(John 19:28)
"Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty."
Apparently Jesus asked for something to quench his thirst in order to fulfill Psalm 69:21, King David’s Psalm of lamentation: "They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst." The bible called this as wine vinegar, a sour wine that had turned to vinegar. Wine is made from grape juice. In the Roman times, this is identified as posca, a drink popular with soldiers of the Roman army, made by diluting sour wine vinegar with water to sustain them during their crucifixion duty. They weren't getting drunk on it, just using it to quench their own thirst.
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DEPICTION OF JESUS’ THIRST It is near the end of Jesus' human life. He senses it. He was crucified on the cross for six hours now and each time he wants to breathe he must pull himself up. His shoulders are aching and his mouth is parched; he asks for something to drink to wet his lips.
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Read Psalm 22:15. This psalm of David is known as one of the most important Messianic psalms. Our Lord on the cross repeated the first line and other verses are quoted or alluded to in the New Testament as to his passion: the spiritual and physical suffering of Christ. “Nag-uga na ang akong tutunlan sama sa yuta ug ang akong dila mitapot sa akong alingangag.”
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Again, turn to read Lamentations 4:4. In their age of crisis and a turning point of Israel’s history, their temple was destroyed and leaders were exiled and they lost their national sovereignty. This was during the fall of Jerusalem in 6th BC. The lamentations of the besieged city were thus: ”the tongue of the infant clings to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the young children ask for bread but no one breaks it for them.”
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REASON OF JESUS’ THIRST During the crucifixion, Jesus was not in a good attitude. As his health plummets, his heart and spirit affected him. The Bible calls this the breakdown of his "spirit." A man’s spirit communicates beyond its point of beginning. What happened then externally affected his spirit and worked to deteriorate his physical body. He endured the underwent great emotional stress from being abandoned by friends, the thought of humiliation and a cruel death by crucifixion, was without sleep and breakfast, and weary from walking about 2.5 miles back and forth between the sites of different trials and got tortured earlier. Proverbs 17:22 says, "A merry heart doeth good to the body, but a broken spirit drieth the bones." Jesus’ broken spirit, sunk by the burden of afflictions, had such a direct tendency to ruin his health and waste out his life as grief, anxiety, and fretfulness. All these work to his death.
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Now lets read Proverbs 18:14. The incident of Jesus’ at this time has no sufficient strength to bear up under the unavoidable trials of life; he was wounded by every body’s sin, and his soul is dying by every man’s iniquity. He had just walked for some 3-4 hours to a road going to calvary with no sitting or rest. He was on a depressed mood, had difficulty concentrating, is full of fatigue, he had anxiety and this caused his excessive thirst. All these produced his desire to live gone.
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In closing, the words of Jesus on the cross reminds us of his tangible physical suffering, of which his extreme thirst is for us to readily identify to his plea and respond in our own personal experience by coming to him, worship, love, adore, believe and accept the Lord as one’s savior. Such thirst, being parched only by us approachIng him, will conquer all our impiety and bring us the warm feeling of salvation. Amen.
