The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross THE WORD OF SUFFERING John 19:28 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. It is beyond the ability of the greatest intellect to understand the exhaustion of the Lord Jesus Christ as He uttered the word of suffering from the cross, I thirst. His weakness had so overwhelmed Him! We have all been thirsty at some time or another, but this was a thirst known only to the Saviour. He had thirsted before, - early in His ministry when He had met the woman of Samaria at Jacob s well in Sychar. Back in the history of His people, following the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, they camped in the wilderness at a place called Rephidim ( resting places ) However, there was no water for the people to drink (Ex. 17:1). So they blamed Moses, You have brought us out of Egypt to a place where we are going to die of thirst?! And Moses prayed to the Lord Who instructed him to strike the rock and fresh water would flow out for them to drink. The Lord provided water for the grumbling Israelites but on the cross His Son thirsted. It was about the sixth hour (i.e. noon), when the Lord Jesus implored with His executors for a drink. This time, though, there was no fresh water gushing out from a rock The Saviour thirsted. Through the suffering, He had become so dehydrated by the loss of His blood and sweat He had nothing to drink since the night before at the Last Supper. Consequently, He was laden down with a terrible weariness from the worst agony imaginable. He was weary from the inside out. He had no strength. The people were against Him The elements were against Him The hot and unrelenting sun was beating upon Him but it was the chastisement of His Father that was causing Him the greatest pain as He hung there on the cross. And yet, there was no more important a work carried out anywhere ever than at Calvary. To be able to see the Lord Jesus on the cross and to see the agony He suffered underlines the immensity of His work to redeem lost sinners, After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. THE PURPOSE OF THESE TWO WORDS I have absolutely no doubt that if Jesus had wanted to He could have called down the showers from heaven. He could have commanded relief from His pain. After all, He is the Second Person of the Three-in-One God and even before ever He planted His feet upon the soil of this earth He had made the waters that gathered in the clouds that fell upon the ground.
D.G. 2 Had He wanted He could have had gallons and gallons of the purest, coolest, freshest water! But it was in the plan and will of God it was the purpose of God - that He should thirst while hanging on the cross of Calvary. There are two references to Jesus drinking on the cross. The first drink was at the beginning of the crucifixion and it contained gall, which was a kind of drug that would have helped to deaden some of the pain but, after tasting it, He wouldn t accept it (Mt. 27:34). The second drink He was offered is described as sour wine ( vinegar ). The soldiers took along this drink for themselves because they expected to be sitting in the hot sun until their duty was over. And then what they would have done was they would have mixed the wine with the water to kill any bacteria because the water was not at all pure. This was the vile drink they offered to Jesus and which He did receive (Jn. 19:30). He had already suffered more than any man, - the sweat and blood were rising from the pores of His skin. You see, Jesus was as much a human being as the two thieves on either side of Him. He was 100% God and He was also equally 100% man. How can this be? I do not know! But it is what the Scripture teaches. Jesus was not merely a man or a man pretending to be God or a man who had some kind of godhood attached to Him for a specific time. No, Jesus, - while even in the flesh, - continued to be God. We need to get the Godhood of Christ right because if we don t, we get God s plan of salvation at Calvary all wrong! As Jesus looked at His mother and His friends standing there, His work was drawing to a close. This, then, was the purpose of these two words to show the sinner the suffering of the Saviour on Calvary. THE PAIN IN THESE TWO words He thirsted physically. This wasn t pretend agony, or something put on for show. If no-one else had been there Jesus pain would have been none the less distressing and insufferable. This thirst was prophesied one thousand years earlier by the psalmist, Ps. 22:15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. His mouth was so dry the angels don t thirst and in Heaven the saints don t thirst (Rev. 7:16) but on the cross, the Son of God thirsted. He suffered as a man to make reconciliation for the sins of the people (Heb. 2:17). He entered fully into the physical pain with which the cross had inflicted Him and He thirsted. But it wasn t only a physical thirst for it was also a spiritual thirst. He was on the cross as the sinners substitute, and therefore, He became a foreigner to God. He was receiving God s judgment. He was being drained spiritually!
