Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. (John 19:28-29)
Let me open today’s message by asking you a penetrating question: “When was the last time you did anything for the first time for Jesus’ sake?” Has your Christianity become so predictable that you can’t remember experiencing anything new and fresh in the Spirit of God? We serve a God that is so infinite, and yet we are so predictable.
Be careful, God’s Spirit will not allow you to accept the status quo. It is imperative that we rethink our lifestyle, our priorities, and our Christianity in order to give rise to a fresh breath of God’s Spirit such as at Pentecost. God is calling you to discover those life-giving waters of the Spirit once again, waters that will result in a walk with God that is filled with vitality, freshness, authority, and anointing.
Where do you find fresh strength when you are fatigued from work?
How are you rehabilitated when you have been crippled by sin?
What births a future dream when your past has been plagued by failure?
When you cry out, “I thirst,” how are you satisfied?
The fifth of Jesus’ words on the cross provides the answer to these questions.
Do you know how important water is to our physical bodies? The water in our body determines the vitality, strength, and energy associated with daily living. When our bodies fail to retain the right amount of water, we become dehydrated. Think about these facts associated with the human body and water:
Ø Our bodies are ⅔ water.
Ø The body absorbs cold water faster than hot water.
Ø By the time you are 70-years-old, you will have required 1½ million gallons of water.
Ø Studies show that increasing water consumption can decrease fat deposits. Water is a natural appetite suppressant.
Ø If you loose 2% of your body’s water supply, your energy will decrease by 20%. A 10% decrease in water, you will be unable to walk, and a 20% decrease – you’re dead.
Well, I think you get the point. And what is true of the physical is also true of the spiritual. Because God has made you with a spirit, soul, and body that get thirsty, if you fail to satisfy that thirst, your spirit, soul, and body become dehydrated. Do you know where to look for satisfaction?
Jesus started his earthly ministry hungry and ended his earthly ministry thirsty. As we return to Jesus on the cross we come to what may be the easiest of the seven words to understand. Or is it?
The savior was placed on the cross at 9:00a.m. and there he hung for three hours as the eastern sun beat against his broken and bloody body. At 12:00p.m. a cloak of hellish darkness settled on the jagged hill of Calvary. For three hours Jesus hung as the remedy to mankind’s sin. At 3:00p.m. this darkness was dispelled as quickly as it had appeared, and the intense light and heat of the Palestinian sun once again began to bake Jesus.
In the Genesis garden, sin knocked mankind unconscious. Ever since, he has been stumbling through the ring of humanity waiting for the bell to ring so he can find a corner of relief, relief that is found in the words, “I thirst.”
I see two messages in the words, “I thirst.” First, Jesus provided a path of salvation in the world you and I face daily. To think that the shortest words of Jesus were merely an appeal for water leaves the text completely flushed of its most important meaning. But, could the second meaning be that Jesus desired a drink of the living water that He spent His life inviting others to receive; the relief that we’ve all been looking for?
On that day, God changed man’s focus from himself to God. Man has always been confused and puzzled about his purpose. The cross of Jesus Christ is the answer to man’s speculation about why we exist and why we thirst.
The easiest way to discover the purpose of an invention is to ask its creator. The owner’s manual for God’s creation is the Bible. This owner’s manual explains how we got here, what we are to do with our life, what the pitfalls are, and what the future holds.
It is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. (Ephesians 1:11 The Message)
Amdrei Bitov, a Russian novelist, grew up under the atheistic Communist regime. But one dreary day God got his attention. He recalls, “In my twenty-seventh year, while riding the metro in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) I was overcome with a despair so great that life seemed to stop at once, preempting the future entirely, let alone any meaning. Suddenly, all by itself, a phrase appeared: Without God life makes no sense. Repeating it in astonishment, I rode the phrase up like a moving staircase, got out of the metro, and walked into God’s light.” (1)
God came along and made it clear. He understands where you live. Jesus is so much more than a stained glass picture of the Savior holding a lamb. He is so much more than a cosmic God who has declared Himself to be without sin. Just when you thought He was limited to clouds, the galaxy, or some fourth dimension beyond our comprehension, a knock came to the door that said, “He was human.” He was tired. He was sleepy. He was angry. Don’t forget it!
I’m tired…
Now He had to go through Samaria. So He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. (His disciples had gone into town to buy food). (John 4:4-6,8)
“I’m tired - I can’t go another step. You guys go into town and get some burgers and fries. I’ll stay at this well and just rest.” It was about 12:00p.m. They had been traveling the better part of the morning; Jesus was trying to put as much distance between them and the church-growth pundits as possible. They had been looking over the reports to see who was baptizing more, John or Jesus.
