Final Words: “I Thirst”
John 19:28
March 22, 2015
Mark S. Bollwinkel
It was an absolute
scandal for a Jew to be crucified.
Roman citizens rarely were; beheading was the norm for Roman
execution. Crucifixion was reserved for
the most heinous crimes in the colonies of Rome.
For Jews such a
death, to be hung on a tree, was to be cursed by God ("...anyone hung on a
tree is under God's curse..." Deuteronomy 21:23).
The writers of the
gospels had other things on their minds as they considered Jesus' death. As we explore the “seven last words on the
cross” this Lenten season listen to how the gospel writers want us to know that
Jesus life, death and resurrection are a blessing not a curse.
They are also intent on proving that Jesus's
suffering and death fulfilled scriptures prophesying the Messiah. Remember most in the Hebrew nation expected
the Messiah to be a military leader, expelling the Roman occupation forces and
restoring Israel to its greatness under King David a thousand years
before. Those Hebrews who believed that
Jesus was Messiah had to make a great effort to convince the pious
otherwise. That Jesus fulfills messianic
prophecy is one of the central themes of all four gospels.
There was no “Bible”
as we understand it today in first century Palestine. What we understand as the Old Testament
would not be collected and codified until after the fall of Jerusalem in 70
CE. Yet the words of the prophets, the
psalms of the Temple and the Torah in separate and dispersed documents were
well known by the literate, as were the many interpretations by noted
rabbi. Jesus was a student of these
scriptures in Hebrew, Aramaic and possibly the Greek translation as well. From his passion for debate when only
twelve years old in the temple (Luke 2:41-f), to his remarkable retention of
the scriptures to his extraordinary authority in applying and interpreting
them, it was obvious that Jesus loved the Word of God and felt very at home
with them.
Thus, although found
only in the gospel of John, it is no accident for Jesus to say just before he
dies, “I am thirsty”. The gospel writer
John adds in parenthesis, “in order to fulfill scripture”. Jesus is quoting from Psalm 69 verse 21,
“They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to
drink.”
Psalm 69 is a prayer
for deliverance from persecution. The
psalmist cries out:
Answer me, O Lord,
for your steadfast love is good;
according to your abundant mercy, turn to
me.
Do not hide your face
from your servant,
for I am in distress—make haste to answer
me.
Draw near to me,
redeem me,
set me free because of my enemies.
You know the insults
I receive,
and my shame and dishonor;
my foes are all known to you.
Insults have broken
my heart,
so that I am in despair.
I looked for pity,
but there was none;
and for comforters, but I found none.
They gave me poison
for food,
and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to
drink.
The sense of despair
in the psalm might echo what Jesus said before about God abandoning and
forsaking him, also a quote from a psalm (22:1).
Consider the irony of
the Son of God dying with a swollen tongue and parched thirst. This man turned water into wine (John
2). This man offered life giving water
that
would never go dry to the women at the well (John 4).
Could this be one of
the most human moments of our Lord as he dies asking for a simple drink of
water?
According to the
World Health Organization of the United Nations 1.8 million people die every
year to unsafe water supplies, sanitation and hygiene; most of those are women
and children; about 5,000 people a day. The average person
could live without food for 20-40 days but without water for only 3-5 days
max. Water is as essential to living as
the air we breathe.
When Jesus says
"I thirst" it is a fulfillment of scripture but something more.
The next verse goes,
"A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a
branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth".
The gospels differ as
to whether Jesus drank the wine offered.
Mark and Matthew suggest that he refused the drugged wine as they nailed
him to the cross (Mt 27:34, Mk 15:23).
He also does not drink the wine-filled sponge offered just as he expires
because it is cruelly withdrawn before he can drink (Mt 27:49, Mk. 15:36). Luke doesn’t mention anything at all about
Jesus’ thirst at the cross. And the
gospel writer John implies that indeed he “receives” the wine as he dies.
Pastor Adam Hamilton
in our devotional book Final Words from the Cross (Abingdon 2013)
reminds us that, like Socrates' death by hemlock three hundred years before,
when the women offered Jesus drugged wine before his crucifixion began they
were offering him the opportunity to die painlessly. Jesus refused to drink the mixture. The whole point of the cross was for God to
share all that humanity has to endure.
Jesus wanted to know the full depth of pain; showing what it costs God
to share humanity and for God to show the limitlessness of divine love.
Pastor Adam also
reminds us of the genius in the gospel writer John's identification of the
branch holding the sponge of wine as "hyssop". The branch is mentioned in Mark and Matthew as
a “reed” but only identified with its botanical name in John. That is not by accident.
The gospel writer
John places the story of Jesus’ ministry in the context of the Hebrew Passover
traditions. Jesus is crucified on
Passover. When Moses instructed the
children of Israel to prepare themselves for their exodus from slavery in Egypt
they were to wipe the blood of the lamb consumed in their final meal in bondage
over the doorways as a sign for the Angel of Death to “pass over”, keeping
their families safe (Exodus 12). This
sign of faith and hope in the One God was done with a branch of
"hyssop".
Today’s verses come
from the gospel writer John who has John the Baptist proclaim to the world, of
Jesus at his baptism, "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of
the world" (John 1:29).
The gospel writer
John wants us to know that the one dying on the cross is the one that will
deliver us from death and slavery, the one that can liberate our fears and take
us to the Promised Land.
On the cross of
Calvary God shares the human condition.
And wherever the innocent suffer, even today, God is there sharing the
same.
“Imagine No Malaria”
is the United Methodist effort with a number of other institutions to wipe out
malaria in the tropical world, especially Sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is found in a blood parasite, often collecting
in the kidneys. When a person,
especially a child is malnourished or drinks unsanitary water, they don’t have
the ability to fight infections such as malaria. I’ve had malaria twice and to this over-fed,
adult North American it was a serious nuisance but not a threat to life. “Imagine No Malaria” provides low cost
mosquito nets, community education and organizes community projects draining
standing water and teaching water hygiene in the tropical world. When we contribute to our Conference goal of
raising $2 million for “Imagine No Malaria” we are responding as Christians to
the thirst of the world.
Jesus’ death on the
cross reveals the powers of the world for the false gods that they are; nothing
more than broken promises. Caesar
imposed PAX Romana on the known world by the brutal force of his legions,
convinced that Roman culture, government and science would redeem primitive and
chaotic societies. Extending the
borders of the empire also insured Rome security; better to be fighting one’s
enemies on their own territory than at home [a strategy still in place today.]
That this arrogant
imperialism brought profit and power to Rome was so much the better.
But the world would
not be redeemed by empire building; nor by those invested in its status
quo. Remember it was the religious that
put Jesus on the cross. It was the law,
not lawlessness that ordered his execution.
The apparatus of a corrupt society arranged for this murder and the
pious blessed it.
By their violence
against an innocent man those in power…political and social, economic and
religious…exposed themselves. Their
interest was not the common good but the preservation of their own prestige and
wealth.
This Messiah’s battle
will not be waged with a sword but with compassion and humility. He will defeat Rome and the Sanhedrin with
his capacity to suffer. He will redeem
the human heart with his capacity to suffer and to serve.
On the cross and in
the empty tomb, Jesus will expose death for the illusion that it is; not the
end of life but the transition to the next.
Although Jesus shows
us the depths to which God will share the human condition with us as he dies
saying, “I thirst…” the cries of a victim of persecution are not how Psalm 69
ends. Rather it concludes with the
hope of redemption and the restoration of Israel:
I will praise the
name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
Let the oppressed see
it and be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive. For the Lord hears the needy and does not
despise his own that are in bonds. For
God will save Zion…”
A
God whose nature is so completely love that in his humanity he says, "I
thirst" and in his divinity proclaims, "Come to me all who are thirsty and
drink, I will give you rivers of living water" (John 7:37-38).
Stay
thirsty my friends!
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment