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After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.”  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.

John 19:28-29 (NRSV)

Surely the execrable suffering that Jesus experienced from the Garden of Gethsemane to the cross would explain his thirst.  Why then would Jesus refuse an earlier offer for something to drink (Mark 15:23, Mt. 27:34) only to declare “I am thirsty” and accept a drink of wine vinegar from a hyssop branch moments before his death?

While the physical reality and excess of Jesus’ suffering would explain an obvious rationale for this, the reader of John might note each time the word ‘thirst’ is used throughout the book it refers to a spiritual thirst.  Is this verse any different?

In the words of Jesus fifth statement from the cross, is it possible that Jesus himself was experiencing a deep, spiritual longing for God?  It was after all, on the cross, that God had turned his back on his own Son.  Not because God didn’t care or love Jesus, but because he could not look upon the sin of the world which Jesus took upon himself.  In the midst of being forsaken by his Father (Mark 15:34) and being separated from intimate fellowship with God, did Jesus acknowledged his own spiritual thirst and desire?  In one sweeping motion he takes every sin ever committed in the past, present and future, and in the utter darkness of that moment finds himself alienated from God.

While we can never understand what Jesus must have experience, and because of that we never will, many do know the feeling of hopelessness and abandonment.  During difficult and painful times in our life it is common to feel lonely and abandoned.  We long for something, someone to come and be with us.  Jesus came to be with us (John 1:14) and having removed the sting of death from us invites us to experience refreshment through Him, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” (John 7:37)

Captain Deana Zelinsky