Word of Salvation – Vol.50 No.26 – July 2005
I Am Thirsty
Sermon by Rev John Haverland on John 19:28
Scripture Readings: Psalm 69; John 19:23-37
Congregation…
You have probably had the experience of being busy doing something which absorbed all your attention so that you forgot about everything else going on around you. Maybe you were busy with a difficult task at work, or an intense conversation with someone, or you were absorbed in a book, or hobby or a project. Then, having been busy with this for some time, you come to the end of it and you suddenly feel exhausted.
You realise that much time has passed and you have forgotten about everything going on around you and you suddenly realise that you are tired and hungry and thirsty.
Jesus went through this in a far more intense way than any of us will ever experience. During those three hours of darkness on the cross he had been wholly taken up with a spiritual conflict. He had been doing battle with the forces of Satan. He had been forsaken by God. He had experienced the suffering and loneliness of hell. He had expressed the agony of that suffering by crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
After this intense period of spiritual suffering, he was suddenly aware again of his physical pain, of the physical agony of the crucifixion.
The gospel writers are remarkably restrained in their description of the physical sufferings of Jesus. They tell us what happened but they don’t go into detail about that. Their focus is on its meaning for us – on the spiritual significance of all that Jesus did.
That is very obvious here. Jesus expressed his thirst because he was aware of who he was and what he was doing there. He expressed his thirst in order to fulfil the Scriptures and because he had completed his Father’s work.
Let’s begin, first of all, by considering HIS EXPRESSION OF THIRST.
The gospel writers tell us that earlier, just before he was crucified, Jesus had refused a drink. When they arrived at Golgotha, “They offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it” (Mt 27:34).
According to Jewish tradition the women of Jerusalem would offer wine to a prisoner about to be crucified. The wine was mixed with a drug to deaden the pain. Jesus refused to drink this because he wanted to keep a clear mind – he wanted to be fully conscious of what he was doing because of the importance of this task.
Men dying on a cross suffered immense dehydration from the sun and the heat and also from the fever generated by infection from their wounds. This is what Jesus suffered. He had been on the cross for the last six hours, and he was acutely aware of his thirst.
Now he asked for a drink so that he could be a little refreshed. Now he wanted a clear mind for this final part of his suffering. He knew he was about to die. In response they gave him the diluted cheap wine the soldiers drank – a sour wine – wine vinegar. They soaked this in a sponge and put it to his lips.
This thirst of the Lord Jesus reminds us again of his full humanity. He was fully human. He had a fully human nature with a physical body just the same as yours and mine. He felt pain and hunger and thirst. He grew tired and weary. He bled when his skin was torn. And he was about to die.
It was important for the readers in the first century to know this because there was an error around called Gnosticism that taught that Jesus only appeared to be a man. Gnosticism arose out of the Greek world view that saw the spirit as good and the body as evil. With this view it’s not surprising that they did not believe that Jesus the Son of God took on a fully human body.
Some Gnostics taught that Jesus only appeared to be human – that he was a phantom – that his body felt no pain and when he walked he left no footprints. Others taught that the spirit of God’s Son came into a man called Jesus at the baptism by John in the Jordan and this spirit left Jesus just before he died. The Gnostic heresy is reviving in some sections of the church today. This has often happened in church history – old heresies come back in new clothing.
The New Testament writers, however, emphasise the full humanity of the Lord Jesus. Paul wrote to the Colossians telling them that God had reconciled them “by Christ’s physical body through death” (Col 1:22).
The writer of Hebrews explains that because Jesus had come to help men of flesh and blood “he had to be made like his brothers in every way” – he shared in our humanity (Heb 2:14-17).
So the Son of God became a Son of Man to rescue us. He hung there dying as a man – taking our place – bearing our punishment in his own body. By his wounds we are healed. His declaration of his thirst shows the depth of his humiliation for us.
In the early chapters of this gospel John described how Jesus met the woman at the well and how he had asked her for a drink. Then he offered her living water. “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst” (4:14). Later he told the Jews that “he who believes in me will never be thirsty” (6:35). He invited people to come to him; “If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink” (7:37).
And now, here is the Son of God, who is the Water of Life, pleading for water. This is what he was prepared to do for you and me. This is what he went through for us. This is how far he was willing to humble himself for his people. “He humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). And as he was dying he said, “I am thirsty”.
The second point we need to note here is that Jesus expressed his thirst TO FULFIL THE SCRIPTURES – “so that the Scripture would be fulfilled”. Most commentators agree that this is a reference back to Psalm 69, which is the third most frequently quoted psalm in the New Testament. Verse 21 reads, “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst”. He was thirsty and this is what they gave him – the wine vinegar of the soldiers.
