As part of Lent and the lead up to the Easter weekend, we’ll take look at some of the Seven Last Words of Christ, and their significance for us today.

“I am thirsty.”

The end of Jesus’s execution on the cross is near, and he makes one last request – but there may me more to it than we first think.  

²⁸ Jesus knew that he had now finished his work. And in order to make the Scriptures come true, he said, “I am thirsty!” ²⁹ A jar of cheap wine was there. Someone then soaked a sponge with the wine and held it up to Jesus’ mouth on the stem of a hyssop plant.

John 19:28-29

There is no doubt that Jesus would have been excruciatingly thirsty. His pain and suffering so great, and his body shutting down, he of course would be craving water. But as we look past that, Jesus is also making us aware of the incredible, history-shaping significance of his death in this moment.

This is the same man, who weeks before had met the woman at the well and spoken these life-giving words: “no one who drinks the water I give will ever be thirsty again. The water I give is like a flowing fountain that gives eternal life.” (John 4:14) Later, at the end of the Festival of Shelters in Jerusalem, as priests carried huge Jars of water through the town, a symbol of God’s presence, Jesus declares “If you are thirsty, come to me and drink! Have faith in me, and you will have life-giving water flowing from deep inside you…” (John 7:37,38).

I think that in this moment, more than simply asking for a drink, Jesus was referring to the depth of sacrifice he was making. This Son of God, who himself was the fountain of life, was rung dry in this moment, the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Soon he would overcome that weight, and his living water would flow again.

Isaac Williams
Assistant Chaplain – Wyvern House