Meditation on “I am thirsty”

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Meditation on “I am thirsty”

Service of the Seven Last Words of Christ, San Francisco Theological Seminary, Southern Campus at Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church

Good Friday, March 21, 2008

Jesus is thirsty, really thirsty. He is on a cross baking in the hot dry Judean sun. His ancestors knew something about thirst. After following Moses into the wilderness that too experienced thirst under this same sun. Moses prayed for water and God quenched the thirst of his people from a rock. Where is God now?

Jesus is thirsty, really thirsty. For forty days he wandered in the wilderness without food and water. Jesus was sustained by the Holy Spirit. Where is the Holy Spirit now?

Jesus is thirsty, really thirsty. Jesus told a woman in Samaria that he could give her living water. This water would quench her thirst forever. This was the water of eternal life. Where is the water of eternal life now?

Jesus is thirsty, really thirsty. Jesus proclaimed in the temple that out of the believer’s hearts flow streams of living water. Where are the believers now?

Jesus is thirsty, really thirsty. Jesus said “all who believe in me will never be thirsty.” Where is Jesus now? Jesus is on a cross with his side pierced by a spear and the living waters spilling on the ground. The source of the living water that leads to eternal life is dying and thirsty.

If Jesus had held onto the living water then it would not be available for us. Jesus was like a seed. A seed must fall to the ground and die for new life to sprout from it in abundance. In the same way Jesus had to give up the living water by dying. So that, like a seed, the living water sprouts, springs up, in us giving us eternal life.

So if we die to our old lives and our reborn in the Spirit believing in Christ we will receive this gift of water that was poured out for us by Jesus on the cross. This is the gift of the living water of eternal life. Jesus was thirsty, really thirsty on the cross because he had given away the living waters of eternal life to us. If we drink these waters and believe in Christ we will never be thirsty again.