All Who Are Thirsty

"I  thirst"--John 19:28

 

“I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God. Do not hide your face from your servant; answer me quickly, for I am in trouble. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.”

If we want to know the enormity of our sin, we need only to sit at the foot of the cross and recognize that these words from Psalm 22 are a reflection of what our Savior suffered.  When originally offered the drink of myrrh and gall that would have alleviated His suffering and hastened His death, Jesus refused to receive it.  He had to be in full control of His senses and drink deeply from the cup of suffering.  For only by doing so could He satisfy the demands of the Law which prounounced death upon the sinner.  to have done less would have left fallen man still under condemnation of eternal death with all its indescribable horror and suffering.  But when He had endured it all, and had fully paid the price, the Son of God desired to see His Father.  He was ready to die.  It was His time, the time selected by Him.  Unto the end Jesus remained in control of all things in order that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.  "The put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst."

Now He says, “I THIRST.”  The thirst that He felt was not uncommon for someone in His circumstance. A parched throat often accompanies death. But His thirst was more than a dry throat. He thirsts for those for whom He died to come to Him and drink of the refreshing water of salvation. By prophecy, Isaiah 53 says, “After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied;” After the toil of His soul, the Savior finds satisfaction in every soul that has been redeemed, and who has by faith grasped salvation in Him. Each time that we hear this word, “I thirst” we should appreciate what it is that He suffered, and at the same time daily bring Him satisfaction through our word and action, as well as our living faith and hope. In that manner we declare that Jesus did not thirst in vain. May we satisfy the thirst of the Savior by saying with David, “I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.”