I Thirst
From Heritage Volume 2

 

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John 19:28-29:  After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), 
"I thirst." A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop 
and held it to his mouth.

A few weeks ago, an audience member at our Saturday night concert asked if we would perform this song in the evening concert the next day. She would be attending that one as well. The song is not one we had been regularly presenting in the past several concerts. While performing this song that next night we saw how this simple lyric and deep meaning behind it affects so many people and moves them to see Christ in a deep and special way. It is easy to see why this is such a favorite of so many people. 

Think about those words, "I thirst." This simple phrase comes in John chapter 19. This is after performing many, many miracles. After the heartfelt prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, after facing Pilate and the Sanhedrin. After being tortured by beatings and while hanging on the cross. The verses say that Jesus knew "that all was now finished." He knew the Father's plan was complete. And then he said two words that make Him totally human:  "I thirst." 

"I Thirst." This very simple, basic human need. The amazing event of taking a world of sin and carrying that to the cross to pay our debt in our place and Christ says two words that make him incredibly ordinary--incredibly human. 

Philippians 2:7 says that He "made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness."

There are superheroes--Batman, Superman, Spiderman...  Superheroes are prepared to deal with the extraordinary. They are not like us. Sometimes I think we see God as that--not like us. 

Christ came to earth to pay for our sins--and we sort of expect that because He was God, right? Sometimes we make God a distant unreachable being. He created the universe. It is  super-hero, super-God, super-distant, very unlike me or you. But, maybe that view of our Lord is mistaken.

Scripture teaches us that Christ is fully God and fully man and we see Christ's human nature in the simplest things. Times like when Jesus was hungry, when He wept, and at this time--when He thirst.

Think about this: The creator of the rivers and seas came to be one of us and felt what it was like to need--to be thirsty. Jesus would become human and would feel hurts and pains just like we do. We can never say we have a distant larger-than-life figure who would never understand what we feel. God knows. Jesus was one of us. 

The One who was there when water was created 
felt the pain of not having something to drink 
as He gave His life so that 
we could drink of Living Water 
and spend eternity with Him.

You have a Lord who knows you more than you could ever imagine. A Lord who loves you and has given His life so that you can spend eternity with Him. A Lord who knows what we feel because He has felt these same things. A Lord who wants to engage in relationship with you in your everyday life.

"Fully God and fully man."  

Thank God for knowing you the way He does and ask Him to help you see Him and know Him better and deeper through relationship as you let Him be a part of every moment of your life.