‘I thirst’

I have been meditating on the last words of Jesus. In John 19: 28 He says ‘I am thirsty.’ Preachers, poets, Christians and non believers have been touched by the sound of these words. Why?

Who hasn’t thirsted? Physically, for wine, for water? Emotionally, for love, for a touch?

And sometimes when our bodies thirst, we eat because we feel hungry. But we are actually in need of hydration. We misread our own bodies. We are in thirst.

The type of thirst Jesus calls out, speaks on the cross is a very human thirst. His open wounds have grown larger from His time on the cross. Fever would have racked his body.

His thirst is very human. He is in a moment of complete and utter humanity: He thirsts simply for water. The Creator God of the universe, He who created rain and rivers; dew and tears, thirsts. Fully God, at this, in this moment, my Jesus is fully, totally, human. What does this mean when the God of the universe who created and forms waters thirsts?

For me, His thirst reminds me of my flawed thirsting for moments past and future. That is what I thirst for: moments.  I live a great deal in some future or past time. In my future thirst, I am anxious and worried. In my past, I mourn over failures and missteps. I am sad. Parched, emotionally dry. But actually I am robbing myself of moments, of precious time. How?

I think about work I must do; people to love or convince to love me; I rush from thought to thought, emotion to emote and am lost in moments to come, or moments past. I thirst for something, some experience, some emotion I don’t have and never will have. Missed opportunities and missed people. Words not spoken; a touch not given or returned.  I am in spiritual thirst. Where, what will I drink? I must go back to Jesus and his thirst.

 Jesus thirsted on the cross so I would not thirst. He wants me to live each moment fully, with Him. And not just for a moment, but for all time, time eternal.

If I meditate each day on Him, on His thirst, I will never be thirsty. As I lift my eyes and heart, soul and mind to Him, then I will be, I am filled His love; by His agonies, His tender forgiveness, His words-teachings and parables- this life and death. It is for me.  Here is where I need to drink;

This Good Friday, thirst. Don’t drink for a specified limited time this day. Thirst for water; that tea; that wine or ale or for that part of your day; past or present, you can’t stop looking at.  Thirst a little to feel something, a hint, of what our Saviour felt. Then look on him. Meditate on why He thirsted.  He thirsted because He loved.

He loved, He loves; he thirsts; He died; and He rose. He satisfies in each and every moment. The question is- whose water will I drink when I thirst? Mine?  Or His?

Choose His. The God of All, When I really stop my thoughts and think on this, it is an easy choice. But I have to stop at his well, his cross. He, who promised the Samaritan woman at the well that she would never be thirsty again, filled that promise on the cross. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.” John 4: 14

He thirsted for you; for me. Drink.

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