John 19: 28 Jesus says, I THIRST.

…and they gave Him viniger. He says this on the cross as He was crucified to fulfill the scripture. They of course thought He wanted water, and gave him vinegar to mock Him.

I realise this is not the first instance I read about Jesus being thirsty so I started to wonder what this thirst symbolizes. I have seen this word one too many times.

A metaphor, its come to me that Jesus’s thirst is symbolic of a man’s spiritual desire vs reality. A desires to be quenched, not by water but by the holy spirit. We all thirst for water that never quenches us completely. Jesus is seeking the father’s intervention, the living water.

How do I know this you ask, well I read from the book of John, one time Jesus had come to Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles, and just at the most significant time in the festivities, He stood up and spoke something very profound for all the crowds to hear, in John 7: 37- 39 the Bible says, On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Again in John 4: 13 to 14,
Jesus is heard answering a Samaritan woman saying to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” The Lord has told us there is a different thirst we have that needs a different type of quenching. The type of quenching that is eternal.

Dare I not forget to remind you this Samaritan woman in the middle of the day took her bucket to go to the well and get some water to quench her thirst. This is a troubled woman who had lost the respect of her community because of how she lived her life. She went to the well in the middle of the day to avoid social interactions. She chose a time where there was likely to be anyone at the well. On this day she meets Jesus who according to the Bible needed to go through Samaria. I dare say He needed to go through Samaria to honor this appointment. Jesus might have used His thirst as a conversation starter to disarm the Samaritan woman but the appointment was never about His thirst but that of a woman who thirsts for the living water!

We are invited to drink in the drink of life, come to the Lord so we thirst no more. Even Jesus on the cross as the son of God, the son of Man became thirsty. He thirst for the spirit of God to fill Him up as he fulfilled what He needed to fullfil for our salvation. Without God, Jesus knew it would be impossible to carry His mission. When His persecutors gave Him viniger, He refused it because it is not what he needed to quench his thirst.

Are you picking up the thirst trend? Are you picking up what quenches the thirst?

John 4:15 the Samaritan woman responds to Jesus, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Dear Samaritan man or woman, Jesus is waiting to quench your thirst. Let this Thursday be the one when you thirst once and thirst no more.

Let’s meet Jesus at the well

#thirstyThursday

ChurchGirl

LM.