Thirsty I recently had a new appreciation for being thirsty. I had my gall bladder removed, but unfortunately I developed complications, which landed me in the emergency ward. The doctors suspected that I had developed a leak and that bile was seeping into my abdomen. Because of that, they wouldn't allow me anything to eat or drink, not even to suck on ice chips. I went for 48 hours without any food or water. What really made it interesting is that I spent the first 27 hours about 20 feet from the water and ice dispenser. All day and night doctors, nurses, technicians and patients would walk over to the machine and fill cups with water and ice. I was reduced to begging for even a snowflake, but to no avail. After a few days in the hospital, a bunch of tests and a procedure to patch me up, I was put on a liquid diet and I'll never forget that first sip of water - ahhhhh. During this time I thought about Jesus' words on the cross when he said - "I am thirsty." (John 19-28-29) and I wondered what else Jesus had to say about thirst. I had lots of time in my hospital bed, so I paged through the Gospels looking for passages about drinking. There were lots of passages referring to drinking, but there are only two references, both in the Gospel of John, that directly talk about Jesus' thirst. The first passage is in John 4:4-15, when Jesus asked a Samaritan women for a drink. |
As I read this passage I'm not sure that Jesus was even thirsty, or if he was, that is really unfortunate, because there is no indication in the passage that he ever did get a drink. I am sure that Jesus asked many times every week for someone to give him a drink. I am sure that there wasn't a day that went by that Jesus didn't experience thirst. What is interesting here, is that John chose to record one time when Jesus really wasn't asking for a drink. Rather, Jesus was opening a conversation that would lead to a radical transformation of a person's life. I don't think he really cared about the drink or quenching his thirst. What Jesus cared about was quenching that woman's thirst. It is apparent from the conversation that this was a woman who was an outcast, who was probably troubled and who was looking for the Messiah to come and , "… explain everything." (John 4: 25). Well, she met the Messiah, He provided her with, "living water" and her thirst was quenched. Jesus in turn brought, not only this woman into His Kingdom, but also many other people from her village and I am sure sometime later Jesus did get the drink he asked for. The only other time John records Jesus talking about personal thirst was during Jesus final minutes of life when, "Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." (John 19:28). Now I'm not a biblical scholar, but I don't think that Jesus was talking anymore about having a drink of water as He was when He asked the Samaritan woman for a drink. |
If we look at this passage, there of course is the fulfillment of a couple of prophecies (Psalm 22:15 "My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death." and Psalms 69:21 "They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst."). But, my suspicion here is that Jesus was talking about the kind of thirst that "living water" quenches and not the thirst that is satisfied by the stuff that we drink from the tap. I think that Jesus was talking about His thirst for God's presence. His thirst for the Kingdom to advance and His thirst for our coming to Him, to drink that living water. When I was in the emergency ward I imagined going home (in fact I even told my wife to fill the freezer with ice cubes) and having a huge glass of ice water. What I find interesting in this whole experience is that when I got home I didn't have that huge glass of ice water. I had already drank in the hospital and I was over that desire. But, in my thirst for water, I was driven to look for living water. I found in scripture something that quenched my thirst far more than the ice water did and I am still not finished with drinking that living water. John recorded only once that Jesus asked for a drink and only once that Jesus said that He was thirsty. In both cases it was about something far more than drinking a cup of water. It was about God's Kingdom and our entry into that Kingdom. It was about an invitation to drink the living water that Christ provided and about the sacrifice that Jesus made in order for us to have that living water. So, let us drink that living water - it is far more satisfying than anything that an ice dispenser can produce. Windsor Chaplain |
| JESUS IS LORD |
| Heaven's Saints M/M Windsor Ontario Canada |
| “All scripture passages are NIV unless otherwise noted.” |
