"I Am Thirsty"

“I Am Thirsty”

A short study of Jesus’ humanity

Khen Lim | March 22 2020

Image source: nymag.com

Introduction

From what we can tell scripturally, Jesus was put to the cross at 9:00am. There, under the scorching sunlight, He endured the first six hours. Then darkness came and stayed for three hours. At the end of it, on the ninth hour, He cried out, “Eli, eli, lama sabachthani?” Translated, Jesus said, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mt 27:45-46)

At the cross, Jesus, the Son of God, showed the world a powerful and evocative sense of humanity. Jesus’ humanness was, in fact, far more so than many of us could display in all our lives. The first three statements He made were focused on people other than Himself. He spoke about His enemies, the two thieves next to Him and also to His earthly mother, Mary, and His disciple, John.

But it was ultimately His final three statements that underscored Jesus’ humanity. In centring on Himself, His last words were about His body, His soul and then His spirit. In speaking of His body, Jesus simply said, “I thirst” (Jn 19:28) although in original Greek, it was only a single four-letter word (more of that later). 

It is this part that we will be concentrating on in this article. When He spoke about His soul, Jesus said, “It is finished” (v.30; Isa 53:10) and then when it came to His Spirit, His last words were, “Father, into Your hands, I commit My spirit” (Lk 23:46) and with that, He was taken up.

Body. Soul. Spirit. They were all offered up in obedience to the Father by the Son. But it is the one in which He said, “I thirst” that Jesus’ choice of a single word that tells us so much about who He was on earth and how He allowed Himself to suffer so that we may realise in His humanity, He was just like any one of us.

When we read about Jesus in the Gospels, we could really imagine Him as someone sent to save the world. He was our superhero. He was greater than Spider Man or Captain America or even Superman for that matter. Jesus was the One to confront evil unlike any of us could. He could cast out demons and perform miracles that attested to His extraordinariness. 

In fact when we look at Him through His brief years of ministry, it really seemed that nothing could hurt Him. Yes, He could and was disappointed in people but physically, He appeared invincible or at least, some of us could imagine that. After all, He was God.

Of course, the Gospels also taught us that Jesus had incredible compassion and often was touched and moved by human needs. Hence the miracles that He performed and then too, the Sermon on the Mount, which, in many Christians’ eyes, was His most powerful, unforgettable and meaningful sermon imparted to us. He could have gone on forever but therein laid the cross and from thereon, it was His humanity that came to the fore. It was at the cross that His expressions of humanity surely overshadowed His divinity.

In the run-up along Passion Week, we take the opportunity to have a closer look at the humanity of Christ and how it defined the way He suffered so extraordinarily. Like I said, Jesus expressed His humanity in ways many of us cannot relate to simply because He suffered far more than most of us could ever imagine in our own lives. 

At the cross, His humanity was brought into sharp focus by the way He was betrayed and by the manner in which He was so unjustly charged and then found guilty of crimes He never had a hand in doing.

In His humanity, He experienced how people turned their backs on Him and walked away. In His humanity, He took the deadly floggings and still managed to cling on to His fragile human life so that He could fulfil prophecy. In His humanity, He was finally crucified. Not many of us can ever say that we’ve been through all of those experiences. Perhaps some of us may have in parts but even so, they cannot hold a wick to the extent of suffering and torture that Jesus had to go through.

Description of Jesus suffering

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It’s easy just to take in a ‘snapshot’ understanding that Jesus suffered at the cross and then He died and rose on the third day. That would underplay the extent of how much He really did suffer. We live in a generation where people’s general understanding of a crucifixion is at best sterilised and no matter the effort Mel Gibson put to his masterpiece, ‘Passion of the Christ,’ no moviegoer would truly understand let alone appreciate the intense and excruciating pain Jesus had to deal with.

Nailed to the cross on both hands and feet, Jesus was in a terrible position because essentially, there was no bracing to support or prop up His physical body. Gravitation force alone would have caused Him great sharp pains as it pulled Him downwards against the large and coarse nails that held his hands and feet in place. Eventually, He would soon tire out of sheer exhaustion just to keep His body up.

His arms would fatigue first because of the constant tension caused by the nails that held His hands up. This was further exacerbated by Jesus desperately trying to gain His composure. But then came another problem – His back muscles were now cramping, forming excruciating knots that added substantially to His pain. By now, He was facing a gamut of different pains – sharp ones, throbbing ones and numbing ones from deep within His body.

At the same time, Jesus found it increasingly hard to hold Himself up and as He tried and tried, His ability to breathe worsened. That was because in His physical state, he had now found it very hard to exhale even as air was brought into His lungs. All this while, He had to stave off the pain while He tried to keep Himself raised. 

And because carbon dioxide was now slowing developing in His lungs and entering His bloodstream, the back cramps appeared to partly subside offering Him temporary respite. Jesus would use this as an opportunity to just nudge Himself up a little enough to properly exhale. This was necessary if He stood any chance of continually breathing in fresh air.

All of this went on for hours on end. The cramps came and went, bringing sharp searing pains each time. All His joints at the wrists, elbows, ankles, heels, shoulders including His hips and knees were threatening to tear off once the tendons and ligaments began to stretch and weaken. In the meantime, the crown of thorns He was forced to wear had clawed into His scalp, causing blood to flow down His head, occasionally obstructing His vision.

Let’s not forget Jesus’ rapidly deteriorating back muscles as well. With every little bodily movement up and down the cross, He not only struggled to breathe but also had to endure the lacerations on His back rubbing forcefully and painfully against the rough timber texture. Without any clothes, it was flesh against wood splinters and everything else. These lacerations were the result of the lashings and floggings that He sustained earlier but had hardly the time to heal.

Towards the end, as serum started filling up His pericardium – the double-layered sac around the heart – causing His heart to compress. This was not helped by the earlier floggings that had caused fluids to enter His lungs, which alone, would cause poor oxygenation of His blood. In turn, this caused His breathing to quicken unnecessarily (‘tachypnea’).

And then, there were the occasional falls along the way to Calvary because carrying that huge heavy cross was no small feat. Falling every now and then would have bruised His chest, causing pericarditis (painful inflammation of the pericardium), which, by itself, would have made breathing hard enough. 

Yet, that wasn’t all. Those falls would also have caused Jesus’ heart to begin palpitating. At the same time, it’s likely He also developed a cough and a low-grade fever not to mention that His entire body would also have substantially weakened.

By this time, the end was precipitously near for Jesus. Other than the critical loss of tissue fluids, His compressed heart was losing the battle to frantically pump thickened blood into the muscular tissues. Also, His ravaged lungs were equally as frenetic, trying very hard to draw even the smallest possible gulps of air in. Those severely dehydrated tissues now flashed out a stimuli to the brain.

With that, Jesus, nearing death now, finally gasped, “I am thirsty.”

The offering of the wines

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Through the ordeal on the cross, fleeting thoughts rushing through Jesus’ mind. These were desperate thoughts that the psalmist had recorded and they described the Son of Man’s despair:

“My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help? Every day, I call to You, My God, but You do not answer. Every night, I lift My voice but I find no relief. Yet You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. Our ancestors trusted in You and You rescued them. They cried out to You and were saved. They trusted in You and were never disgraced. But I am a worm and not a man. I am scorned and despised by all! Everyone who sees Me mocks Me. They sneer and shake their heads, saying, ‘Is this the One who relies on the Lord? Then let the Lord save Him! If the Lord loves Him so much, let the Lord rescue Him!’ Yet you brought Me safely from My mother’s womb and led Me to trust you at My mother’s breast. I was thrust into Your arms at My birth. You have been My God from the moment I was born. Do not stay so far from Me, for trouble is near and no one else can help Me. My enemies surround Me like a herd of bulls; fierce bulls of Bashan have hemmed Me in! Like lions, they open their jaws against Me, roaring and tearing into their prey. My life is poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, melting within Me. My strength has dried up like sun-baked clay. My tongue sticks to the roof of My mouth. You have laid Me in the dust and left Me for dead. My enemies surround Me like a pack of dogs; an evil gang closes in on Me. They have pierced My hands and feet. I can count all My bones. My enemies stare at Me and gloat. They divides My garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing.” (Ps 22:1-18, NLT, m.e.)

These are not just very human thoughts but they uncannily express desperation. In eighteen verses, Jesus tells us of His despair that the Father seemed to have looked the other way in His darkest time of need. Even so, He could recalled the Father’s sovereignty and how He was always there for His ancestors, meaning the Israelites. 

However that did not stop Him from crying out to the Father not to desert Him. Towards the second-half of the passage, Jesus described His suffering on the cross in fairly graphic detail. After talking about the Father, He turned His attention to those who were His enemies before He concluded with a description of His unbearable agony.

By this time, Jesus knew that His mission on Earth was finished but He still had one final thing to do in order that Scripture be fulfilled, which is to say, “I am thirsty” (Jn 19:28). The apostle John recorded that very moment in time:

“A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch and held it up to His lips. When Jesus had tasted it, He said, “It is finished!” Then He bowed His head and released His spirit.” (Jn 19:29, NLT, m.e.)

Just prior to this, Jesus was offered wine of a different type where myrrh or gall was mixed in (Mt 27:34). Jesus did taste it but did not drink from it. Both myrrh and gall were used as poisons to dull the pain and quicken the rush to death. 

During those days, it was common practice for people to offer this to the condemned on the cross out of sympathy for what could be days before they died. As Jesus was treated like a common criminal, that offer was made, presenting to Him the opportunity to relieve Himself of the physical pain and expedite His death.

He refused the offer because He didn’t want His mission to be diminished or His sacrifice to be belittled. Had He taken the wine, it would be easy for anyone to mock Him, saying He was afraid to suffer. That wasn’t an unacceptable remark since that was essentially what the wine could do. More critically, it would make a mockery out of His purported suffering. If He had chosen to cut short His ordeal, it would make everything meaningless.

In His refusal, Jesus demonstrated the humanness of His pain and suffering, all at His expense though through no fault of His. He suffered because He took on all our sins and transgressions. In other words, He endured the burden of sin that was not His doing purely for our sakes. He knew very well that if He didn’t do this, we would never be reconciled back to the Father. Only He could do what He was chosen to do even before He was born.

