I Thirst

Here we are right in the middle of the Lenten season. I have been enjoying these blogs that center on the words of Christ on the cross. I pray that these have been a blessing to you and your family. The work of Christ on the cross and his resurrection from the dead insured our salvation and all he even said as he was being crucified reveal and teach us what it means to be redeemed through His efficacious work!

This week we read from John 19:28 “Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst”

These are words spoken by Christ a few minutes before he commended his spirit into the hands of the Father and died. John the beloved is the only writer to speak of these words and it is truly fitting that they should have their place in the gospel writing for they show Jesus in all his humanity. He is God but he is also man! It was man that messed things up in the garden and now it is the God/Man fixing it on the cross. John would write in chapter one that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us! He would take on flesh and became one of us and, on the cross, he would carry our sin in his flesh so we could find forgiveness and cleansing before the Father.

In these words I want you to notice that Christ would also identify with the great plight of man. “I thirst” is the cry of every human heart. Inside of all mankind is an insatiable thirst. Remember the woman in John 4 who came to draw water from the well. Jesus said, “if you drink this water you will thirst again but if you drink the water that I give you will never thirst for in you will be a well of water springing unto everlasting life.” When Jesus cried “I thirst” it was a type of all of us crying out “I thirst”. Waning humanity is dying of thirst, and because of Christ and the cross there is a fountain where we can slate the thirst of our soul.

This Lenten season I encourage you to not only Praise God for what Jesus did on the cross but let's be grateful for the water that has quenched our thirst. He cried “I thirst”. We cry “Hallelujah I have found him who my soul so long has craved, Jesus satisfies my longing through his blood I now am saved.”