“Seven Last Words: I Thirst”
John 19:28-29

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Lenten Vespers—April 2, 2014

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Our text for this evening’s Lenten meditation is the fifth of the Seven Last Words of Jesus.  In the four words from the cross that we have already meditated on, Jesus demonstrates his dying love. 

In the first word from the cross, Jesus demonstrates his dying love for his enemies, even for those who are putting him to death: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 

In the second word from the cross, Jesus demonstrates his dying love for the condemned criminal hanging on another cross beside him.  A criminal who admits he is being rightly executed for the crimes he has done.  But, in his final hour this criminal comes to faith in the Messiah, who is dying before his very eyes on the cross beside him.  To him Jesus promises eternal life in heaven: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” 

In the third word from the cross, Jesus demonstrates his dying love for his own mother.  Even in the midst of bitter pain and agony, Jesus is concerned about what will happen to her when he is gone.  So he commits her into the care of his closest earthly friend, the Apostle John: “Dear woman, here is your son. . .  and from that time on this disciple took her into his home.” 

In the fourth word from the cross, Jesus demonstrates his dying love for you and me, as he bears all alone the burden of our sins, because of our sins aban—ed and forsaken even by his own heavenly Father: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Tonight we once again journey to Jerusalem, coming to Calvary’s holy mountain to hear uttered from our Savior’s lips the shortest of his Seven Last Words: “Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I thirst.’  A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.”

In the original Greek language of the New Testament, this fifth word from the cross is in fact only one, short word, just four letters long.  In English it is translated into two words: “I thirst.”  In this, the shortest word from the cross, we see the physical pain, the physical suffering, the physical torture, the physical agony our dear Savior endured for our sakes in his body on cross.

In back of our sanctuary is a beautiful painting of the crucifixion, preserved from above the altar in Trinity’s old church.  If you look at this painting up close you can see the nails driven through Jesus’ hands and feet.  He is crowned with a crown of thorns, and above him is the sign posted by Pontius Pilate: “This is the King of the Jews.”  But the most accurate aspect of this painting, also pictured on the front of this evening’s bulletin, is the way Jesus is hanging down low, with his arms stretched upward.  It is this POSITION that actually caused death by crucifixion.  With the arms stretched upward like that is impossible to breathe properly.  This causes fluids to build up in the chest and lungs, resulting in slow death by suffocation. I read now from an article which appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, titled “A Doctor’s View of the Crucifixion.”  This modern doctor explains the medical reasons for Jesus’ death:

“The major effect on the body of crucifixion, beyond the excruciating pain caused by the nails in the hands and feet, was a severe restriction of breathing, primarily breathing out.  With the weight of the body pulling down on the outstretched arms and shoulders, the respiratory muscles located between the ribs would be locked into the breathing in position, thereby making breathing out a difficult feat requiring great strength and effort.

“Although shallow breathing out was possible, this could suffice for only a short while.  Only by elevating the body by pulling up on the hands while at the same time pushing upward with the legs could normal breathing out be accomplished.  However, this would mean supporting the entire weight of the body by the nails pierced through the hands and feet, and it was such painful maneuver that it could be performed only intermittently, and for short periods of time.  In addition, the lifting of the body probably would painfully scrape the previously whipped and wounded back against the rough wood of the cross, causing pain and a resumption of the bleeding.

“With such shallow breathing, carbon dioxide would quickly accumulate in the blood, leading to painful muscle cramps and violent muscle spasms.  The limitation of breathing, combined with the circulatory shock that was probably present, caused fluid to quickly accumulate in the lungs and in the sac surrounding the heart.  This would further worsen breathing and hasten death.  Death on the cross usually resulted from suffocation, shock, and exhaustion as a direct result of the victim’s attempts to breathe.  Other contributing factors would include dehydration, water on the lungs, and congestive heart failure.”

