"When Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said...'I am thirsty.'" - John 19:28
"I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink... Just as you did it one of the least if these... you did it to me."
- Matthew 25:35,40.
Come with me to Calvary! It is dark in the daytime (Matthew 27:45). The awful silence is broken by that griping figure, still hanging-his body's weight supported by four wounds-on the central cross.
Come draw near enough to the cross to hear his words. Listen and try to understand the deep meaning of his words: "I am thirsty." At the SoulJourners Adult Retreat, September 14-16; we will be thinking about Thirsting for God. Here Jesus Christ completely man and completely God is thirsting. He taught folks to give "a cup of cold water" (Matthew 10:42) and be rewarded.
He praised those who discovered someone who "was thirsty and gave" them "something to
drink" (Matthew 25:35). He said of himself, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink." (John 7:37) His conversation with the woman at the well (John 4) is a whole other devotional. "Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty." And also in Paul's communion instruction he quotes Jesus as saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." (I Corinthians 11:25) He who was "the water of life" on the cross said "I am thirsty".
There is a lot of meaningful scripture to ponder as we deal with "Thirsting For God" at
the Souljourners retreat. I hope you can be there.
Let us study these words in their context. "After this, Jesus knew that all was now finished
he said..., "I am thirsty." How much like our Master this is! Even on the cross he controlled himself until the task was completed before he spoke of his own needs. It was not until he knew that his mission was ending that he allowed himself to think of his own needs and to voice them. When his Spiritual task was completed, then he became aware of his personal physical suffering and voiced his pain with the words "I am Thirsty".
Most of us have never known real thirst. We carry many things but most of us most of the
time carry some kind of phone and a bottle of water. Thus we never get thirsty.
The contemporary world, the advertisers try to move us to pagan thirsts. There is an
insatiable thirst for wealth, for power, for pleasure, for the novel the exciting. How we
need to change our ambitions. We need to thirst for living water and for the divine.
We need to set this as our goal: "My one unchanged ambition where ever my feet have
trod is a haunting, keen, enormous, never sated Thirst for God."
Prayer: May our soul thirst for God, for the living God. (Psalm 42:2) Help us drink deep
of the Spiritual Life and be refreshed. Amen.
Rev. Mason L. Brown
Member of the planning team
for SoulJourners Adult Retreat
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