(Today’s audio reading on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1x8EVgRCzPL1ywAbJsfD83)
Jesus knew that his mission was now finished and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.” (John 19:28)
The cross stretched the boundaries of so many personal needs of Jesus, as they would anyone. Here’s perhaps the most basic of all: A deep longing for water. Is unceasing thirst the human reality that dominates our thoughts like no other? “I’m parched! I’ve gotta have water!” (Can you remember a time when you were so thirsty you didn’t think you could go on?) For sure, this craving laser-focuses our attention. It won’t let us go. It might start as a nag, and then go to an obsession. We need some relief! Maybe we are being hosted in a special place on a hot day and we are just waiting for someone to offer us something to drink, to which we will almost stumble over ourselves with the reply, “Yes, please!”
But there was no water in sight for our Savior. And even if there were, he had no hands free to sip from a water cup. Those hands were nailed, fixed. No legs free to walk and find a well, or a merciful helper. Those legs were nailed, fixed. He knew what he needed, and what would provide relief, but there were no means available to secure that help. He had been offered something to sip, held up on a rod with some kind of sponge, but that was for pain and not for thirst. Would the soldiers have a ladder nearby that a well-wisher could use to hoist up a cool drink? Or would they prevent anyone from helping the “disgraced criminal.” We aren’t told of any side details. Jesus would instead just hang there and utter those memorable words, “I am thirsty.”
This reality stuns us: the Lord of the universe demonstrates the most basic of human needs! Expressing it with simple words that reflected a simple need. But because Jesus voluntarily limited himself in His output of power, he stayed in a place of helplessness. The ongoing thirsty throat testifies to a most basic human limitation which he accepted.
Why did Jesus submit to all this? Because he was motivated to finish His mission and to fulfill the scriptures as the Bible says here in John 19. That mission included enduring the physical pain, torture and unbelievable agony thrust upon Him, which he freely accepted.
His statement of thirst was a result of his commitment to the Father—and to us!—to fulfill his mission. Carrying out that mission intersected with this particular cry from the cross. Significantly, and somewhat curiously, the text reads “and to fulfill Scripture” he said these words. It’s not necessarily a request that he made of his captors, though on simple reading we might take it that way. But we do know it is an announcement that he was experiencing the most basic level of human need.
Jesus was human indeed.
“Father, the picture of thirsty Jesus reminds us from yet another angle of the deprivation he suffered on behalf of us.”
Freddy Boswell 