John 19:28-29 (ESV)
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished,
said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood
there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held
it to his mouth.
He was thirsty on the cross and he accepted the drink
offered to him. Two drinks were offered to Jesus. One, in Mark 15:23, sour wine
mixed with myrrh to dull the pain which he did not accept. Two, In John
19:28-29 he accepts the other drink which was meant purely to satisfy his
parched throat.
Jesus has been thirsty before. He asked the Samaritan woman
for water. However, he turned his thirst into a conversation about quenching
her spiritual thirst with living waters.
Two reminders for today.
One, Jesus turned his thirst into quenching the spiritual
thirst of the woman. Here too we can, by way of extension, turn his thirst into
quenching the spiritual and emotional longings of people. In Matthew 5:6, he
says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will
be filled.”
When you walk up the stairs of the Mother Teresa ashram in
Kolkata you cannot but notice Jesus hanging on the cross and painted on the
wall beside the crucifix are the words – I Thirst – in bold. It is interesting
to hear Mother Teresa’s explanation, “They serve as a constant reminder of the
purpose of the Missionaries of Charity. They remind us what a Missionary of
Charity is here for: to quench the thirst of Jesus for souls, for love, for
kindness, for compassion, for delicate love.” There are many people out there
to whom Jesus would make a world of a difference.
Two, we would have run to Jesus with something to quench
his thirst on the cross. Today we have the opportunity to go out and meet the
physical needs of people around us. This is not something strange, Jesus talks
about this in Matthew 25:35. He wants us to see him in the sufferings of others
and lend them a helping hand.
Dear Lord, help us to take the rest we have found in You to
restless hearts all around us. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment