After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said, "I thirst". John 19:28
One
of the hardest things to hear as a pastor is that someone has stopped eating
and drinking. A person who stops eating, but will still take a little fluid is
going to die, but still may have time. Once a person refuses fluid or no longer
is awake enough to drink anything, we know that they will soon die. Being
thirsty, wanting to quench that dryness, is a sign of life, a sign of being. We
can go a while without food, but we cannot survive for long without liquid.
When
Jesus says, “I thirst”- we know that he is still alive. That Jesus, his body
that is both human and divine, still has longing and need. He receives sour
wine to drink, something that was foretold in the Hebrew Scriptures. Does that
quench his need? Are his dry lips moistened? Is his aching throat soothed? Does
he still thirst?
What
is Jesus thirsty for? Does he just want some water? Possibly. Probably. But he
also has Living Water, as he told the woman at the well. The source of Living
Water likely has a deeper thirst for more than just H20.
On
that cross, Jesus looked out at the crowd and saw deep needs- things about
which he’d preached, circumstances he’d repaired, a creation that longed to be
reunited with God, but was unable to keep up its end. Jesus saw all of this and
he thirsted… he longed for justice, for peace, for wholeness in community, for
grace and mercy among neighbors, for healing in families, for a reformation of
the religious system.
His
spirit thirsted for wholeness in the world, just as his body longed for liquid
thirsted for water or cool wine. This is how we know that he was still alive
and that he is alive among us still because he thirsts. Our own thirsting is
how we know that we are alive… alive in Christ.
Not
just our longing for water, but our longing for peace in our world, for justice
in government, for equality among people, for a desire to honor tradition and
to support innovation. We are to thirst for these things because that longing
is part of what it means to be living in faith.
To
that thirst- the powers of the world will offer sour wine- discrimination based
on race, sexual orientation or experience, gender, religious expression,
ability, resources, or age. There is the sour wine of “deserve”, of “should”,
of “not one of us”. All these things are sour wine… wine that humiliates and
denigrates, that does not quench the thirst of the body or of the soul for the
goodness of the kingdom of God.
The
Spirit has pure, clear Living Water… the power of Christ… to quench these
thirsts, but who is the cup? Who can satisfy these longings? The person who
carries the Living Water in the cup of their skills and their calling. If we
are not thirsting with Christ, we are close to dying. To thirst is to be alive.
Feeling and seeking to quench the thirst of the world is to be alive in Christ.
Christ
in our neighbor… our homeless neighbor, our gay neighbor, our neighbor of
another color or race, our atheist neighbor, our fundamentalist neighbor, our
neighbor without healthcare, our neighbor with a deployed spouse, our widowed
neighbor, our neighbor with an unintended pregnancy, our neighbor in a
wheelchair, our neighbor with a mental illness… Christ in that neighbor says to
you… I thirst.
Comments