A Word that Displays Human Frailty

“After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!””—John 19:28

What follows from those who stood by, presumably soldiers, is not an attempt to really quench Jesus’ thirst but rather an effort to mock Him even more. The point is not their mockery, but that Jesus on the cross displays human frailty, as He had many times in His earthly life. Here we see it more poignantly than at any other time, as He suffers beyond description. He had come in fact, to break the curse that causes human frailty, namely sin.  

Here is the Creator of the universe: the One who commanded the molecules of hydrogen and oxygen to coalesce to form water; the One who changed the water into wine; the One who walked on water; He here thirsts for a sip of water, but relinquishes the power He has to slake His own thirst.

On the cross, Jesus had no one who could or would show him compassion on humanitarian grounds. None would ease his pain by giving him a drink. But He did say “whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.” Human frailty and need is all around us. But more importantly, spiritual thirst is all around us. It is Jesus who promised that if we are thirsty, He would give us spiritual water to drink—referring to the Holy Spirit—which when we drink, we will never thirst again. He dies here parched with physical thirst, to pray the price to satisfy our spiritual thirst eternally.

Kenny Damara