D.G. 3 To illustrate this in the parable Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man died and entered into Hell, where he found himself agonised by an awful inward thirst. He begged that Abraham would send Lazarus to place a single drop of water on his parched tongue. His body and his soul thirsted with a thirst that could only be satisfied and relieved by this act of grace he requested from God. However, it is an act of grace those in Hell will never know. In life they rejected Christ, and in eternal death they must live forever with the consequences of their rejection Such was the thirst of the sinner in Hell that Jesus experienced at Calvary. It was a thirst for God which could not be quenched. That thirst drove Him to become the Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, for in the garden of Gethsemane, - a few hours earlier, - He had cried, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. He was taken and cruelly scourged. He was humiliated by a farce of a trial. He was whipped, laughed at, joked about, and led like a common criminal through Jerusalem. He was bleeding from His wounds even hours before He was nailed to the cross. And He carried the cross until He was so weak and not able that a man had to be picked from the crowd, - Simon of Cyrene, - to carry it for Him. And despite the pain in those two words, I thirst, there was no complaining from His lips, there was no murmuring. All the sufferings He bore in silence, Is. 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. His whole body was wracked with pain, His mouth was parched, I thirst; it wasn t an appeal for pity, nor a request for His suffering to be removed. He knew that death on the cross of Calvary meant He had to endure the punishment for His own people in order to save them. And when He said, I thirst, it showed the intensity of the agonies He was suffering and the extremity He faced The purpose of these two words, the pain in these two words But, as God, He also knew that all things were now accomplished, and that the Scriptures were being fulfilled. God s sovereign and eternal will was being achieved. No matter how bad it looks and no matter how it seems the world is getting its way, God has never lost His sovereign ability to achieve all His aims. It is so important to keep holding on to that truth as much today as it was at Calvary. God s purposes for our salvation were fulfilled there THE PROMISE FULFILLED IN THESE TWO WORDS When Jesus said those words, I thirst, it was an affirmation that the victory was being won. The battle for precious souls was in earnest, and Christ was being triumphant! The promises of the Old Testament concerning the salvation of His people were being achieved even through His terrible death.
D.G. 4 I mentioned how He thirsted physically and how He had also thirsted spiritually. There is another aspect to how He thirsted, and it is this He thirsted consciously. What I mean is that His words, - I thirst, - were particularly chosen for we read, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled. He was clearly aware of all that was taking place. He knew all that would happen to Him, for He planned it. He was even in control of His senses and His thoughts despite His suffering. He knew that what was happening to Him was in accordance with God s plan for the redemption of lost souls, - He was fully aware it was the Father s will (Is. 53:10). And He uttered those words in order to fulfil Ps. 69:21, they gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. In other words, Jesus was dying according to the timetable and the agenda fixed in eternity. Yes, the Father was in charge and the Son on the cross knew it! God s program was being adhered to, regardless of how it looked! Beyond any shadow of a doubt, the suffering of Christ had a purpose, and He willingly submitted to it. I don t want to go off at a tangent, but this reminds us, - even in these increasingly godless days, - that no matter how it looks in the world, God is still in control, and He will achieve all that He has prophesied concerning the days to come! This is why when we come to study God s Word, we must believe it no matter how incredible it might seem! Remember the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, they had been taught, Lk. 24:19 Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: 20 And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. 21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel It was so incredible that they weren t believing it, otherwise, they would have remained in Jerusalem. Jesus believed the word, and that was why He uttered, I thirst. As He walked up the hill of Golgotha He knew what lay before Him for He had it all planned in eternity right down to the final drop of His blood. There was not a single drop wasted at Calvary. Every drop achieved the eternal purpose of God. It had all been written and sealed in the Word. And He knew that, ultimately, Calvary would turn into victory! He would bear triumphantly the great burden of all the sins of His people and He knew that when His work on Calvary would be completed, it would be completed forever and eternally pleasing unto His Father. There wasn t a thing about Calvary that took Jesus unawares for in eternity He planned every little detail! His death was swallowed up in victory! Is. 53:11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied, - that was the promise!
D.G. 5 Yes, and it some ways it makes it more harrowing when you know what you have to go through and yet, on the cross Jesus knew that He must for a short time be cut off from the unblemished fellowship with His Father that He had always known and that is because sin separated Him from God. During that time of separation He thirsted so that those who believe in Him will not have to thirst the spiritual thirst of those who will never come to Him in saving faith. In every stage of the process of Calvary, He took our place, - He made Himself of no reputation, He took upon Himself the form of a servant, He was made in the image of men, He took to Himself our humility, and He maintained His loyalty to the plan of God as He uttered those words, I thirst. And that is what the Scriptures mean when they say, He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8). CONCLUSION I thirst the words of the Saviour dying on the cross the sinners death. He thirsted and the purpose He thirsted was to show to the sinner how deeply He suffered for it was the will of God from before the foundation of the world. And the pain in those two words - I thirst - is more than we could imagine. He shirked none of it, for Lk. 9:51 when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. Then the promise fulfilled in those words is eternally effective for all who trust and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. The blood of His sacrifice does not only save for time it saves for eternity. Today He is seated on the right hand of His Father in Heaven but someday He is coming back. He has achieved all His purposes set out for His first coming and He will achieve all His promises when He comes in great glory. Are you looking forward to that day? Are you prepared for it? Do you know Christ as Saviour? Are you serving Him as Lord? He thirsted on the cross as He paid the penalty for our sins, Hallelujah! What a Saviour! When He comes, our glorious King, All His ransomed home to bring, Then anew His song we ll sing: Hallelujah! What a Saviour!