As the doctor mentions, one of the contributing factors to death by crucifixion is dehydration.  The victim becomes extremely thirsty because of a high fever, intense perspiration, and the loss of blood.  We witness Jesus’ dehydration, just one aspect of the physical torture he was suffering, in the shortest word from the cross: “I thirst.”

Just a few hours earlier, Jesus had been praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He told his disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”  And he prayed to his heavenly Father, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.  Yet not my will but yours be done.”  Jesus knows the terrible physical suffering and pain that lays ahead for him later that night and the next day, Good Friday.  He knows it will be like drinking a bitter cup of poison.  When Jesus prays to his heavenly Father, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me,” he is saying, “If there is any other way, Father, let me not suffer this terrible physical torment.”

But, Jesus willingly offers himself up as a sacrificial victim when he concludes, “Yet not my will but yours be done.”  He gave himself and shed his blood to pay for our sins, and not only ours, but also for the sins of the whole world.  As one of our hymns puts it, “Offered was he for greatest and for least, himself the victim and himself the priest.”  God’s plan of salvation could not be fulfilled any other way.  The bitter cup of physical suffering on the cross could not pass from Jesus onto someone else.  Only he could suffer and die in our place, for our sins, because only he is both God and man.

As true God, Jesus was perfect, holy, without sin, and therefore worthy to offer himself as a sacrifice for our sins.  As true man, Jesus was physically a real human, in every way just like we are except without sin, so that as true man Jesus could, in our place, truly suffer in his body the painful, physical punishment our sins deserved, and spill from his veins his holy, precious blood to cleanse us from every sin.

Yesterday was April Fool’s Day.  Some people think that Jesus was just fooling when he claimed to be truly God, holy, perfect, without sin, the Second Person of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Instead he was really only an amazing man who pretended to be God.  Other people think that Jesus was just fooling when he claimed to be truly a man: born of the Virgin Mary, with a real human body in which he physically suffered and died.  Instead he was really only God, who pretended to be a man, only giving people the illusion that he had a real human body.  But, Jesus wasn’t fooling.  He is true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary.  He is the only God-man; as true God, perfect and holy, worthy to offer himself as a sacrifice for our sin; and as true man, able to physically suffer for us the pains and penalties of our sin in his real human body.

“Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.”  But, it was not possible to fulfill God’s plan of salvation any other way.  Only Jesus Christ, the God-man, could save us from the punishment of eternal suffering and death by his suffering and death on the cross.  As the hymn says, “There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin; he only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in.” 

“Yet not my will but yours be done.”  Jesus willingly drank the bitter cup of suffering and woe for your salvation.  And when from the cross he cried out, “I thirst,” he drank a bitter cup of cheap wine turned sour into vinegar.  This was not a deliberate insult by the soldiers.  That was the same cheap wine the soldiers themselves drank and got as a part of their daily ration.

But, even though being given that cheap wine to drink was not a deliberate insult, it too was part of our Savior’s suffering for our sakes.  After all, he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  By right, he deserved to be in a fine palace, sitting on a grand throne, wearing a golden crown, and drinking only the best wine.  But, as Paul says in Philippians, for our sakes “he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on the cross!”  Instead of living it up in a fine palace, he died at the Place of the Skull.  Instead of a grand throne, he hung on a cross.  Instead of a golden crown, he wore a crown of thorns.  And instead of the finest wine, his final drink was cheap, sour wine, spoiled into bitter vinegar.  That was all part of the bitter cup of suffering that he willingly drank for your salvation.

And it was all in fulfillment of the ancient prophecy of Scripture.  A few moments ago we read from Psalm 69, just one of the many psalms which prophesy our Lord’s passion in exact detail.  Psalm 69 says: “I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. . .  They gave me vinegar for my thirst.”  Psalm 22 says, “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.”  It was these prophesies that John is referring to in our text, prophesies that Jesus fulfilled in the shortest word from the cross: “Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I thirst.’”

The shortest word from the cross shows that our Savior is not only true God, he is also true man, who suffered for our sins in his body on the cross.  As Hebrews says, “We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ. . .  He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.”