Are you Thirsty? 34 of 40

So, I totally meant to write this one yesterday, but I had some family come and visit and my timetable shifted on me a bit. In other words I completely forgot about my blog yesterday. To that end this will be 1 of 2 today, because I have been planning a blog especially for today, so I will write that one next. This is my, what has become weekly, sermon preview blog. Of course, since I am writing it Sunday afternoon as opposed to Saturday evening my sermon has already been given, so this is a preview/postview I guess, even though postview is not a word.

Today was week three of my Lenten series, Last Words, about some of the final things Jesus said from the cross. This week we were in John 19:28-29, which includes Jesus saying "I am thirsty." There are a few different ways to look at this statement.

First you can look at it the way the author of John does, in other words you could say that Jesus said it to fulfill a piece of scripture. The nearest we can get to a scripture that is fulfilled is Psalm 69:22 which says 'I was thirsty and they gave me vinegar to drink.' The problem is that the overall Psalm has no real prophetic quality to it, so why would this one verse? In addition while the other gospel writers include Jesus being given a drink of wine-vinegar, they show it being given by mocking soldiers, not ones honoring a request.

Another way to look at it, as some scholars do, is to say that Jesus merely needed a bit of liquid for his dry mouth so he could utter his next statement in verse 30, "It is finished." Personally I don't like that view because it gives little meaning to "I am thirsty." I tend to think of each of Jesus' final statements being more meaningful, after all when people are in the midst of dying they rarely utter more than they need to, sometimes it is as simple as one word, say, "rosebud."

Instead I choose to look at this statement in conjunction with another time Jesus asks for a drink in John, namely chapter 4. Here Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at a well, asks her for a drink and proceeds to tell her that there is a water that you can drink and will not make you thirsty again. I tend to think that Jesus, at least in part, is letting us know a similar thing from the cross.

This leads me to ask two questions: 1) are you thirsty? and 2) what are you thirsty for?

Are you thirsty? Are you in a moment of pain, or doubt, or worry, or fear; are you wanting to know what is coming around the next bend? Are you wondering if you’ll find a new job, or where you’re going to be living in a few months, or how you’re going to pay for the next prescription or the next surgery or the next bill, the next whatever? If any of this is true of you then you may be thirsty.

What are you thirsty for? In each moment we have a thirst for something, for money, for a job, for a house, for peace, for healing, for hope, for strength.

The next question we need to then ask is: Do you take it to the Lord? Do you? When things aren't going the way you need them to, do you pray about it? Do you share with God, or just friends, family?

What do you need right now, not want, God’s not in the wants business, but God is in the needs business. And if God supplies the need will it be enough?

Jesus was thirsty and he was given a drink, it might not have been the drink he wanted, but it was still a drink

If we ask for a job, we might get the part-time one instead of the full-time one. If we need a house it might be the apartment instead of the 4 bedroom one with the two car garage and a pool. If we're thirsty we might get a coffee instead of a tall, skinny, non-fat, mocha, loco, latte whatever. AND WILL THAT BE GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU? So often we want the bigger and better and we are given the smaller and simpler and we are ungrateful. But, again, God is in the needs business not the wants business.

Are you open to what God gives, and how God gives, or are you wanting it your way in your time?

Before the cross and the beatings and the trial and the denials and the betrayal, Jesus prayed that the cup would pass, but it did not, so Jesus drank what was given to him and accomplished all that he needed to accomplish, will we do the same?

Peace and Love,

Pastor K