The Thirst of Christ

“After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill scripture), ‘I thirst.’”  --John 19: 28

During the Season of Lent, I’ve been preaching a sermon series on Jesus’ Seven Last Words from the Cross.  This is the fifth of the seven last words of Christ, and it is the shortest of them all.  In Greek it is just one word, “dipsao.” And yet despite its brevity, this word from Christ has a powerful message for us.  While the other words Christ spoke on the cross were directed outward, this is the only one that focuses on Jesus himself.

We see in this word both Jesus’ humanity and Jesus’ longing for love from his people.  The cry, “I’m thirsty,” gives voice to one of our most basic human needs.  If you have gotten up in the middle of the night to bring a glass of water to a thirsty child, or if you have ever given sips of water to someone who is sick, you know the urgency and sense of need that thirst can bring. 

Did you know that human body weight is 50 – 70% water?  Our bodies contain about 10 – 12 gallons of water.  You’ve probably heard that we all should drink 8 – 10 glasses of water a day, but did you know that the average adult loses 10 cups of water every day?  No wonder we should be drinking so much of it.  Without enough water, our bodies and minds don’t function as they should.  We don’t think as clearly when we haven’t had enough water, and we can even get headaches when we don’t drink enough.

In his thirst on the cross, Jesus experienced the basic human need for water.  He had been beaten and bloodied, forced to march down the road carrying his cross, and then endured the extreme cruelty of crucifixion.  The pain and brutality he had experienced left him extremely thirsty.  And the reality was that Jesus’ human body was dying, succumbing to the torture and nearing the physical end.

An ancient heresy said that the Son of God did not really suffer and die on the cross, that when the crucifixion occurred, Jesus’ spirit separated from his body so that he was spared the worst.  Even today, we do not like to dwell on his pain and suffering.  It would be easier not to think about Jesus going through this. But here we are called to step close to the face of this suffering man, to lean near to hear the word he is trying to speak  . . . Through dry, cracked lips, he whispers, “I thirst.”  And in that word we hear the real humanity of Jesus.  We see his bruised and bloody face.  We look into his eyes and see his need.  This is our brother, a fellow human being whose need is before us.   

In this word from the cross, we experience Jesus’ real humanity.  In this word from the cross we also hear Jesus’ longing for our love.  John says, “When Jesus knew that all was finished, he said, (in order to fulfill the Scripture), ‘I thirst.’”  Jesus knew, all along, that this would be the end of his journey.  Here, on the cross, he knew that he had fulfilled his purpose.  This ending was not an accident; it was not some failure of what was supposed to happen.  It was part of God’s plan, as Scripture had shown.  The scripture John is referring to here is Psalm 69.  The suffering servant speaking in this psalm says, “I am weary with crying; my throat is parched . . . for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (vv. 3, 21). 

The divine plan had come together for one reason:  love.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son . . .” God the Father and God the Son were completely one in this.  There is no greater love than Jesus’ love to lay down his life for us.

And this is the symbolic part of this fifth word from the cross.  While it gave voice to Jesus’ true humanity, his physical need, it also speaks of his thirst for us, his thirst for all of his people to know him and to return the love that he gave.

“I thirst . . . for you,” Jesus said.

One of the most respected and beloved Christians of our time was Mother Teresa.  The ministry she founded, the Missionaries of Charity, has established work on every continent.  In each house of the Missionaries of Charity is placed a crucifix, and next to it are the words, “I thirst.”  This word from Jesus became the centering focus of Mother Teresa’s life.  A biographical statement about her says, “On September 10, 1946, during the train ride from Calcutta to . . . her annual retreat, Mother Teresa received her ‘inspiration,’ her ‘call within a call.’  On that day, in a way she would never explain, Jesus’ thirst for love and for souls took hold of her heart, and the desire to satiate His thirst became the driving force of her life” (Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Women for Faith and Family, www.wf-f.org/MotherTeresa.html).  All that she did, she did out of love for Christ, in response to his love that she came to know in a powerful and mystical way, through his word, “I thirst.”

Jesus speaks the word to each of us today:  I thirst.  He thirsts for our love.  He thirsts for our hearts and souls.  So often we fill our lives with so many other things that we don’t have time for Jesus.  We turn away from his voice.  We refuse to hear his cry.  And yet he thirsts for us.

Jesus comes to us today, whispering his word in our ears.  So now, as we draw close to the cross, let us open our hearts to our Lord, understanding that his humanity was for our sake, his emptiness—for our sake, because he thirsts for us; he thirsts for us to reciprocate the great love he has for each one of us.  So let us draw near to the cross and look upon our loving Lord, and let us give him all the love of our hearts, souls, minds and strength, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord.