“I Thirst”
“Crucifixion” Georges Rouault
His word created oceans and rivers, Niagara Falls and rain. He simply and wonderfully spoke and everything came into being from nothing. Now, the unthinkable: the inventor of water has parched lips and a throat so dry it is almost closed. "I thirst,” he managed to speak so that someone nearby could hear him. On the cross Jesus reached for just a drop of liquid, one bit of relief. This was one of seven things recorded that Jesus said that day on the cross. The Creator of every molecule in the universe just needs a drink of water. I don’t doubt that he was really thirst; he wasn’t just pretending to be fully human. But why?
Jesus thirst so that we don’t have to. He told the woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst again; it will become in them springs welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4). “I thirst” describes the human heart before it drinks from God, and the condition of men and women who have drunk but want more than yesterday’s sip. “As a deer pants for flowing springs, so my soul longs for you, O God” (Ps 42). Apart from the water of God, our souls are an Arizona summer or the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37). “God . . . without you, I am but dust like the preacher declared on Ash Wednesday.” No one can survive without water; not for long.
Jesus died so that we can live. He wept for us to have joy. He became sin so that we can be forgiven. He was separated from his Father so that we can be brought close to God. And here, he thirst so that our parched souls can swell with refreshing and life into everlasting life..
John in Revelation describes heaven in this way: “They shall hunger no more, either thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (7). Jesus truly thirst because he was truly man. He thirst so that we don’t have to. “For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish” (Jer 31).
“By thyne agonye and bloudy sweate, by the crosse and passion, by thy precious deathe and buriall, by thy glorious resurrection, and ascencion, and by the commynge of the holy Ghoste.
Good Lorde delyver us.”