Jesus did not refuse the wine because it tasted awful. Taste had nothing to do with it. He simply was not interested in taking the easy way out. On the other hand, that’s something most of us would have preferred. We just can’t find it in us to match Jesus on that count. That’s because we’re constantly looking for a better life, a better job, a better car, a more comfortable home, better holidays, better food and just about better in every facet of life. And if we can, some of us might even think of a different marriage!

Some people just can’t be satisfied with what they already have. That’s because we’re just very hard to please. The quest towards betterment is as much a vanity issue as it is about our unwillingness to do things the harder way. We don’t want manual transmission cars because auto boxes are easier. We prefer the ease of the microwave oven because we’re done with all the waiting. We like picture-taking smartphones because it’s far easier than having to lug around a proper camera. We love remote controllers because we can just do everything seated in our easy chair without needing to get up.

But of course, better things offer more comfort. We can look at homeless people and shun them for sleeping on park benches and eating leftovers scrounged off bins at the back of a MacDonald’s joint. Meanwhile back home, we hardly feel the guilt of tucking into a comfortable bed every night with the air-conditioning on. 

With all that comfort that comes with better things, we can also be very difficult to please. On a warm day, we complain as much as if the day is too cold. We’re simply never satisfied. Even taking the easy way out doesn’t mean we stop complaining either. Often it only means our thirsts and longing for even better things become more intense.

Jesus knew too well that the myrrh or gall wine would have meant a world of difference to Him. The constant searing pain would have easily reminded Him that the wine was a ready-made solution because it could take the sting off it. But it was nothing more than a cop-out and He rejected it for that reason. It wasn’t so much the wine per se as it was the ‘promise’ of relief and quick death that He didn’t want because taking it would have obfuscated His mission.

In denying Himself the wine, Jesus set an example of how we are to follow or emulate Him. Of course, we have a choice whether we want to or not but in this case, He encourages us to take a different path, a path less travelled perhaps but in the end, a path that deny ourselves the pleasures of the world. Well before then, Jesus said something that reflected this:

“If any of you wants to be My follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow Me.” (Mt 16:24, NLT, m.e.)

To deny one’s self isn’t something many of us are particularly good at doing. Offer some cannabis to a drug addict or some liquor to an alcoholic and watch self-denial fly out of the window. Someone who says she can’t live without checking her social media is no different. 

In the same way, a person who just can’t resist overeating even though he has been warned by his doctor is in a similar boat. It is evident that the inability to deny ourselves is as much a weakness of character as it is an addiction. At the cross, Jesus showed us very clearly that self-denial and suffering can be redemptive.

It was after He had said, “I am thirsty,” that the sour wine was offered to Him. The difference between the myrrh or gall wine and the sour wine is stark. While the former was akin to a painkiller (but also hastener of death), the sour wine was essentially nothing more than alcoholic vinegar. If that sounds awful, it probably was because essentially, it was just cheap plonk. Roman soldiers who did duty at Cavalry usually brought along the sour wine to share as they waited – often for hours – for the condemned to die at their respective crosses.

This time, Jesus drank what He was offered. Unlike the painkiller, He accepted the vinegar wine just to help keep His mouth moistened. It had nothing to do with alleviating His pain but to ensure that He could form His next words clearly (Jn 19:30). In true prophetic style, “It is finished” was Jesus’ final fulfilment and the very definition of His humanity.

Jesus’ stark humanity

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Jesus’ final moments on the cross weren’t the first time we witnessed His humanity. In the Bible, we read of His tiredness, frail emotions and hunger, not to mention, His need to be alone and away from the crowd. But in all of Scripture, it was on the cross that we saw His deepest expression of humanity. Remember the apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians where He described Jesus:

“Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When He appeared in human form, He humbled Himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” (Php 2:6-8, NLT, m.e.)

Jesus’ humanity had humble underpinnings. For example, unlike most others, He was born in a stable. His earthly father was not a member of the royalty but a simple carpenter and in all likelihood, he probably died young since there is a dearth of information about him after Jesus was born. To put it simply, as a human, He had no special privileges or status in society.

But why is all this important? It is because to save mankind, God had to hatch a mystery plan in which a major sacrifice had to be its centrepiece. This would be a sacrifice unlike any the world had ever seen. It would also be unexpected in the sense that no one could have foreseen or figure out. Blood will surely be shed figuratively and otherwise. Torture and suffering would be thrown into the mix as well. And the torment would be so gruesome that it would rattle everyone who witnessed it. But then, there was a problem with this plan – an eternally living God cannot die!

And so, the Son of God became man. Born without His divine privileges, He took on the full force of humanity, meaning Jesus was just as vulnerable to sin and temptation as any normal human being. He was also just as susceptible emotionally and physically as any human was in that He could feel pain, sadness, disappointment, anger and everything in between. In fact, He was able to experience the same full spectrum of emotions as us in daily life. He could now feel what we feel.

In taking on the frail and vulnerable humanity, Jesus set Himself up for the fall, one that was manifested in the Father’s mystery plan that no one knew much about including Satan. Although His crucifixion was actually foretold in the Old Testament, it seemed many had not understood what it meant until the day everything came into sharp focus with Jesus nailed on the cross.

On the cross, the Son of Man took on the responsibility to suffer on our behalf. Hours earlier, He was flogged to within an inch of His life like a common criminal subject to Roman law but instigated by the Sanhedrin. And before that, there was the setup at the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus experienced betrayal by no less than one of His very own disciples. To make things worse, it was His own fellow Jews who would ultimately send Him to His death preferring a criminal insurrectionary, Barabbas, to be freed instead.

Nailed to the cross, the Romans chose to flank him with two condemned thieves in a disgusting act designed to destroy His reputation and demean His integrity. In cohorts with the Sanhedrin, the Roman authorities were keen to, once and for all, consign the Lord to history’s ignominious and forgettable heap. 

By cloaking Himself in humanity, Jesus became our best hope to understand us. More importantly, it was now entirely possible for Him to suffer on our behalf.

A humanity more than most humans

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Be not surprised that some people have a view of Jesus that might not necessarily be the same. The problem is because some believe Jesus is all-God while the others think He is all-human. Both are, of course, wrong, because Jesus is both God and man. In that sense, therefore, Jesus is the Son of God and also the Son of Man.

Being the ‘Son of Man’ means Jesus was truly a human being. In much the same way, God also called Ezekiel ‘son of man’ and in the Bible, we can actually find 93 such occurrences. Simply put, the Lord was referring to the prophet as a human being. Just as John recognised Jesus as fully God (Jn 1:1), he too acknowledged Him as a human being (1:14).

Those who assert that Jesus is all-God insist that He did not have a real or natural body during His life on Earth. In other words, all people saw was a mere apparition of an apparent body. Called Docetism (Gk. dokein to mean ‘to seem’), this is pure Christian heresy because it pronounces Jesus’ divinity at the expense of His humanity.

A person who is bitter over his sufferings lashes out at God, saying, “You don’t understand. You will never understand what I’ve been going through. You have absolutely no idea the pain and suffering I have endured because you’re God and I’m not. But I’m human and you’re not.”

In a complete opposite manner, someone else could say, “Isn’t it easy for you, Jesus… to live on Earth without a worry and then to die on the cross. After all you’re God. You think You know what suffering is but You don’t.”

Both scenarios are heretical. Docetists deny Jesus His human body because they consider all physical matter inherently evil and thereby reject the notion that, as God, He could appear in such a form. However, in subscribing to this belief means Jesus did not have the humanity to understand pain and suffering the way we do. More importantly, Docetists deny Him the suffering experience at the cross and if that’s the case, Jesus did not die for our sins.

In other words, Docetism maintains that Jesus couldn’t have suffered because He is ultimately God. But Jesus didn’t just suffer like any human; He suffered far more than His fair share! The Son of Man took up all the sins and transgressions of the world on His shoulders. In doing so, He died to save all of us. For that, He couldn’t have done it if He were God but not man (and vice-versa). By being fully God and fully Man, Jesus had the sinless purity of an all-loving God and the full humanity of the Son of Man to fulfil the role.

Christian suffering sets a different standard

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Here is the Son of God whose simple phrase, “I am thirsty” sets Him distinctly apart from what any other world religion could ever teach you. There is simply no parallel whatsoever when it comes to Jesus’ humanity and what it means in the larger picture of salvation and redemption. Unlike what other religions may or may not have covered, Christ knows suffering and He thirsts for God in ways unfathomable by others who do not walk His ways.

So what does Islam has to say about suffering? According to Surah al-Hadid (The Iron) 57:22 (surah is chapter in Quran), “No misfortune ever befalls on Earth, nor on yourselves but We have inscribed it in the writ of destiny before We make it manifest. Surely that is easy for Allah.” The footnotes say that, “it is not at all difficult for Allah to preordain the destiny of each and every one of His creatures.” [Note: bold effect is mine]

What the Quran is saying is that all misfortunes that befall us are preordained. Little wonder that whenever Muslims suffer from mishaps or tragedies, they invariably say it is destiny…even if they were the result of human errors. Often you hear Muslims say, “Mashallah” or “Mash’Allah,” which broadly means “God willed it.” It’s a Muslim-Arab phrase that acts as a reminder that everything is achieved by the will of God.

Islam’s answer to suffering is nothing more than simply something that is within God’s will. If God wills it, there’s nothing man can do, in other words. However, nothing in the Quran says that their prophet Muhammad would take on man’s sin and suffer for it.

What about Buddhism? What does it say about suffering? The general notion is that suffering is part of life and everyone experiences it until he achieves the state of Buddha or enlightenment in which case, his hardships will end. 

However in Buddhism, people pursue nothingness in the mind. This is because the human mind is said to be corrupt and therefore, the prime thing to do is to get rid of all thoughts. Given that being the case, then there is no concept of good and evil. Hence then, the concept of sin is as non-existent as the spiritual warfare between God and the devil.

But the problem with Buddhism is that there is no God. The Buddha that is at the centre of their worship is actually not a God but an Indian prince by the name of Siddhartha Gautama. In Buddhism, therefore, there cannot be any perfection or purity in the sense that there is no God. 

If Buddhism lacks an expression for sin, then there is no need for salvation but that doesn’t explain why man is wicked and how spiritual justice is meted out as a result. If there is no need to be saved from sin’s damnation, then there is no need for anyone to come and take that sin away.

NOTE: None of these suggests that I am an expert in either Islam or Buddhism because I am not. What I know is what I can understand from simple reading and research that I have done based on resources that are readily available on the Internet.

