I Am Thirsty -

The greatest paradox in human history – the Great Thirst-quencher himself completes his work in terrible physical thirst. The one who proclaimed himself as the Spring of living water, calls out through parched lips, “I am thirsty.”

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 in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished."  John 19:28-30

Jesus was physically exhausted from the ordeal of scourging and execution. He was wracked with pain. But we’re told that his cry of thirst was more than just a call for water. It was somehow a fulfillment of scripture. But what in the ancient record parallels this moment?


Psalm 22 comes to mind where the God-forsaken poet says, 'I am poured out like water… my strength is dried up like a potsherd, my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth’ (Psalm 22:15).

Israel’s journey to freedom led through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land.” Jesus was the true Israel, following God into the thirsty desert. His thirst for God was unquenchable. “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you as in a dry barren land.” He thirsted to do God’s will – and that meant sharing the suffering of thirsty people everywhere.

A bystander responded to Jesus’ cry of thirst by giving him a sip from a sponge soaked in wine vinegar – and Jesus received it. It may have been a gesture of mercy, but the narrator saw it fulfilling scripture – and the ultimate in human insults - “for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Psalm 69:21

So there was Jesus, naked and parched, sharing the anguish of people throughout history, wretched and thirsting for justice, dignity and hope: children dying of thirst in drought and desert, a mother wilting in clinical depression, a gay son craving his father’s acceptance, the parents of a prodigal aching for a phone call home that never comes, a refugee desperate for safety and vindication, an abuser riddled with guilt and regret, longing for forgiveness. Bearing the collective weight of all this human suffering in his body and soul, thirsting for God, Jesus’ words called out on behalf of those with no voice of their own.

He drank the cup of thirst his father chose for him to drink. Yet the wonderful paradox is that as Jesus poured out his life, he released Life to the world. The emptying of the One fills the cup of all; the Thirst-quencher was being drained to the bottom and in his thirst we find ours is relieved.

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!