On the surface it seems like such a mundane thing to say, hardly worth recording in Scripture. “I thirst,” Jesus says from the cross. Well, yeah. He’d been beaten severely, savagely. His back was ripped to shreds; blood was streaming from His head, hands, and feet. He had lost a lot of bodily fluid, and was therefore dehydrated. So of course He was physically thirsty. That sort of goes without saying. But Jesus wasn’t talking only about His physical thirst. He was thirsting spiritually for our salvation.
Have you ever been truly parched? This goes way beyond a simple thirst or the thought, “Hmm, a nice cold lemonade sounds good about now.” If you’ve ever experienced intense thirst, you know that it’s all you can think about. Your tongue feels swollen somehow, thick in your mouth. You may even get a headache. You can’t get your mind off of one thought: “Must. Have. Water.” Thoughts of getting that drink consume you until at last you are able to sip that wonderfully quenching liquid. Keep that thought in mind as we look at Jesus’ shortest word from the cross: I thirst.
TruthNotes 