Jesus was crucified at 9 o’clock in the morning, and He spent the first three hours on the cross in the sunlight. Then the darkness came, and at the end of three hours of darkness, Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46).
Our Lord’s first three statements were centered on others - His enemies, the thief, and John & Mary. But His last three statements from the cross were focused on Himself: His body - "I thirst" (John 19:28); His soul - "It is finished" (v. 30; Isaiah 53:10); and His spirit - "Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit" (Luke 23:46). Body, soul & spirit - all were offered by the Lord Jesus Christ in obedience to the Father.
The shortest of these statements that our Lord made from the cross is the one found in John 19:28, "I thirst." In the original text, it is one word of four letters. It is the only statement in which our Lord referred to His body and His physical suffering. This simple word, however, tells us three important things about our Savior.
1. Jesus Is A Sympathetic Savior.
While Jesus was 100% divine, He was also 100% human. Because He walked upon this earth as a man, though He knew no sin, He did become very much acquainted with the difficulties of life here below. When He was a child, He probably skinned His knee a time or two. As a teenager, it is likely that He knew what it was like to not be part of the "in" crowd. Learning the carpenter’s trade in His father’s shop, He possibly had a splinter or two, and He also could very well have smashed His finger on occasion with a hammer. As a man, He knew what it was to grow tired, to be cold, to sweat, to be hungry, and, of course, He knew what it was like to be thirsty.
During an airline flight, concern over the heavy turbulence mounted until the soothing voice of the pilot came over the inter¬com: “No need to worry, folks,” he said cheerfully, “Just remember: these bumps are made of air!” We may wish the bumps we face in life were made of air, but they are not. Life is difficult; adversities are real. Physical trials sting and smart. Emotional trials leave us with unresolved baggage. Spiritual trials drain our souls.
Jesus felt the "bumps" as He lived here among men. Because this is so, we know that He understands where we are and what we are going through in our struggles in this life.
“We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all - all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.” - Hebrews 4:15-16 (The Message)
One of Denmark’s leading sculptors had a burning ambition to create the greatest statue of Jesus ever made. He began by shaping a clay model of a triumphant, regal figure. The head was thrown back and the arms were upraised in a gesture of great majesty. It was his conception of Christ the King: Strong, Dominant. "This will be my masterpiece," he said, on the day the model was completed. But, during the night a heavy fog rolled into the area and sea-spray seeped through a partially opened window of the artist’s ocean-side studio. The moisture affected the shape of the model so that when the artist returned to the studio in the morning, he was shocked to find a wounded figure. The droplets of moisture that had formed on the statue created the illusion of bleeding. The head had drooped. The facial expression had been transformed from severity to compassion. And the arms had dropped into an attitude of welcome. The artist stared at the figure, agonizing over the time wasted and the need to begin all over again. But something came over him to change his mood. He began to see that this image of Christ was the truer one. Then he wrote at the base of the newly-shaped figure: "Come unto Me!"
Jesus is a sympathetic Savior, who wants to take you in His arms and love you today!
2. Jesus Is A Scriptural Savior.
In saying "I thirst," Jesus fulfilled a prophecy of Scripture.
“They . . . gave me vinegar for my thirst.” - Psalm 69:21 (NIV)
“My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.” - Psalm 22:15 (NIV)
One of the strongest evidences that Jesus can do what He promised in your life is that fact that He fulfilled what was foretold about His life.
"There are in the Old Testament 332 distinct predictions which were literally fulfilled in Christ." - Floyd Hamilton in THE BASIS OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
Some object to the assertion that prophecies fulfilled by the life of Christ are evidence of His being Who He claimed to be - the Son of God and the only Savior of men. These objections primarily fall into two categories:
A. Fulfilled Prophecy In Jesus Was Deliberate.
That is, Jesus sought to make Himself the Messiah by deliberately seeing to it that His life fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. It was all a "set up."
The problem with this objection, however, is that many of the prophecies concerning the Messiah were totally beyond the human control of Jesus Christ, such as . . .
1. The place of His birth - Micah 5:2
2. The time of His birth - Daniel 9:25; Genesis 49:10
3. The manner of His birth - Isaiah 7:14
4. The manner of His death - Psalm 22:16
B. Fulfilled Prophecy In Jesus Was Coincidental.
Professor Peter Stoner, in his book, SCIENCE SPEAKS, demonstrates how coincidence is ruled out by the science of probability. Stoner says that by using the science of probability in reference to only eight Old Testament prophecies, we find that the probability that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled eight of the 332 Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah, is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 (1017)!
Suppose that we take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one person.
Jesus is a Scriptural Savior!
Because this is so, you can rely on it: just as surely as He fulfilled what was foretold about His life, Jesus can do what He promised in your life!
3. Jesus Is A Sufficient Savior.
Jesus was thirsty, to be sure, because of the physical agony He was experiencing. But I would remind you that He had just come through those three hours of darkness during which He had the sins of the world poured out upon Him. He had just finished pay the price for our sins through spiritual suffering. During those three hours, He was abandoned by the Father, and thus, experienced Hell for us so that we wouldn’t have to.
Hell is a place of thirst. In Luke 16, our Lord told about a man who died and woke up in torment. In torment, he begged for someone to "dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this flame" (Luke 16:24). People who are in Hell today are saying, "I thirst." Hell, you see, is a place of eternal thirst. Those who are condemned to suffer there for eternity will forever thirst, not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually.
There is no thirst in heaven. Revelation 7:16 says, "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more." In fact Revelation 22:17 (the last invitation in the Bible) invites all who thirst to come and "take the water of life freely."
The question is not, "Do you thirst?" because all mankind has a thirst for reality, for fulfillment, for satisfaction, a thirst for forgiveness, a thirst for God. The real question is "How long are you going to thirst?" You can continue as you are and end up thirsting for all eternity, or you can trust Jesus as your Savior and never thirst again.
“But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” - John 4:14 (NLT)