In contrast, the Gospels teach us that there is a God who not only understands and knows about suffering but He has chosen to endure them because He loves us. He took on the whole world because He wanted to offer His promise of salvation and eternal life to everyone. 

We have a God who wills Himself to cop the flak by going through the whole process of being a human until which point He took all the blame and ultimately suffered for it by sheer sacrifice of His life. He did all that just so His blood washed all over and cleanse us of our sins.

At Lambert Dolphin’s website is a nicely-written short play called, ‘The Long Silence,’ anonymously written prior to the summer of 1982 that is worth the few minutes to finish reading. In the end, you’ll get the idea how man thinks he knows about suffering in ways they assume that God doesn’t. Here’s the play:

At the end of time, billions of people were seated on a great plain before God’s throne. Most shrank back from the brilliant light before them. But some groups near the front talked heatedly, not cringing with cringing shame – but with belligerence.

“Can God judge us? How can He know about suffering?” snapped a pert young brunette. She ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. “We endured terror… beatings… torture… death!” 

In another group, a Negro boy lowered his collar. “What about this?” he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. “Lynched, for no crime but being black!” In another crowd, there was a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes. “Why should I suffer?” she murmured. “It wasn’t my fault.”

Far out across the plain were hundreds of such groups. Each had a complaint against God for the evil and suffering He had permitted in His world. How lucky God was to live in Heaven where all was sweetness and light. Where there was no weeping or fear, no hunger or hatred. What did God know of all that man had been forced to endure in this world? For God leads a pretty sheltered life, they said.

So each of these groups sent forth their leader, chosen because he had suffered the most. A Jew, a Negro, a person from Hiroshima, a horribly deformed arthritic, a thalidomide child. In the centre of the vast plain, they consulted with each other. At last, they were ready to present their case. It was rather clever.

Before God could be qualified to be their judge, He must endure what they had endured. Their decision was that God should be sentenced to live on Earth as a Man. Let Him be born a Jew. Let the legitimacy of His birth be doubted. Give Him a work so difficult that even His family will think Him out of His mind. 

Let Him be betrayed by His closest friends. Let Him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury and convicted by a cowardly judge. Let Him be tortured. At the last, let Him see what it means to be terribly alone. Then let Him die so there can be no doubt He died. Let there be a great host of witnesses to verify it.

As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from the throng of people assembled. When the last had finished pronouncing sentence, there was a long silence. No one uttered a word. No one moved. For suddenly, all knew that God had already served His sentence.

Understanding the word ‘thirst’

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All this while, we have been looking at the word ‘thirst’ for what it usually means. The story we’ve been focusing on reveals Jesus’ physical thirst and how intense that moment before His death was. Yet, there is something a little deeper and more significant than that. Beneath the physical façade, Jesus was also encountering a spiritual thirst. Before we go further, a bit of exegesis of the word would be helpful.

Scripture translated into English uses three words, as in, “I am thirsty” but in Greek, it’s a single solitary word, Διψῶ (pr. Dipsō), expressed as a present indicative active verb in first personal singular form. 

In the Strong Concordance (Greek #1372), the usage means ‘to thirst for’ or ‘to desire’ or ‘to long for.’ We find the same usage, not surprisingly, in John 19:28. The full usage of the word is, thus, “…Scripture, He says, ‘I thirst’” (Gk. γραφὴ λέγει Διψῶ; pr. graphē legei Dipsō).

An interesting aside in this part of the story is the hyssop branch. The apostle John recorded the event, narrating:

“Jesus knew that His mission was now finished and to fulfil Scripture, He said, ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch and held it up to His lips. When Jesus had tasted it, He said, ‘It is finished.’ Then He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” (Jn 19:28-30, NLT, m.e.)

Hyssop is a common herbaceous plant found throughout the Middle East. In Scripture, by virtue of the number of times it is mentioned, there is something symbolic to it than just a fragrant medicinal herb. 

In the part of the Book of Exodus where the tenth and final plague was pronounced against Pharaoh, God commanded His people to mark the whole front door frame with blood of an unblemished lamb so that the angel of death would not visit but instead pass over them (hence the commemorative Passover event). To do that, He ordered them to use a bunch of hyssop, treating it like a ‘paintbrush’:

“Drain the blood into a basin. Then take a bundle of hyssop branches and dip it into the blood. Brush the hyssop across the top and sides of the door frames of your houses. And no one may go out through the door until morning. For the Lord will pass through the land to strike down the Egyptians. But when He sees the blood on the top and sides of the door frame, the Lord will pass over your home. He will not permit His death angel to enter your house and strike you down.” (Ex 12:22, NLT, m.e.)

It is true that a bunch of hyssop stalks is stiff, robust and long enough to do the job of reaching the necessary height to reach Jesus but its cleansing properties also meant that ancient Hebrews used in purification sprinkling rites. Given that, it is probable that God used it to symbolically mark His people as ‘pure.’ In other words, rather than target them for judgement, He would only deal with the Egyptians.

In the Book of Psalms, David also mentioned the same plant:

“Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” (Ps 51:7, NIV, m.e.)

Here, David isn’t talking about physical cleaning but spiritual cleansing. In his confession of sin, He asked God to purify him. In much the same way, when Jesus mentioned thirst, it wasn’t just physical but instead, it carried spiritual significance. 

John mentioned that the Roman soldiers used a sponge dipped in sour wine and pierced it on a stalk of hyssop before offering it to Jesus (Jn 19:28-30) essentially, as it seems, to wet His lips. An act like this couldn’t have possibly quenched His thirst in a physical sense but was probably enough to allow Him to form His final words.

The significance of the hyssop at the final stage of Jesus’ life just as He was about to say, “I am thirsty” has symbolic importance as it offers us a picture of purification at the very last moment when the Son of God, as the sacrificial Lamb, purchased and paid in full our forgiveness.

Just as it is mentioned in the Old Testament where hyssop – together with the blood of a clean bird (as well as cedar wood and scarlet yarn) – was sprinkled on anyone healed from a defiling skin disease (leprosy, for example) as ceremonial cleansing (Lev 14:1-7), so it is that Jesus’ shed blood purified us from the defilement of our sin.

As mentioned earlier, the word ‘thirst’ used in John’s passage is a verb, meaning it defines a physical action. John himself used it five times in his Gospel and in all the five times, it referred to the same spiritual thirst. In three of those, the word ‘thirst’ takes centre stage in the dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well:

“Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.’ ‘Please, sir,’ the woman said, ‘give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.’” (Jn 4:13-15, NLT, m.e.)

In the above passage, Jesus distinguishes between physical water – water in the well – and that, which He freely gives, which in Chapter 7, He calls ‘living water.’ While the quenching properties of physical water aren’t permanent, Jesus’ living water promises that whoever accepts it “will never be thirsty again.” 

In the part where He said, “It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them,” Jesus reveals that the living water lives within the one who accepts it, offering him eternal life.

Jesus, once again, referenced living water – although He didn’t use this description – when the crowd gathered to ask Him what they should do to perform God’s work (Jn 6:28, NLT). He replied:

“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty.” (Jn 6:35, NLT, m.e.)

In the following chapter, Jesus brought it up again although this time, He mentioned ‘living water’:

“On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, ‘Anyone who is thirsty may come to Me! Anyone who believes in Me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’’ (When He said “living water,” He was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in Him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into His glory.)” (Jn 7:37-39, NLT, m.e.)

When we look at Jesus’ use of the word ‘thirst’ – and how He links it to ‘living water’ – it is evident that He was referring not to physical water but to the spiritual desire for God. It’s an emotional longing that is welled deep within us. It operates in every human being created in the image of God, meaning it is also available to unbelievers. All it takes is to simply believe. It is a thirst that only Jesus can quench for all eternity. For unbelievers, it means going to and seeking it from Him and Him alone. For no one else can offer what He can.

In verse 39, John added that this ‘living water’ Jesus spoke about and promised refers to the Holy Spirit that is given to “everyone believing in Him.” That alone is enough to realise that when Jesus said, “I am thirsty,” He was talking about the spiritual thirst that He Himself was experiencing just before the Spirit left Him.

Poured out for all of humanity

Image source: youtube.com

This was exactly what Jesus did on the cross – He poured out for all of humanity. But take specific note that other than Him, there is no one who could do what He did. That, in essence, is why He is the Messiah and no one else is.

“I am thirsty” underlines the premise behind Jesus pouring Himself out for all of humanity. It is a gesture that everyone else was unfit to or unqualified to do. It took a sinless person – the Son of God, no less – to bear the weight of all the world’s sins and depravity so that humanity can be saved. That is what the promise of the living water, the very desire to live in harmonious perfect eternity with God, is largely about.

Without a doubt, this is the connection to what was foretold in the Old Testament:

“Do not stay so far from Me, for trouble is near, and no one else can help Me. My enemies surround Me like a herd of bulls; fierce bulls of Bashan have hemmed Me in! Like lions they open their jaws against Me, roaring and tearing into their prey. My life is poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, melting within Me. My strength has dried up like sun-baked clay. My tongue sticks to the roof of My mouth. You have laid Me in the dust and left Me for dead.” (Ps 22:11-15, NLT, m.e.)

Note that Jesus speaks about emptying Himself. He said, “My life is poured out like water.” There is no doubt that water has been mentioned many times in His brief ministry. In the first miracle He performed at the behest of His mother, He turned water into wine (Jn 2:11). Then came the encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well where He tied the idea of ‘living water’ to the Holy Spirit and eternal life (4:1-26).

It was also evident that Jesus had an abundance of this ‘living water’ in Him. In exhorting the crowd, He spoke of never ever being hungry or thirsty again. And once more, He drew them to the ‘living water’ that was freely on offer to anyone who came to Him (6:35, 7:37-39). Just by believing in Him, anyone could satiate his thirst forever and thence, “rivers of living water will flow from his heart” (op cit).

So how can someone like the Son of God who has an infinite supply of ‘living water’ could actually have it all poured out for all of humanity? Does that mean that He has no more ‘living water’? How could Jesus Himself become thirsty? If He had so much to give to all of man, surely He would still have some left in Him for Himself? But empty Himself He did and in its fullness before the Spirit left Him. And that explains why all of this was so sobering and bleak.

Yet the idea that Jesus could speak so voluminously – and inspiringly – about the ‘living water’ and still became thirsty hardly made sense. Is that because the ‘living water’ wasn’t really living after all? Or could it be that the Roman soldiers did not give Him enough of that sour wine? The point is He talked of saving others, offering them eternal life and now He was about to die? Why couldn’t He save Himself?

Just as it was foretold, Jesus was roundly mocked and jeered and all of this was part of the picture of God’s plan for humanity. For the Son of God to deliver on the promise, there was much humiliating and shaming that He had to endure. It was all part of the deal. As inspiring a rabbi that He was, He was now scorned and then given a crown of thorns and a purple robe to wear. Jesus could have easily risen above all the fracas. He could have pulverised his enemies instead of feeling the despair of being left for dead (Ps 22:15).

But He didn’t do any of that. He didn’t run away from His mission. He paid the full price of redemption for us. And we all know He certainly didn’t have to because we surely didn’t deserve it either. It wasn’t as if Jesus just pulled out a credit card and pay cash to free us. That would have been too simple and besides, everyone could have done the same. It wouldn’t be anything exceptional or out of this world. Instead Jesus gave His life up after He carried the burden of all our sins.

Those sins couldn’t be shouldered by anyone less than Jesus. He knew this. He was aware that only He could do what He did and if He had succumbed to His despair or took that myrrh (gall) wine, we wouldn’t be where we are today. We certainly wouldn’t be able to preach the Gospel to unbelievers and have them realise who Jesus is. 

So as He emptied Himself that day on the cross, He paid the full invoice to unchain us from the shackles of sin. This was where His ultimate thirst, shame and death were all meshed into one. This is His glory and, in every way (possibly unthinkable to many), His joy.

But to be able to do all of this, Jesus had to lean on His Father. Remember that when He cried out saying, “I am thirsty,” it wasn’t mere physical thirst. As we know, He was in need of more than just a sponge’s worth of sour wine. That thirst had Him praying to God, expressing His own inner thirst…the thirst for God. It perfectly echoes what He preached when He taught us, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled” (Mt 5:6, NIV, m.e.) from the Sermon on the Mount.

As Jesus said, only when we thirst or long for God that we understand and experience true contentment. We can buy the grandest home, the sportiest car and marry the most beautiful woman in the world and we still won’t be anywhere near the kind of contentment that can only come from God. 

We can have all the political power in the world, amassed the most amount of wealth and live in luxury beyond our wildest dreams and we still feel that emptiness inside us. We can even own the world and do whatever we like and still remain unquenched because something in life still eludes us.

All of that sounds strangely like Solomon’s expressions of emptiness in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Void of contentment, Solomon experienced depression as his quest for happiness through worldly materialism had come to nought. He said much about such voidness in these passages:

“Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.” (Ecc 1:8, NLT, m.e.)

“I said to myself, ‘Look, I am wiser than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them.’ So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind. The greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. To increase knowledge only increases sorrow.” (vv.16-18, NLT, m.e.)

“But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless – like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.” (Ecc 2:11, NLT, m.e.)

Solomon’s lessons here resonate with many of us today as well. But then he realised that faith in God offered him a way out of his conundrum and with that, a renewed sense of purpose that finally led to contentment for him. It is this faith that produces longing for God that Jesus meant when He said, “I am thirsty.” Just as Solomon discovered, our search would always be fruitless if God isn’t centred in our lives. 

Everything is meaningless. Whatever we strive for and achieve in this world will also be meaningless. Without God, even a long life has neither reward nor purpose in the end. Solomon understood that a life void of God produces, at best, temporal but non-lasting pleasure. Worldly pleasures might fill us with joy for a while but in an eternity time frame, they wilt and wane.

Only by thirsting for and finding the Father, Jesus could find contentment. Even as He has poured Himself out for all of humanity on the cross, the Father would fill Him again with life. So, despite the momentous shouldering of all the world’s sins, Jesus will Himself be rejuvenated. Even as He poured all of Himself out, His reunion with the Father will be all He needed to quench that thirst.

Of suffering and sacrifice

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In the end, the lesson of the cross is not too difficult to understand. As Jesus neared the end of His mission (and life), we learn that “I am thirsty” takes on a meaning that is more than just physical. And in unveiling its true message, Jesus is encouraging all of us to look to God as the path to lasting contentment. 

By embracing the way of the cross, we leave behind our worldly desires and all our feel-good creature comforts and instead, head towards a new gold standard in our lives. In short, follow Jesus by embracing sacrifices and sufferings. It’s time we realise there’s no easy way out when we focus on fulfilling our Christian expectations. We simply can’t have the cake and eat it.

Recall in Matthew’s Gospel about a rich young man who asked Jesus what he needed to do to attain eternal life. After a bit of back and forth, the Lord then said:

“If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” (Mt 19:21, NLT, m.e.)

Quite likely the young man wasn’t expecting such an answer. He thought he’d done well complying with the commandments that Jesus said had to be kept (vv.17-20). Now, he was told to give up everything if he was serious about following the Lord. That meant surrendering all his worldly properties and giving away all his money to the destitute.

The important key to understanding Jesus’ reply in this regard is to realise that He said, “If you want to be perfect.” View that as you may, the context is that those were the things a person had to do for God to consider him perfect. Putting that aside, Jesus’ answer obviously didn’t sit well with the rich young man:

“But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.” (v.22, NLT, m.e.)

There are three simple things to observe with the young man. Firstly, he was sad. Secondly, he went away. Thirdly, Matthew took pains to mention that, “he had many possessions.” The first two were reactions following what Jesus had said. The third was simply the fundamental reason why he couldn’t accept. It meant that he was too attached to his possessions to sacrifice. 

To put that in another way, we could surmise that they were too important for him to forego; perhaps, too valuable to him to have Jesus displace as a priority in his life.

Then, turning to face His disciples, the Lord used the departed rich young man as an example and said:

“I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I’ll say it again – it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” (vv.23-24, NLT, m.e.)

Just as Jesus’ words had confounded the now-departed rich young man, they too were too much for His disciples to take in. To them, it meant no one would ever be able to be saved. With that, they asked the inevitable:

“‘Then who in the world can be saved?’ they asked. Jesus looked at them intently and said, ‘Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God, everything is possible.” (vv.25-26, NLT, m.e.)

Jesus felt it was a fair question because no one could fulfil those requirements he had set. Perhaps then, it was understandable that the rich young man left in frustration. However, it is in the second part of His answer that was critical for Jesus confirmed that even as we find it impossible to do what is asked of us, “with God, everything is possible.” Had the young man not left so quickly, maybe he would have had a clearer understanding of what God could do what man couldn’t.

Three verses down, He added more clarity, outlining the bountiful dividends when a person sacrifices much of his worldly life to follow Him:

“…everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for My sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life. But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.” (vv.29-30, NLT, m.e.)

The lesson of the cross reinforces what we learn from the above dialogue. What Jesus said to the rich young man and then to His disciples offers us a clear insight into the way to view His attitude on the cross towards, firstly, the myrrh (gall) wine and secondly, His cry, “I am thirsty.” 

To set ourselves right with God means to deprioritise our material needs and not let them dominate our attention. To focus on Christ is to not allow anything to come in between us and God. We have to be as single-minded about what we want and how we are to claim it. Jesus did precisely that when He rejected the easy way out with the pain-numbing drink. To Him, completing His mission as not as important as the way He did it.

It is also important to realise that suffering is part and parcel of a life in which we are to follow Christ. Suffering can come in various forms. Trying times can involve retrenchments, health issues, relationship problems, domestic conflicts, loss of loved ones, humiliation, hatred, persecutions and encounters with drugs, pornography, obesity, alcoholism and even incarcerations. 

Some of the most powerful Christians are often those who have ‘scars’ to show in their lives. Sufferings mould their Christian integrity, allowing them to understand and appreciate how Christ healed and comforted them in their moments of darkness.

Such is the cost of following Jesus. The sufferings and sacrifices we make are a large part of what this cost is about. In following His footsteps and emulating Him, the world will come to despise us as it has long despised Him:  

“If the world hates you, remember that it hated Me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to Me, they would listen to you. They will do all this to you because of Me, for they have rejected the One who sent Me. They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. Anyone who hates Me also hates My Father. If I hadn’t done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate Me and My Father. This fulfils what is written in their Scriptures: ‘They hated Me without cause.’” (Jn 15:18-25, NLT, m.e.)

And so the message of the cross for this Easter is to reinforce our desire for a life that is in Christ, a life that ultimately takes us away from hedonistic pleasures and worldly priorities. This Easter, the idea of sticking to the same trodden path as Christ takes on a renewed sense of urgency as we take one further step into the End Times. The Wuhan Coronavirus is simply a stark reminder of the opportunities to right what is wrong in our lives before it’s too late.

Take comfort, therefore, in the fact that Jesus’ final words on the cross can open new doors for us to seek God but only if we redefine our pursuit of contentment. And once we sharpen our focus on a life enriched by Christ in us, we can then be assured of a brand new undertaking that will lead us away from the pains and sufferings of this world, detached from the importance we place on material desires. If we do this, no one will ever have to say, “I am thirsty” because the One who said it first, has said it to teach all of us.

Further reading resources

Anon. (c.1985) The Long Silence (Lambert Dolphin’s Place) accessible at http://www.ldolphin.org/silence.html

Davis, Dr C. Truman (no date) A Physician’s View of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ (Christian Broadcasting Network) accessible at https://www1.cbn.com/medical-view-of-the-crucifixion-of-jesus-christ

Kubala, Mark J. (Apr 2017) What Jesus Really Endured on the Cross – A Medical Perspective (Outreach Magazine) accessible at https://outreachmagazine.com/resources/22356-jesus-cross-medical.html

Moore, David George and Akin, Daniel L. (Jul 2003) Holman Old Testament Commentary Volume 14 – Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (Nashville, TN: Broadman &Holman Publishers) available at https://www.amazon.com/Ecclesiastes-Songs-Holman-Testament-Commentary/dp/0805494820/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Orr, James and Nuelsen, John L. (1915, May 1994) International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia: The Original 1915 Edition (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publisher) available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QZ1JHS7?tag=duckduckgo-brave-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1

Provan, Iain (Apr 2001) Ecclesiastes/Song of Songs (The NIV Application Commentary Ecclesiastes) (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan) available at https://www.amazon.com/Ecclesiastes-Song-Songs-Application-Commentary/dp/031021372X

Towns, Elmer L. (Jun 2003) Bible Answers for Almost All Your Questions (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson) available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K15ZDNW?tag=duckduckgo-brave-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1