I Thirst
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After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Michael Jackson was an American singer, songwriter, and dancer, dubbed the "King of Pop.” He was one of the most popular entertainers in the world and one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
Thriller is the best-selling album of all time, with estimated sales of over 66 million copies worldwide. He had popularity, fame, pets, homes, and mansions, private jets. What he wanted he had it.
After Jackson’s death, Forbes ranked Jackson as the top-earning deceased celebrity for the fifth consecutive year in 2017. Yet all this could not satisfy him. Michael Jackson died of overdose in 2009. Possession, fame, riches and popularity cannot satisfy us.
https://sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/100256/satisfaction-by-shine-thomas
Many people seek satisfaction in things that don't satisfy. Even Christians can get caught up in seeking after the things of this world instead of after Christ, who truly satisfies our soul thirst.
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As we have gathered at the foot of the Cross another time to hear Jesus speak to us, we now find one of the greatest ironies in scripture: the One who is Living Water is thirsty!
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Do you remember how John the apostle began his recounting of Jesus’ ministry? In John 1 the apostle established the foundational truths that Jesus is the Son of God and has existed for eternity.
Jesus had now come in the flesh to be the Lamb of God. As Jesus began his ministry, he began to collect a few key followers.
Then, in John 2, we read of Jesus’ first sign. There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother apparently was part of those organizing things and Jesus and his disciples were invited.
But as the festivities were in full swing, Jesus’ mother came to her son quietly and said, “We have a problem. The bride and groom didn’t prepare enough wine for all the guests. They are already out!”
Jesus responded in a brusque way:
And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”
Jesus’ following actions demonstrate that he was NOT uncaring. But his words signify a greater truth - and truly point all the way forward to our text for tonight. His hour had not yet come; it was not time - at that point - for Jesus to provide the drink that would so satisfy people’s thirst that they would never be thirsty again.
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Mary told the servants to do whatever Jesus told them. And Jesus instructed them to fill six stone water jars, jars that held 20 or 30 gallons, full of water. Then, they were to give some to the master of ceremonies.
When the man drank, he tasted the best wine ever! It was a sign that in Jesus we find the best refreshment we could ever receive.
“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
John the apostle next told of Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus at night in which the Lord told this Pharisee that he must be born again in order to enter the Kingdom of God.
But in the apostle’s next story of Jesus, we find him returning to the theme of water and refreshment again.
The Pharisees had heard that Jesus was becoming more popular than John the Baptist, so he decided to leave Judea, the region where Jerusalem was located and more a center of the Jewish religion, and return to Galilee where opposition to his ministry should be less severe.
Samaria, of course, lay between Judea and Galilee. John 4:4 says Jesus had to go through Samaria. The route was surely quicker and more direct.
But most Jews avoided this land of mixed Jewish and Gentile ancestry, taking a route around these people they hated and who hated them.
About noontime, Jesus and his disicples stopped near a town called Sychar. He sent his followers on to find food. And while Jesus rested at the well, a Samaritan woman came to get water.
It was an odd time for a woman to draw water; they usually got water in the evening. And Jesus greeted her with an odd request: “Give me a drink” (John 4:7).
The woman was confused, interested, and even offended that a Jewish man would ask her, a Samaritan woman, for a drink of water.
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
The woman, of course, was thinking about physical, natural water. She must have laughed as she pointed out he had no way to provide her water - no bucket or rope.
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman then asked Jesus to give her this water so she wouldn’t have to go to the well to draw water any more. In the conversation that followed Jesus confronted her with her spiritual condition. She ducked and dodged his questions, but ultimately was changed for life as she accepted the Master’s offer of living water.
So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
John’s gospel goes on to share various miracles and teachings of Jesus, but in John 6 we find this theme of living water again. A large crowd of people had followed Jesus out into a wilderness area to a mountain. The day had grown long and Jesus determined to feed the people.
But his disciples despaired. They had no way to provide even a tiny bite of food for all those assembled. Then, one disciple, Andrew, came forward with a little boy who had a lunch of 5 small pieces of bread and 2 fish.
Jesus took this food, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples to distribute. Miracle of miracles! The food multiplied and everyone had enough to eat and more leftover.
Jesus sent the disciples away on the boat while he went into the mountain to pray. Then he walked across the water to them. The next day, when the people could not find Jesus, they returned to the other side of the sea and asked how he got there.
Jesus challenged them, knowing they were seeking him because he had provided food. In the discussion that followed, Jesus pointed them away from material food and things of life.
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
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Isn’t it so true that we often seek after various things in this world to satisfy our soul thirst?
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Was it wrong that the people came rushing after Jesus because they hoped he would provide them with more free fish sandwiches?
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No doubt, in that culture and economy probably many of the people lived on very little. We remember Jesus’ prayer that asked for daily bread.
In that time, there were typically only two meals a day.
Breakfast was taken informally soon after getting up and normally consisted of a flat bread cake and a piece of cheese, dried fruit, or olives.
Gower, R. (2003). Food. In C. Brand, C. Draper, A. England, S. Bond, E. R. Clendenen, & T. C. Butler (Eds.), Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (p. 589). Holman Bible Publishers.
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After the midday rest, the evening meal was prepared on the fire; a vegetable or lentil stew was made in the large cooking pot, herbs and salt being used to add to the flavor. Only on special occasions such as a sacrifice or festival day was any meat added to the stew, and only on very rare occasions was the meat roasted or game or fish eaten.
