others he was serving the Master.
Jesus said, “INASMUCH AS YOU HAVE DONE IT UNTO THE LEAST OF THESE MY BRETHREN, YOU HAVE DONE IT UNTO ME.”
Didn’t our Lord say that “even a cup of cold water’ given in His name is significant? There is a lesson here. We should not wait for large opportunities to serve the Lord but take advantage of the seemingly little ones. According to His teaching in Matthew 25, when we give a cup of cold water to a thirsty soul, we are giving it to Him. In ministering to the hungry, hurting, homeless and hopeless, Jesus declares that we are ministering to Him. Jesus said that their pain is His pain. A kindness extended to them is a kindness extended to Him!There is, therefore, much that everyone of us can do for Jesus every day. We can serve Him by reaching out to the afflicted and disadvantaged. When we care for the lonely, lost and unlovely we minister to Christ and demonstrate our love for Him as well as them. In reaching out to strangers, tending to the sick, visiting the imprisoned or providing food or clothing to those who are going through tough times, we are performing acts of kindness to the Lord. To whom would the Lord have you reach out? Christ’s obedience resulted in our forgiveness, salvation and new life. Our obedience results in forgiveness, salvation and new life for others. As we obey God and serve Him we touch the lives of others, pointing them to Jesus. In the process others are blessed and we are blessed!.
We find fulfillment and meaning and a deep satisfaction in life.Our obedience is essential for the growth of the Kingdom. The well-being and effectiveness of the local church is contingent upon our obedience. It was Dwight Moody who said, “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And that which I can do, by the grace of God, I will do.” With that simple commitment and obedience, God used him to bring revival to England and America. Obedience results in service. It assures the church of much needed laborers.
THE SECRET OF OBEDIENCE
There are two things that bring about obedience. One is a close personal walk with the Lord. As Andrew Murray says, “It is God’s holy presence consciously abiding with us that keeps us from disobeying Him.” Abiding fellowship with Christ brings about obedience. Although God is always with us, we do not always sense His presence. When the sense of God’s presence is strong and our fellowship with Him is deep, obedience comes easier. Through prayer, worship, fellowship and the study of God’s Word, our sense of His presence is enhanced and increased. An awareness of God’s presence brings about obedience.
The other thing that brings about obedience is a realistic view of sin. Theologian John Piper says, “The power of sin is the false promise that it will bring more happiness than holiness will bring.
The power of sin is the power of a lie.” Sin has power through promising us a false future. We disobey God and sin because we think our ways and will are better, at the moment, than God’s. Such, however, is never the case. Sin promises much but ultimately delivers little more than regret, heartache, shame and guilt. In recognizing the false promises of sin we are able to obey God.
SUFFERING
One last observation regarding Christ’s fifth word from the cross. Obedience often involves suffering.
Christ’s obedience resulted in suffering. We, too, will, at times, suffer as we seek to obey the Lord God. Sometimes when we take a stand for Christ and righteousness we will suffer at the hands of others who will ridicule us We might also suffer in terms of financial losses or friends might leave us. Whatever we suffer is as nothing compared to what Christ suffered for us. The Apostle Paul was willing to “SUFFER THE LOSS OF ALL THINGS….” for Christ and His Kingdom. He said he wanted to know “THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS..” It is well worth suffering for Christ as innumerable blessings come to us and others and the Kingdom of God when we, like Gladys Aylward, suffer.
LOVING GOD
One last thing about obedience. It is the only way we can demonstrate and prove our love for God. The greatest of all commandments is that we love God. We are repeatedly commanded in Scripture to “LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.” Admittedly, this whole concept of loving a God we cannot see or physically touch seems so perplexing. Yet it is rather simple. Loving God has more to do with obeying Him than anything else. 1 John 5:3 says, “THIS IS LOVE FOR GOD: TO OBEY HIS COMMANDS.” Jesus stressed this truth when in John 14:15 He said to His disciples, “IF YOU LOVE ME, YOU WILL OBEY WHAT I COMMAND.”
CONCLUSION
Our Lord’s cry, “I THIRST,” is a poignant reminder to us that, no matter what the cost, we have been called to a life of obedience. Certainly our long-term well being is contingent upon obeying the Lord God. More than 90 people conducted an all-night search for Dominic DeCarlo, an 8 year old boy lost on a snowy mountain. Dominic, who had been on a skiing trip with his father, apparently had ridden on a new lift and skied off the run without realizing it. As each hour passed, the search party and the boy’s family became more and more concerned for his safety and survival. By dawn they had found no trace of the young boy. Two helicopter crews joined the search and within fifteen minutes had spotted ski tracks. A ground team followed the tracks which changed to small footprints. The footprints led to a tree where the boy was found alive. Despite spending the night in freezing temperature he didn’t freeze. Dominic’s father had enough forethought to tell his son what to do if he ever became lost and the son had enough trust to do exactly what his father said. He protected himself from possible frostbite and hypothermia by snuggling up to a tree and covering himself with branches. As a young child, he never would have thought of doing this on his own; he was simply obeying his wise and loving father.
Our wise and loving heavenly Father has revealed to us in His Word His ways, truths and standards.
If we will trust Him enough to obey our journey here on earth will be safer, more joyous and much more fulfilling. And we will make it safely home.
We will reach our heavenly destination.
