Saint Philip’s “Good Friday Sermon”

March 21, 2008

“I Thirst”
by the Reverend Raymond J. Howe 

          Of the traditional “Seven Last Words” that Jesus speaks from the Cross, the only one which is concerned with his own pain and suffering involves words that we just heard in St. John's Passion Narrative ...  I THIRST.  The words, I THIRST refer at least in part to the physical longing for something to drink which one experiences during crucifixion.  When our Lord actually uttered these words, he probably was thinking about his need and desire for something to drink.  Yet in both biblical language and in common every-day English, thirst may have a wider and more inclusive meaning.    This evening I shall ask you to think with me for a few moments about our Lord and his thirst. 

          On that fateful Good Friday that our Lord died on the cross, he was probably in his early thirties.  His death came in the prime of his life ... in his very best years.  There is little doubt that our Lord was robust and hearty.  His type of ministry in that hilly and somewhat barren land indicates that he would hardly have been weak or unhealthy. 

          He had a thirst for life; he loved people; he loved life.  He loved the little children and wanted them to come to him.  He came that others might have life and have it more abundantly, more fully.  And he spoke not only of some life in the dim dark future after death ... he meant now as well.  He loved life.  He was not in any sense anxiously looking forward to the crucifixion. 

          Remember how on that last Thursday evening after the Last Supper, he went to the Mount of Olives to pray.  He prayed long and hard.  So earnestly did he pray in fact that his sweat became like great drops of blood, falling down on the ground.  And we know at least a part of what his prayer was, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me”.  This request did not mean, however, anywhere near as much as God's will meant to him, and so he adds, “nevertheless, not my will but yours be done”.   As much as he thirsted for life, he thirsted more ... much more for the will of God.  He proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt within 24 hours by allowing himself to be crucified. 

          The second thirst which I shall ask you to consider is the thirst which our Lord felt for something to drink ... something to quench his physical thirst.  Sometimes we tend to forget that although Jesus was divine, the Son of God, he was also 100% a human being, and he experienced pain and temptation just as you and I do.  The mental and physical torture which he endured on the cross surely was as great or greater than that which anyone else might have endured.

          One of the most terrifying aspects (in fact, in the eyes of many authorities, the most agonizing climax to crucifixion) is the extreme thirst that the victim suffers.  The combination of the sun's fearsome heat and the loss of a great deal of blood causes an almost unbearable thirst.  It would appear from the Gospel account accounts that Jesus was offerered two drinks.  The first was a wine mixed with a bitter drug.  He refused it, although it was almost certainly a gift mercifully given. 

          It was the custom of Jewish women to offer this special drink which contained something much like morphine, to a person about to be crucified.  It would deaden a part of the excruciating pain.  Jesus refused this drink because he wished to experience fully the horrors of dying on a cross.  He suffered and died for your sins and mine without the benefits of the drugged wine which could deaden his pain.  It was not until later, shortly before his death that he does say “I THIRST”, and accepts a drink of apparently undrugged wine or vinegar before he gives up the ghost. 

          The third thirst was a thirst for justice, tempered with mercy which is meant to exist in all human relationships.  He well knew how God deals justly and mercifully with each individual person and with humanity as a whole.  Because of the first requirement (justice), human sinfulness had to be dealt with; it could not be forgotten, neglected or winked at.  It had to be paid for.  Last Sunday's sermon spoke of this in terms of the saying

Never forget God's judgment

Never presume God's mercy

Always remember God's love

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          And it was from the gracious love and mercy of God ... that God became human and took the burden of sin upon himself.  It was this kind of  justice and mercy that our Lord thirsted for, and demanded of those who would follow him.  And his demands were harsh.  He did not merely say to give it the old college try; he said “be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect”.  He said to stand ready to give up your life for his sake and the Gospel. 

          In the Sermon on the Mount, in the fourth beatitude Jesus uses the word thirst to express the proper relationship to righteousness that one should feel.  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”  And the hunger and thirst of which he speaks are the kind of thirst that he experiences upon the cross. 

          In the same way that the truly thirsty person can hardly help but make quenching his thirst the most important thing in his life; the follower of Christ is meant to have this same kind of thirst for righteousness ... for justice tempered with mercy that makes it the number one priority in life.  Jesus thirsted for this himself, and thirsts for it for all humanity. 

          The fourth and final thirst which we shall consider at this time is the thirst which Christ had for our souls.  In many ways this was his greatest thirst of all.  Throughout his life he was constantly striving to bring people closer to the Father, to make them love each other, and to prepare them for the Kingdom of God.  He thirsted for the souls of the tax collectors like Matthew and Zaccheas, and for sinners like Mary Magdalene and the woman taken in adultery.

          Such things made him unpopular and hastened his death.  Yet the amazing thing is that he thirsted even for the souls of those who caused his death.  As he suffered on the cross he said of them, “Father, forgive them for they don't know what they are doing.”  He wanted all people to find the secret of abundant life, both here and beyond.  He dealt with ordinary, unlearned folk like Peter, James and John.  Yet on the other hand he also thirsted for the souls of men like Nicodemus, a Pharisee and ruler of the Jews, and also for the rich, young ruler. 

          He thirsted for the soul of all with whom he came in contact.  He desired that they come to him and he still does.  We can be fully assured that whoever we may be, Jesus Christ died for our sake ... for our sins ... and that he thirsts for our souls just as he thirsted for souls nearly 20 centuries ago.