In tonight’s Good Friday service we will hear the narrative of Jesus’ passion from John’s gospel (John 18:1-19:42). As I reflected on this scripture earlier today, my eye was drawn to the words that Jesus uttered as he hung on the cross. John tells us that Jesus says “I thirst”. We can surmise that Jesus was suffering from severe dehydration and was in desperate need of some drink. After all, he had been beaten and tortured for hours and likely had not been provided any food or drink during the course of the day. So there is no doubt that, in his humanity, Jesus was indeed experiencing a severe physical thirst. But even so, for me these two words have much more meaning. I am inclined to think that Jesus is also speaking about his spiritual thirst. Jesus was thirsting for all of humanity – all those souls that he was in the process of redeeming. This includes us. Maybe in his suffering and anguish, with those two simple words, Jesus was not only re-affirming his mission in his own mind but also leaving us a reminder of what his suffering was all about – our salvation. In his humanity, Jesus was experiencing indescribable anguish and pain. But for Jesus, his thirst for us made it all worthwhile. And maybe it was his thirst for us, and his affirmation of that thirst, that gave him that extra ounce of strength and commitment needed to finish the job.
And we know that God does indeed thirst for us. All of salvation history is about God reaching out to us with an unconditional love overflowing with mercy and forgiveness. God desperately desires that we respond to his love – that we turn to him and each other with a love of our own. God thirsts for us to imitate Jesus as he hung on the cross – with unwavering faith and trust in him. Shortly after uttering “I thirst”, John tells us that Jesus, in his final act, “handed over his spirit” to God. God desires that, like Jesus, we also hand over our lives to him – that we abandon ourselves to him. God thirsts for this.
Tonight we recommit ourselves to quenching God’s thirst.