I am Thirsty
28 Jesus knew that his mission
was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of
sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop
branch, and held it up to his lips. ~ John 19:28-29
Christ even in the
midst of agony and suffering, was aware of fulfilling and finishing the work
God sent Him to do. Never, did we hear
Christ give an utterance of complaint, yet one could think here He complains by
stating “I am thirsty”, not so. Here
Christ deliberately seeks to be obedient.
His declaration of “I am thirsty”
speaks to a greater truth. The truth is
Christ’s thirsting was a thirsting after the glorifying of God and the
accomplishment of the work of our redemption.
Christ statement of
“I am thirsty” reminds us of the man
who was in hell and looked up and asked could Lazarus dip the tip of his finger
in water to cool his tongue; for he was being tormented in the flame (Luke
16:23-25). This man’s torment was all
humanities fate, an eternal thirsty that could never be quenched from the
bitterness of sin’s drink. Yet, had
Christ not called out, “I am thirsty” and taken the bitterness upon his tongue,
we could not taste of the eternal water that quenches our thirst.
Finally, when
Christ took the bitter drink from the hyssop, it was a foreshadowing of the
cleansing of our lives. David in Psalm
51:7 asked God to cleanse him with hyssop and he would be whiter than
snow. Christ takes the sour wine offered
on the hyssop branch so that you and I no longer have to have the bitterness of
sin upon our lives, upon our tongues. We
can speak and know we are cleansed and that words that were once bitter now can
be life giving words. Isaiah said, I am
a man of unclean lips, then God cleanses His mouth and make him able to go
forth and speak the truth (Isaiah 6:5-6).
Today, know that Christ’s sacrifice gave you the ability to not only
live for Him, but also to speak live giving Words, so that your thirsting will
be filled from the fountain of the living water.
John 4:14 ~ But
those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes
a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”