The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. (John 4:1-2 NIV)
He needed rest. He was tired - just like you and me. Perhaps he walked with a limp. For some time the disciples had noticed he was slowing down. Now he was alone. To his surprise, along came a woman at mid-day carrying an empty water pot and an empty heart.
I’m sleepy…
A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” (Mark 4:37-38)
It had been a long day, and for the last half-hour He had been nodding off. The crowds were large. The teaching was simple. And the weather was perfect. As the sun settled over the Sea of Galilee, sleep caught the Savior by surprise. He made a gesture and nodded that he was going to sleep; He was out like a light. His sleep was so deep that the storm that swept down from Mt. Hermon didn’t even cause him to turn over. The white water that left spray in the disciple’s faces didn’t even cause him to sigh. Not even the tossing of the boat was enough to get his attention. It was only the desperate screams from his friends, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”, that could penetrate his dreams and wake him from his slumber.
I’m angry…
So He made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; He scattered the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves He said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” (John 2:15-16)
He was red-faced. The look of shock had stopped him in his tracks. His eyes gazed at the temple turned market place. His heart was grieved one moment and angry the next. Most people don’t realize that Jesus started his ministry angry (John 2:16) and ended it with a similar tirade almost three years later. It happened so quickly. He saw some cords used for tying up leather and fashioned a whip. And that’s when a peaceful day of shopping turned into one-man riot. He starting yelling, “Get out of here!” The only thing that flew higher than the tables were the doves flapping their way to freedom. An angry Messiah made his point: don’t go making money off of religion, or God will make hay of you (2).
When you’re going down in your sin for the third time, who and what experience resurrects your soul for new life?
What resource do you access when Satan drops a cloud of depression across the landscape of your life?
How do you remove the teeth that the evil one has lodged deep within your soul because of some hurt that has gone unhealed?
Isn’t it great when God comes along and reveals a forgotten truth to your soul and spirit? At just the right moment he reminds you that he’s been there and done that. He knows temptation. He was hungry, tired, and angry on several occasions. He knows what it’s like to have your family misunderstand you. He’s been there when a kiss was really a betrayal; when a question was really an attempt to entrap. He knows how hard it is to hold your tongue in rush hour traffic or when the basketball referees are one-sided. He knows what it’s like to eat on the run, and to run to not be eaten. He smiles when we acknowledge exhaustion. He turns to His Father and winks when we cry out saying we’re confused, unsure of ourselves, or even feel like giving up.
But, I thirst!
He wants us to know that He too understands what it’s like to have a really bad day - a bad week - a bad life! He didn’t come into this world protected from human needs. He came trumpeting that he is “a man of sorrow acquainted with all our grief.” What did we gain from His reminder that the one to whom we pray knows our feelings? We have gained an appreciation that Jesus understands our humanity.
Jesus Values Our Humanity
1. Jesus can identify with and intercede for all your needs. He has experienced all you will ever go through. When you’re tempted, tired, lonely, and feel like giving up, he fully understands.
For 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 – yet was without sin. (Hebrews 4:15 NIV).
Take note of those words, just as we are. Notice the word of hope - yet, without sin. That’s worth shouting about.
2. Jesus’ life shows us that our human nature is not to be despised. God approves your human nature. From the days of Plato and Aristotle mankind has elevated the spirit and soul and devalued humanity. The net result was that matter, or the physical component of man’s being, was considered bad.
Remember what Paul said to the Corinthians, “ in whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians. 10:31 NIV)
For some of you the best thing you could do is get a good night’s sleep. Others might just need some Christ-honoring recreation. Maybe, coloring with your kids will put you back at the top of their list of the most influential people in their lives. Go on and eat. Go ahead and play.
3. Jesus satisfied His physical needs on the cross in order to achieve a more noble cause, “It is finished.”
Only after three long, grueling hours of carrying our sin did He look for relief for His own needs. Jesus was about to announce what God was going to accomplish through His death. In order for Him to make that declaration, He had to be heard. It was at this moment that he said, “I thirst.” He wanted a drink in order to open his parched airways so he could declare a statement of triumph: “It is finished.” Jesus satisfied His physical needs only when it would achieve a more noble cause. What an incredible model on how to submit our physical needs to the on-going work of the Spirit in our lives.
Thank you John. We owe a debt of gratitude to you for giving us the human side of Jesus; for reminding us that He was more than supernatural; more than sinless; more than a sufferer; more than a sin bearer. More than a Savior, He was human. John really messed up Jesus’ sayings from the cross when he slipped in “I thirst.” It sounds too simple. It is easily overshadowed by the BIG SIX. They are the statements we expect, statements on forgiveness, salvation, caring for Mom, completion, trust. He is more than a Savior; He was a man like you and me.
End Notes
(1) Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2002, pg. 21.
(2) Max Lucado, No Wonder They Call Him Savior, Multhomah Press, Sisters Oregon, 1986, pg. 52.
