Good Friday

For the Good Friday service this evening, seven of our pastoral staff spoke on the final seven sayings of Christ. Here is mine on "I am thirsty."

This is the one; the Word of God. By him the waters that covered the earth were contained. Like a parent with a child, he tucked the seas into their beds and then stocked them with life.

This is the one, the master of water. Who, from his sleeping post in the front of the boat said to the rain “be still,” and it listened. The original surfer, who took an evening stroll across the wind swept lake and invited his friend to join him.

This is the one, the rock in the desert from which saving water flowed to the Israelites; a water fountain for an entire people.

This is the one; who honored his mother’s wishes and overcame a wedding reception’s shortfall by changing the chemical properties of water until it was wine. Not just any old wine, but the best wine.

This is the one who sat at a well with Ms. Disgrace in the heat of the desert day and said, “this well water will only make you thirsty again, but I can offer you living water and you will thirst no more.” Thirst no more…really? How does that work? You have no bucket, no spicket, no hose or Evian bottle. No matter…because this is the one. He IS the water. The living water.

We just did a series called Identity about the “I am” statements of Jesus. …I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the gate, I am the good shepherd, I am the resurrection and the life, I am the way the truth and the life. But this one sounds strange in our ears; I…AM…THIRSTY. Now, today, the wellspring of living water says, “I am thirsty.” Here he hangs in utter agony, beaten and bloodied like an animal led to the slaughter. Here he hangs from a tree of shame, he who has no sin bearing all sin; the innocent sufferer of all our suffering. He references the 22nd Psalm, and now it echoes back over him, “I am poured out like water…” The quencher of thirst is emptied of the essence of life. “I am thirsty.”

What a blessing. What beauty this simple statement has for us. I am thirsty. Think I’m crazy? Imagine you are an alcoholic. You fight and you fight but you can’t seem to kick the habit. You promise and you hope, but willpower is not enough. So you finally, reluctantly come to an AA meeting. As you sit down you look up to see the person you admire and respect the most in the entire world. You try to hide, but there is no hiding. He must be here to speak to the group. He must be here to tell us how we ought to be living; how we ought to have more respect for ourselves, how we should have known better. Perhaps he’s just here to spy on us, to know who he wants to avoid in the future. Then amazingly, he approaches the microphone and says those words you knew to expect, but never from him, “Hi, my name is Respectable, and I’m an alcoholic.” Everything changes. He understands. He knows my aches, my deathly desires, my shame, my guilt. He knows me in a way that no sober person could ever know me.

I am thirsty. Everything is different. This Jesus, this Christ, this chosen one doesn’t just know about my sin and suffering, he knows it like no divine-man could have without the cross. He has not been poured out like a broken pot, but like a drink offering. He has intentionally emptied himself to intimately know my condition. Here he hangs, knowing thirst…knowing you…knowing me.

In the last book of the Bible a prophecy says, “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

A lamb shepherd; do you catch the significance of that. The shepherd leads the flock to springs of living water because he is also a lamb who knows what it means to say, “I…am…thirsty.”