Thirsty

John 19:28 (ESV) – After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”

Have you ever been thirsty? As a cyclist, I have learned how essential it is to stay hydrated on long rides. More than once, I realized just as the group was rolling out that I forgot to put water bottles on my bike. With the choice between missing a fast, but dry, group ride or being fully hydrated and alone, I usually chose the former, but by mile thirty, strange things started to happen to my body. If the group was on a longer route, I was begging to stop at convenience store or mooch some fluids by the fifty mile point, because I knew I would not make it much further. We need water to live.  

One of Jesus’ last words on the Cross was dipso – “I thirst.”  He certainly had reason to be thirsty after the beatings, carrying his cross, hanging on it for hours, and turning down the sour wine offered to him earlier. Yet, more was happening. Jesus had told the woman at the well a few years before, “Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.” (John 4:14, NIV) He told the Jewish faithful at the Feast of Tabernacles, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:37-38, NIV) How could this Jesus who promised to be the source of eternal, living water for all who comes to him truly thirst? 

I believe Jesus’ words conveyed much more than the physical thirst he was experiencing. Notice the context John gave it: “Jesus, knowing all was now finished, said…” The Greek word for “all was finished” is the same as the last word he uttered on the Cross: tetelestai. (John 19:30) Its perfect tense drives the completion of a core objective. Jesus’ life mission was finished, but it cost him more than we can ever know. In some way beyond our ability to comprehend, paying the price for all of our sins – all the wrong things everyone who believes in him has done – cost him that living water he was, and now again is, so willing to provide. This is why John closes this segment with the words, “[He] gave up his spirit.” (John 19:30, ESV) He voluntarily chose to offer himself, but this included giving up that Spirit that was and is the source of living water. 

Yet, because Jesus was willing to pay that price, he won the greatest victory of all time, and we can all now be forgiven, have eternal life, and have the deepest thirst of our souls quenched by the living water of the Holy Spirit when we believe in him. Are you thirsty? Come to Jesus and be satisfied.