Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The Lord Jesus Christ thirsted on the Cross that we might never thirst again.
Friday, April 2, 2004
The fifth statement on the cross can be identified by the word suffering and the importance of the fulfillment of scripture, JOH 19:28.
PSA 69:21 They also gave me gall for my food, And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Notice our Lord’s extreme self-control under the most horrifying circumstances.
Before His abuse by the hands of man, He had sweat drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane the night before because of spiritual and demonic pressure, LUK 22:44.
He truly had that PHI 4:7 mental attitude, that spiritual peace and prosperity from the source of the God, which surpasses or rises above and beyond all comprehension,
This act recorded in JOH 19:28 must be carefully distinguished from the one mentioned in MAT 27:34, being the same one found in MAT 27:48.
Gall was a bitter poison to speed up or accelerate the speed of death.
It was for the purpose of deadening pain.
The one who said –
JOH 7:37 “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink”
– was Himself thirsty.
LUK 16:24 The rich man cried out and said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue; for I am in agony in this flame.”
Our sinful tongues would have burned forever had not our Lord’s tongue been tormented with thirst.
The shortest of all statements that our Lord made from the cross is JOH 19:28, “I thirst.”
Dipso – diyw = the only statement in which our Lord referred to His body and His physical suffering.
1. The suffering Son of Man.
2. The obedient servant of God.
3. The love of the Savior of sinners.
1Jo was written to reaffirm once again the fact that Jesus Christ was truly man as well as truly God.
HEB 7:26 holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens.
When our Lord Jesus was on the cross, He felt the depths of suffering, both physical suffering and spiritual suffering.
He refused to drink the wine that was mingled with gall because He did not want His senses to be stupefied in any way.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He died on the cross, was in perfect control of His faculties; He did not seek to escape pain in any way.
LEV 10:8-9 The Lord then spoke to Aaron, saying, “Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting, so that you may not die – it is a perpetual statute throughout your generations”
Jesus Christ is able to empathize completely with us, to identify with our pain and our need and our hurt.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, to become our merciful High Priest, endured that suffering and paid the full price.
Our Lord, the suffering Son of Man, who cried, “I thirst,” has identified Himself with our every need.
The second portrait we see in the words “I thirst” is that of the obedient servant of God.
PSA 69:20 Reproach has broken my heart, and I am so sick.
PSA 69:21 They also gave me gall for my food, And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
JOH 4:34 “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work.”
MIC 5:2 “But as for you, Bethlehem, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.”
MAT 2:15 and was there until the death of Herod, that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, “Out of Egypt did I call My Son.”
MAT 2:23 and came and resided in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
PHI 2:8 In fact, although having being discovered in outward appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of spiritual death, that is the death of the cross.
EPH 6:6 doing the will of God from the heart.
The third portrait – the loving Savior of sinners.
Hell is a place of outer darkness as we have seen in MAT 8:12, our Lord experienced darkness for us.
Hell is described as a place of torment,
LUK 16:28, our Lord was tormented for us.
Hell is a place of unspeakable misery indicated by MAT 25:41, our Lord went through that for us.
LUK 16:23 And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom.
LUK 16:24 And he cried out and said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue; for I am in agony in this flame.”
The cup of charity – they offered Him wine mingled with myrrh, an opium to deaden His pain, but He rejected it,MAR 15:23.
The cup of mockery – the soldiers offered Him sour wine –
LUK 23:36 And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine,
The cup of sympathy –
somebody put some vinegar on a sponge and lifted it to His dry lips, JOH 19:29.
The greatest cup of all was the cup of iniquity.
He said in the Garden, “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink of it?” JOH 18:11.
Joh 2 – our Lord turned water into wine. They ran out of wine, because everything the world has eventually runs out.
Joh 4 – Jesus said to that woman at the well, “If you drink of this water, you’ll thirst again; if you drink of the water that I’m going to give you, you’ll never thirst again,” JOH 4:13-14.
At the Feast of Tabernacles, our Lord cried out, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink,” JOH 7:37.
The question today is not, “Do you thirst?” because all mankind has a thirst for reality, a thirst for God, a thirst for forgiveness.
The real question is “How long are you going to thirst?”