DEVOTION + I THIRST

MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2015

John 19:28 “I thirst.”

SCRIPTURE READING: JOHN 19:28,29

 ²⁸After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.

 ²⁹Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.

REFLECTION: 

Shrouded in darkness our crucified Savior whispered His first cry for relief—“I thirst.”

How touching.

“He said, ‘I thirst,’ yet He made the river.

He said, ‘I thirst,’ yet He made the sea.

‘I thirst,’ said the King of the ages,

In His great thirst, He brought water to me.” 

            Lyrics by “Mama” Lowrey

In these plaintiff tones we hear again the humanity of our Lord. Dehydrated by His critical loss of blood and that perspiration which so often accompanies excruciating pain, the life of Christ was literally being drained out of Him.  Still there was no hint of anger at His assassins.  Still there was no revenge in His voice. Still He held at bay the legions of angels standing ready to rescue Him. He simply cried, “I thirst.”

We hear also the echo of His Divinity.  A thousand years before the Psalmist heard the Messiah cry, “Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” (Psalm 69:20,21). 

Jesus perfectly fulfilled this, and every other prophecy of Messiah.  He did thirst.  They did give him vinegar to drink.  A few miles away, a few months later, Peter affirmed, “Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:36). Indeed He was, and He is Messiah.

Knowing who it is that is speaking, might we hear more? We remember Him at the well.  He said to the Samaritan woman, “Drink this, not that.”  “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give shall never thirst.” He promises to slake not only the thirsty soul in a moment, for a moment, but forever!  “the water I give, will be a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:13,14).

There is more to be heard! The songwriter was right.  “In His great thirst, He brought water to me!”  In fulfilling a prophecy, He presented a promise. “I will pour waters on Him that is thirsty.”  (Isaiah 44:3)  He thirsted and opened a fountain of living water, so that all “who hunger and thirst after righteousness, shall be filled!” (Matthew 5:6).

PRAYER:

Our Father in Heaven, Creator of all that is seen and unseen, our soul thirsts for Thee!  We pray that we would be filled with all the fullness of God.  We pray that as we are filled we would be channels of blessing to a world that so desperately needs Thee.  May we follow in the footsteps of our Savior who loved and gave Himself for us.  Let us never presume that we are above our Master: let it be the one desire of our heart, to do not my own will, but the Will of Him that created us for His glory.  Fill us and use us today we pray.  In Jesus’ name, Amen. “Our Father, &c.”