LENT 2025 – PART FIVE

 I THIRST

 This week we will look the fifth statement of Jesus coming from John 19:28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that 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 hyssop plant and lifted it up to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished!” And with that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

 This passage also records the seventh statement from the cross, but for this week, we will focus on the most human of all things Jesus spoke: I am thirsty! Crucifixion was an agonizing way to die because there is dehydration and extra-heavy breathing happening which dries you out. While Jesus refused the drink offered to him on a previous occasion and recorded by the other gospels, He takes the vinegar wine offered to him here.

 Many scholars have asked why this very little or ordinary word of Jesus was recorded by the gospel writers. One answer is that throughout church history, there have been a number of heresies and one of the very earliest ones was the belief that Jesus was only divine and merely pretended to be human. Yet, as Christians we believe that Jesus was truly human and truly divine, 100% both. Therefore, Spurgeon comment on this 5^thstatement of Jesus is very telling indeed, this is the word of a man, not the word of God. God never has to say: I’m thirsty.

 Another reason why this small saying of Jesus is included according to John is to fulfill scripture. John wants us to see that everything Jesus did and that was done to him, were written ahead of time. In Psalm 69:21 it says: For my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. (Remember, John specifies the kind of wine they gave him.) But there are other Old Testament scriptures also that Jesus fulfilled:

They have pierced my hands and feet (Ps 22:16)

They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing (Psalm 22:16)

He poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors (Isaiah 53:12)

They must not break any of its bones (speaking of the Passover lamb in Exodus 12:46)

They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn (Zechariah 12:10)

He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, although he had done no violence(Isaiah 53:9)

 While many lost all hope as they witnessed Christ’s crucifixion on a Roman cross, like the travellers on the Emmaus Road, John’s gospel is a reminder that this was not a terrible accident, and not a plan that went wrong. It has been determined and foretold since before the foundation of the world. Jesus is the suffering servant written about centuries before.

 Another detail that might be lost on us, is John’s specific reference to the hyssop branch. This takes us back to the first Passover in Exodus where people used hyssop to apply the blood of the Passover lamb to their doorposts. An event that foretells and prepares the nation for their Messiah and ultimate Passover Lamb. As the blood and water runs from his side, we are cleansed and purified, eternally saved.

 Jesus is still thirsty for us to come to him and he is the one who quenches our eternal thirst. May we remember that when God shows us the many who are desperately thirsty for meaning, love, relationship, forgiveness and purpose in their lives.

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