Parched

"After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scriptures), 'I thirst.'" - John 19:28

Today is the fifth Wednesday in Lent. The past four weeks have taken us through the dark hours of Jesus' suffering as He hung on the cross. We are nearing the end of this forty day period where we have been in the desert with our Lord. It has been a dry, desolate place... a place of reflection and repentance, and we are parched. We long for the Living Water that will refresh and revitalize. The flood is coming. In just a couple of weeks we will drink long at the well-spring of eternal life.

Today's words from the cross come toward the very end of Jesus' ordeal. He has been flogged, beaten, sleep-deprived, spat on, humiliated, and ridiculed. He has had a crown of thorns shoved on His head and spikes driven through His hands and feet. He has hung for hours, gasping for air as His lungs fill with fluid. He has borne the weight of the sins of the world and has endured even the turning of his Father's face. It is nearly finished, nearly accomplished... His death... our salvation. His body is obviously feeling the pangs of severe dehydration, and He thirsts.

Jesus was offered wine once before... before He was nailed to the cross. The Gospel of Mark tells us that Jesus was offered wine mixed with myrrh, a kind of numbing agent, but He refused to take it. Jesus was determined to face the full extent of the Law's punishment for our sins. Now, however, as He nears the end, Jesus asks for something to drink. Sour wine, vinegar, was hoisted to His lips by a sponge attached to a hyssop branch. I had never realized the significance of it being hyssop, but in one of the commentaries I read it noted that hyssop branches were used to sprinkle blood on the doorposts and lintels on that first Passover (Exodus 12:22). Hyssop was also associated with purification and sacrifices in the tabernacle. Fitting. Jesus was the sacrificial lamb. By the shedding of His blood we are saved, washed clean, restored into right relationship with the Father once again.

There can be no doubt that our God knows the enormity of human pain and suffering, for He became flesh, dwelt among us, and felt that pain deeply and completely on the cross. As that time of completion is nearly at hand, Jesus thirsts. His thirst is physical, yes, but perhaps His thirst is spiritual too. He also longs for restoration with His Father, the Father who by necessity had to turn His face away, but who will very soon embrace His son and acknowledge His perfect sacrifice. Jesus moistens His lips, His parched throat, enough to give one final victory cry.

"It is finished."

The storm clouds gather. The thunder rolls. Do you hear it? Salvation comes, raining down on us. Our thirst will be quenched too. Living water awaits. Drink, be satisfied...

and never thirst again.