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At the close of the meal, fruit would be eaten and the wine would be drunk.
Gower, R. (2003). Food. In C. Brand, C. Draper, A. England, S. Bond, E. R. Clendenen, & T. C. Butler (Eds.), Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (p. 589). Holman Bible Publishers.
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The people did not have a lot of food. To be provided food free of charge, free of work, was a great blessing. Can we blame them?
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In our comparative wealth today, we often are as quick or quicker to seek after such deals as they were. But the point is - the things of this world don’t last. Food goes in the body, is assimilated and done with.
And all the other things we accumulate - toys and trinkets - don’t last forever, either.
Jesus offers living water that never runs dry and satisfies our thirst!
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Sometime later, Jesus went to Jerusalem during the Feast of Booths. There was a great controversy as poeple debated whether he was the Messiah they had been waiting for or not. Then…
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
As John the apostle continues to share of Jesus’ ministry and teaching in his gospel, we learn more about the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught his disciples the night before he was betrayed that he would leave them, but he would send the Holy Spirit to abide with them, and in them, forever.
The Holy Spirit was his presence with them. The Holy Spirit would take the teachings of Jesus and impress them upon their hearts and minds.
The Holy Spirit would explain the things of God. The Holy Spirit would guide them and empower them.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
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We find great comfort in reading these words of Jesus today, but the disciples were not so relieved. Indeed, as they retired for the night to the Garden of Gethsemane, even though Jesus begged these special friends to pray with him through the night…
And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow,
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The next few moments seemed to fly by like nightmare. Judas Iscariot arrived with a huge band of soldiers and others to arrest Jesus. Peter feebly tried to resist, but only succeeded in cutting of the ear of the high priest’s servant.
But listen to the key words Jesus said in response to Peter’s actions:
So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
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Do you see the irony? The One who is the source of Living Water, who turned water into the best wine, is now being given a cup, a cup from which he MUST drink.
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What a terrible drink it was!
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Over the next few hours Jesus was interrogated, beaten, condemned and crucified. Now, in the final moments before his death, we read…
After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”
The Cathedrals, that great Southern Gospel quartet from some years ago, used to sing a song titled simply, “I Thirst”:
One day I came to Him, I was so thirsty
I asked for water, my throat was so dry
He gave me water that I have never dreamed of
But for this water, my Lord had to die
He said, I thirst, yet He made the rivers
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
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Thirst is the universal experience of all human beings. According to one source I found:
With consistent hydration, most people can survive between 1 to 2 months, sometimes even longer, depending on body fat, muscle mass, and overall health. Some exceptional cases—even medically supervised fasts—have seen survival periods of 40 to 70 days or beyond.
But
Without water, individuals can survive only 3–7 days, depending on factors like age, health, climate, and activity level.
https://www.melodiacare.com/how-long-can-you-survive-without-food-but-with-water
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As Jesus thirsted on the cross, he fully entered our human experience. As he bore the weight of the world’s sin upon our shoulders, he understood our great need for God, our hunger and thirst that cannot be satisfied by anything we can do or buy.
John 8:29 says that the soldiers had a jar of sour wine nearby. They got a sponge full of this liquid, attached it to a hyssop branch and held it to Jesus’ mouth.
This picture reminds us of the Israelites preparing for the death angel who was about to sweep over Egypt. They killed a lamb, then took a bunch of hyssop, dipped in the blood, and touched the lintel and doorposts of their homes.
Seeing the blood, the death angel passed over and their firstborn sons were spared the death that came to all those who were not covered by the blood.
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We might think the soldiers were showing compassion to Jesus in offering this sour wine, but instead, as one commentator writes:
Wine vinegar would contract the throat muscles and keep the victim from shrieking in pain. This liquid is not to be confused with the “wine mixed with myrrh” of Mark 15:23. We should not read any compassion into this act, since the bitterness would prolong pain by extending the life of the victim.
Gangel, K. O. (2000). John (Vol. 4, p. 352). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
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Think about that! The One who is the Source of Living Water and turned water into the best wine ever now thirsted on the cross and was offered sour wine which offered no relief.
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
John goes on to explain the religious leaders’ desire not to have criminals slowly dying on crosses while they celebrated Passover. So the order was given to break their legs, so hastening their deaths.
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
It has been suggested that Jesus’ heart had broken, had burst, from his physical and spiritual suffering as the Sin of the world.
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The blood running down from the soldier’s spear seems to represent the blood of Jesus gushing forth to cleanse us from all sin.
The water represents the living water only Jesus can provide - the water that satisfies our spiritual thirst and gives us everlasting life.
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Big Idea: Jesus thirsted so we might drink living water.
Big Idea: Jesus thirsted so we might drink living water.
As we inderstand this great irony - that the Source of living water thirsted for water, and in his thirst and death on the Cross provided living water for all - let us thank our Lord and Savior for the sacrifice on our behalf.
The second verse of the song “I Thirst” says:
Now there's a river that flows as clear as crystal.
It comes from God's throne above!
And like a river, it wells up inside me,
Bringing mercy and life giving love.
Thus, let us live in this truth that Christ has provided us living water. In a world filled with cheap, faulty substitutes, let us guard against taking our living water for granted, and thus live with gratitude, seeking to share this living water with others.
