#5: “I Thirst”
John 19:28-29 - Victory Fellowship
March 21, 2021 - Rev. Roderick Grabski
5th Sunday in Lent
I. INTRODUCTION:
a. We pay keen attention to the words people say just before they die.
b. Jesus spoke seven times during the closing moments on the Cross. Before the darkness overwhelmed them, Jesus spoke three times. While the darkness hung, He spoke once. And after the darkness had passed, He spoke three more times.
c. The seven utterances of Jesus from the cross reveal God’s answer to our basic needs. Jesus spoke words on the Cross that are worthy of our study because of who, where, and why they were spoken - and what they mean.
d. Here we find deep expressions of our Savior in His time of terrible agony right as He paid the price of our redemption.
e. Jesus’ statements are taken from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - but assembled into what was probably their chronological as they were uttered. Jesus was consistent in His life and in His message until the end. Let us briefly reflect on the seven last words of Jesus before He died on the cross:
1. "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."
2. "This day you will be with me in Paradise."
3. "Woman, behold your son…Here is your mother"
4. "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"
5. "I thirst."
6. "It is finished."
7. "Into your hands I commit my spirit."
f. Each week, for the next few weeks leading up to Resurrection Sunday, we will examine one of the statements Jesus made.
II. “I am thirsty.”
a. The darkness was now gone. The sun was shining again. But while Jesus was dying on the Cross, He developed an agonizing thirst. Death by Crucifixion is the most painful mode of torture ever conceived by man. The draining away of blood from the body brings on intensive thirst. The whole body cries out for water. The physical agony of thirst is terrible beyond the power of words to describe. The fifth utterance is a brief expression of physical agony in the heat of the afternoon sun: "I thirst."
b. Jesus refused the initial drink of vinegar, gall and myrrh (Matthew 27:34 and Mark 15:23) offered to alleviate his suffering.
c. But here, several hours later, we see Jesus fulfilling the messianic prophecy found in Psalm 69:21. The wounds inflicted upon Him in the scourging, the crowning with thorns, and the nailing upon the Cross are now taking their toll, especially after losing blood on the three-hour walk through the city of Jerusalem to Golgotha on the Way of the Cross.
d. The hours of torture on the Cross took a tremendous toll on the body of Jesus. Execution by crucifixion was not a sudden death like being shot by a firing squad. It was a long drawn out, lingering death carried out under the Eastern sun. His wounded hands and feet would be quickly inflamed, resulting in a fever of thirst and His body would soon be dehydrated.
e. The prophetic 22nd Psalm which anticipated our Lord’s passion speaks graphically of his condition, "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth" (14, 15).
f. Although Jesus was divine he was also uniquely man and felt all the emotions and pain as we feel them. When we reflect on Jesus’ statement, “I am thirsty,” we should think of our own thirst. What in this life are we thirsty for?
g. What about the life to come? What we hunger and thirst for now will determine our life to come. Jesus said "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matthew 5:6)
h. Our souls should yearn for the living water that Jesus supplies (John 4:10; 7:38-39).
i. We can rejoice in the fact that He suffered physical thirst on the cross – and so much more – so that our thirst for the water of life might be quenched. This Fifth Word from the Cross serves to tell us that there was suffering in the purchase of our salvation.
PRAYER
SONG: My Deliverer