In the last half of his gospel, John emphasised that the suffering of Jesus was in fulfilment of the Old Testament Scriptures. He did this by quoting from the psalms a number of times (John 13:18, 19:24,28,36).
The words and deeds of Jesus fulfilled everything written about him in the psalms.
This is a testimony to the truth of the Bible. The Old Testament prophets and writers had prophesied about the coming of the Messiah.
His birth, life, death and resurrection fulfilled what had been written about him.
Jesus fulfilled all that had been written in the whole picture – in general terms – but also in every specific detail. It all came true. So this reinforces the truth of God’s Word.
All this came true because Jesus consciously fulfilled these prophecies.
He did this “so that” or “in order that” the Scripture would be fulfilled.
There was a divine necessity about actions. He did this because he wanted to do all that the Father had asked him to do. He did this in a deliberate obedience to all that the Holy Spirit had predicted about him in the Scriptures.
He did not do this in a mechanical manner. It wasn’t forced or wooden obedience. Rather, he was so saturated in the Scriptures that obedience to the Word of God came naturally to him; automatically, genuinely and spontaneously. He knew the messianic psalms, like 69 and 22 and 110, so well that he lived them out in his life. After all, he was the author of those Old Testament Scriptures.
The Apostle Peter wrote that it was “the Spirit of Christ” in those prophets who “predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” (1 Peter 1:11). He had come to fulfil the words that he had helped write through his Spirit. The angels had longed to look into these things and now they were fulfilled in the life and death of Jesus.
He did all this because he wanted to save his people – you and me – everyone who would believe in him. He was prepared to go through so much pain, so much thirst, so much physical and spiritual suffering for us – for our sake – to rescue us.
The response of Isaac Watts should be my response and yours:
“Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
Jesus expressed his thirst so that he would fulfil the Scripture and because, thirdly, HE KNEW THAT HE HAD COMPLETED HIS FATHER’S WORK.
John used this word for “completed” three times in these three verses (vss 28-30). The NIV translates these with different English words but they all come from the same Greek root, teleo, meaning, to complete.
“Knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said I am thirsty… And when he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished “. He repeated the same word three times over to emphasise that Jesus had completed his work.
He had done all that his Father wanted him to do – he had done the will of his Father.
He knew his Father’s will from a young age. Certainly by the age of twelve he knew he had to be in his Father’s house – in the temple.
Already at this age – and even earlier – he knew he had a unique relationship with his Father in heaven.
As he began his ministry he resolved to do the work his Father had called him to do. That was why he had come. This is why he was sent.
To accomplish his Father’s will. This stayed with him all the way through his ministry and carried him through to the crucifixion.
He did not waver from his calling, even in the face of the temptations that came to him from Satan. He kept heading for Jerusalem even though he knew what awaited him there.
When we have something difficult or painful to do we often put it off.
We procrastinate. We try to leave it for tomorrow or the next day – or next year! We think of excuses and reasons as to why we should not do this.
But Jesus was not put off. He was resolute. He was going to do his Father’s work.
Jesus also knew he had come into the world to make his Father known. John described this right at the beginning of his gospel when he wrote, “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” This is what he had come to do – to tell us about the Father, to explain him.
He did this through his miracles and his teaching and preaching. He did that through his own person. When the Jews asked him, “Show us the Father”, he could reply, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
Jesus had lived his whole ministry to make the Father known and to do his will. So when he prayed at the time of the last Passover meal he said to his Father, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4). Of course, that work wasn’t quite complete at that time.
And even here on the cross it was not quite complete, even as he hung dying these six hours. It would not be complete until he had died and was buried and raised again on the third day. All that was still to come in those next three days.
But our Lord Jesus took all this into account as he came close to death.
He looked ahead to his death and resurrection and knew that all was now completed and that the Scriptures were being fulfilled.
As he came to the end of his physical suffering and as he saw death approaching he was suddenly aware of his physical thirst. But the end was in sight. He had completed his work. He had fulfilled the Scripture.
Soon he would be going home to his Father in heaven with his work well done – his work for you and me.
It was this work on the cross that enables him, still today, to offer the Living Water to anyone who is thirsty.
Are you thirsty? Do you want the free gift of eternal life? Do you want to receive the benefits of all that Jesus did on the cross? Then listen to this invitation as it is expressed so well in one of our hymns (PsH 413):
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Behold I freely give
The Living Water, Thirsty one,
Stoop down and drink, and live.
I came to Jesus and I drank
Of that life-giving stream.
My thirst was quenched, My soul revived,
And now I live in him.”
Amen.