KJV John 19:28-29 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. (29) Now 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.
NASB John 19:28-29 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, *said, “I am thirsty.” (29) A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth.
The fifth utterance from the cross is our meditation today. It is rivalled only by the penultimate cry, “Finished,” for its brevity. Yet even here, there are fresh insights and glories of the Saviour as a source of adoration and worship.
His Priority
There were three occasions when He was offered something to drink. The first time was an act of mercy. “They gave Him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when He had tasted thereof, He would not drink” (Matt 27:34). He refused the drink, not as an act of defiance, but as an act of conscious devotion to the work of the cross. Nothing would be allowed to dull His sensitivity to pain. He must suffer all that the righteous demands of God’s throne dictates.
During His suffering, the soldiers offered Him a drink, but in mockery: “And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar” (Luke 23:46). Here, it is the grace of Christ on display. Their mockery was met by His grace. He did not remonstrate. When He was reviled, He did not return their mockery with threats and reviling. He had come to suffer as a lamb, silent before her shearers.
Notice again the words of John, “that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” As He was suspended on the tree, the Saviour’s mind scanned the many prophecies of Scripture, finding one that still needed fulfillment.
“In My thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Psalm 69:21 Thus, to fulfill one verse of Scripture, the Lord Jesus uttered these words. It was not sufficient that drink had been offered in mockery or even in mercy. Scripture had said, “In My thirst.” His great priority was to fulfill the Word of God in its exactness and totality.
His Physical Suffering
He was a real man. The suffering a person experienced suspended on a cross under the Eastern sun was intense and excruciating. Dehydration was experienced, adding to the pain and agony. His words remind us that, even though the sufferings at the hands of men were not atoning, they were very real. He experienced all that for us. In this cry, we get an insight— and the only insight —into His physical sufferings. The reticence and the economy of words with which the Gospel writers describe Calvary are amazing. Did they say so little because their readers were well acquainted with the details? Or was it because it was too gruesome to describe?
An additional reason for the Lord’s mentioning of His thirst was possibly so that, in relieving that thirst, He would be able to shout with a loud voice, “Finished.”
His Soul Thirst
While His physical thirst was a very real thing for Him upon the cross, was there a deeper thirst? This cry follows the cry of His forsaking. Recall that the Psalmist speaks of soul thirst: “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:2), and again, “O God, Thou art My God; early will I seek Thee: My soul thirsteth for Thee, My flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is” (Psalm 63:1).
Was there ever a “dry and thirsty land” to compare to Calvary? Exceeding anything that David ever experienced, the Lord Jesus felt the absence of God at Calvary and thirsted for His presence.
Consider
Can you see any other insights in the cry, “I thirst”?