Delivered by Rev. Doug Gray at the Good Friday Ecumenical Service of the Inter-Church Council of North Quincy. The worship service was held at St. Chrysostom’s Episcopal Church on Hancock Street, beginning at Noon. It’s also available on Quincy Access Television.
One Memorial Day weekend on the sand dunes of Lake Michigan, I experienced one of the thirstiest times of my life. I was in high school and I was hanging out with my buddy, Ken, and kids from his youth group on the dunes…and that Saturday it was blazing hot. It was one of those days, when you feel like the whole world is an oven, and God has set it to broil. As the sun reached its hottest point that day, we biked a half-mile to a convenience store, and we each bought a gallon of orange juice. I have had a lot of orange juice in my life, but to this day, that is the sweetest orange juice I have ever had. In the middle of the heat, it was deliciously cool. My mouth, parched by the sun and heat, rejoiced at nature’s perfect blend of electrolytes, amino acids and sugars. As I look back at that day, I shouldn’t have been surprised at my body’s rejoicing in all that goodness—our bodies are giant bags of mostly water, electrolytes, amino acids and sugars, aren’t they? Our thirst tells us we are running low on these things. And that’s what Jesus’ body is telling Him on the cross, not from the heat or dryness of the day, but from blood loss. So when Jesus says, “I thirst,” He is really saying to us, “I am a giant bag of mostly water, electrolytes, amino acids and sugars, just like you.”
“I thirst,” Jesus says, as if He is powerless to meet His own need. Here He is the Son of God, with the power of angels at His beck and call, hanging on a cross. How ironic that this was so like one of the temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness, when Jesus was hungry, and Satan told Jesus to turn the stones into bread. As Jesus hangs there that Friday, did He catch that irony, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God”? Here Jesus is the Word of God, Who has proceeded from God, and He can’t or won’t even meet His basic thirst needs. In His thirst, Jesus accepts the liquid someone gave Him on a sponge, and so reminds us how little control we really have over our lives too—and that it’s ok to receive help.
“I thirst,” Jesus says. It’s been a busy day for Jesus—moments of suffering punctuated with periods of brutality. Even on the cross, Jesus has been busy—forgiving people, saving a convicted criminal, taking care of his mom—lots to do, and it’s not a surprise that it’s all focused outward—on God, on others. It’s only when Jesus knows that all the work—all the hard work—of loving and atoning is done, that Jesus attends to His own needs. In that moment, Jesus reminds us that God wants us to look after ourselves too. Jesus could have been all work and we would understand—time is short and He’s on a cross. So when Jesus says, “I thirst,” He is reminding us to remember our needs for sustenance and Sabbath rest, and how God longs to provide for us.
“I thirst,” Jesus says, and in those short words conveys His humanity, His vulnerability, His trust, and His love. The writer to the Hebrews would put it this way:
“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.(Hebrews 2:14–15)
When Jesus says, “I thirst,” He is really saying, “It’s good to be human. I love You, and I will be with You always.”
Isn’t it a mystery that in that very hour, Jesus experienced monumental, unquenchable thirst, so that we could know forever that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied?