[Machine transcription]
Central Texas we we really know about thirst especially in summer if you’re
outside working or exercising it’s thirst that makes your lips and throat
so dry thirst that makes you crave relief thirst that it seems like no amount of
Ice tea or Gatorade or even water can quench
So we we can kind of relate to Jesus’s words from the cross tonight. I
thirst
words of
Suffering out of the seven words of Jesus from the cross. This one is is negative
So far we’ve heard words of pardon words of promise words of compassion and faithfulness
but I thirst shows genuine human suffering because it comes from one of
our five human senses so we can relate to that we we also get thirsty and we
even experience suffering in it when that thirst isn’t quenched for a for
some time, Jesus thirsts. How ironic that is because Jesus once helped quench the
thirst at a wedding that had run out of wine and he promised living water to a
Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. Water he said that one can drink and never again
be thirsty and Jesus said in his teachings if anyone thirsts let him come
to me and drink whoever believes in me as the scripture says out of his heart
will flow rivers of living water so how ironic it is that the one who is living
water he suffers thirst but for Jesus I thirst is a word of suffering that is
met with relief well sorta as it says in the reading he was given sour wine to
drink basically that was wine back then that had over fermented it was the usual
drink of Roman soldiers because it was common and really cheap and it was handy
to give it to Jesus because that’s probably all that they had. So really
this isn’t a cruel act on their part. Again this is probably all they had and
they could have just sat there and laughed at him and watched him die and
just pass past the bottle among themselves but you know that would have
and cruel but they gave some to him maybe out of pity and as Roman soldiers
go these guys there they’re they’re probably somewhat failures on their own
otherwise they wouldn’t have been on crucifixion duty that day but there they
were executing a seemingly failed Jewish Messiah who is now suffering a terrible
death perhaps there’s some pity in these soldiers hearts come on give this
guy a drink before he dies, it means the least we can do for him. So they hoist
up some of this wine on a sponge and put it to his thirsting, suffering,
dying lips. But Jesus’s thirst doesn’t come just from working or exercising on
a hot Texas summer day. It’s much more than that. Jesus has been in mental and
physical anguish for hours. Over about the past 12 hours he’s been betrayed,
arrested, falsely accused, and unfairly tried. He’s been tortured, beaten, whipped,
and spit on. He’s had to carry his cross through the city streets. He got nailed
to it and now he’s hanging on it there. I guess we could say that Jesus was hung
out to dry, and dry he is. But Jesus’s thirst isn’t only from human physical
suffering, Jesus is suffering thirst because of our sins. The suffering and
pain caused by our sins are all piled on him on that cross there, causing more
than just physical and mental anguish, this is deep suffering that he is
enduring and causing him to thirst. And Jesus suffers because on the cross he’s
literally embodying all of human suffering, bearing in his own wounded
flesh the suffering and sickness of all of humanity including yours every sin
that you’ve committed or are going to commit Jesus is suffering on the cross
for them so he says I thirst yeah no kidding this is more than just physical
thirst, this is spiritual thirst that he’s suffering. And besides physical
thirst, we humans, we can also suffer spiritual thirst in a way because we
live in the heat and the dryness of sin. Other people’s sins against us and our
sin against others. In the heat of life, our actions, our words, our thoughts can
cause ourselves and others to suffer. Our words, our actions, our thoughts can leave
others hanging out to dry. And those people that we sin against, those people
we hurt, they may cry out, I thirst, craving relief and quenching from this
suffering that we cause them and we may even just ignore them, ignore their
suffering, ignore their pain and their thirst, not even offering
them some sort of cheap wine for it. But our actions and our words can also cause
our own souls to thirst. Sins that we do that make us dry, craving forgiveness.
like David says in Psalm 63 he says you God are my God I earnestly seek you I
thirst for you my whole being longs for you in our sin things that we do that
hurt other people things that we say that hurt them things that we do we know
are wrong maybe even terrible things that we do can cause us to thirst and
We crave forgiveness and we want relief.
We don’t want some sort of cheap wine.
We want something that’s really going to quench
the thirst of our sin, and there is relief.
There is quenching.
In fact, that’s why Jesus is even on the cross
to bring that relief and quenching to you.
He is suffering and thirsting on the cross to relieve your suffering and your thirst
because of your sins.
On the cross, Jesus is thirsty for your forgiveness, wanting to give it to you and for you by faith
to receive it and be relieved and quenched of your sins.
on the cross Jesus is saying to us blessed are you who hunger and thirst
for righteousness for you will be satisfied and it’s there at the cross
is where it’s satisfied his thirst is our satisfaction our quenching our
relief of the thirst of our sin his thirst and suffering quench our lips
who are that are just too dry to praise God and our throats are too dry to
confess faith in Him. Jesus’ suffering quenches the dryness of our sinful souls
and brings living water to them. It’s from the cross that Jesus fulfills His
words that I read earlier. He said, if anyone thirsts, let them come to me and
and drink whoever believes in me out of the heart will flow rivers of living water he says
from the cross jesus says come to me come to the cross here is where i speak words of life
to you words of life even out of my suffering and my thirsting and my dying he says on the cross i
don’t ignore your thirst he says that’s why I’m here to relieve and quench the
thirst of your sin and Jesus continues to not ignore our sin our thirst he
continues to give that relief in quenching in a very real way in in the
Lord’s Supper where we receive not cheap wine it’s more than that in that but in
that bread in that wine is Christ’s very body and blood the very thing that
suffered and died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins so blessed are
you when you thirst because of your sins blessed because your thirst can be
quenched if you’re thirsting and dry and and spent from your sins and wanting
that relief, that quenching of forgiveness. Jesus freely gives it. That’s why He was
on the cross. Yes, there is relief. He’s speaking from the cross, words of life, words
of quenching of your thirst. Yeah, there is relief for the thirst of your sin. It’s not
from Gatorade or iced tea. Maybe we could call it Christ tea instead or Saviour
Aid. That’s a bit of a joke folks, okay. No, it’s water, it’s living water
that Jesus promises and gives to quench the thirst of our sin. Come to the cross
where there is that living water, that forgiveness, where there are words of
life that quench your spiritual thirst. Amen.
