Call to Worship: Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts, let him return to God.
Responsive Reading: Pg. 588
The 22nd Sunday Second Reading "Trusting in God"
Presentation of Tithes and Offerings
Reading of Scripture--John 19:25-29
Closing Hymn No 144--Beneath the cross of Jesus
Sermon: The fifth word--The word of suffering--John 19:28 "Jesus said I thirst."
When we speak of the seven last words of Jesus from the cross the number seven is accidental for only one of the sayings appears in as many as two Gospels, and no Gospel gives more than three of the last words.
The first word "Father forgive them for they know not what they do", is found in Like 23:34. It was spoken early during the crucifixion, perhaps while Jesus prone on the ground, His hands being nailed to the cross.
The second word "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise", is also found in Luke chapter 23, verse 43. This word was spoken directly to one of the felons who was being crucified with Jesus on a cross, the one who had said in repentance, "Remember me when you come into kingly power." If Jesus is speaking of the immortality of the soul apart from the body in this instance then it is the first and only time he spoke of the soul thusly.
The third word "Woman behold thy Son," and to the disciple he loved, "behold thy mother". This word is found in John 19:26-27. It is very noticeable that Jesus never referred to his mother by name, but in commending her to the care of the disciple whom he loved Jesus refers to Mary as "woman."
The fourth word is found in Matthew 27:46 and in Mark 15:34. When Jesus is reported to have cried out "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me". These words are a quotation from Ps. 22:1, this psalm describes the agony of a man innocent of sin. This thought of innocence would naturally be in Jesus mind as he was dying there on the cross.
The theological implications of this statement presents a difficult problem. T.R. Glover in his book, The Jesus History has finely observed that there never was an utterance that reveals more amazingly the distance between actual feeling and fact. Jesus felt the horror of sin so deeply that for a short space of time the closeness of his communion with the Father was obscured.
In the first three words from the cross we have pictured before us Jesus, the Son of God, being crucified, Jesus who is innocent of any sin, showing concern for those about him. First in a general act of forgiveness, "Father forgive them they know not what they do." Concern for the penitant dying thief, Concern for the welfare and care of his mother.
The Fifth word found in John 19:28 is the word we are going to think about together this evening. The word of Suffering. "I Thirst."
This saying of Jesus may conflict with Luke 22:18 where Jesus vows to "Drink nothing until the kingdom comes".
It was characteristic of our Lord that only after he had arranged matters for his mother could a thought of his own desperate needs find entrance to his mind. That was his nature. Always he was thinking about others, and always in his own life he came last. This is the essence of Christlikeness, this is what Christianity is all about. If we are ever to be Christlike we will also have to aquire a like attitude of mind.
Each of us today--, think too much about "self". We work for self, we save for self. If we could push this self out of place it has usurped in human minds, and take other people and not self as the center around which our life turns. If we would think of them, work for them, spend ourself for them, would not most of the problems that perplex the world today be solved. Jesus has shown us the way that this is to be done, and it is he who gives us the power, if we choose, to do it.
At the same time, this saying of our Lord, "I Thirst", makes plain that the body has it's rights. However Christ teaches that these needs of the body must be restrained, and subordinated and held firmly in check. None the less in their own place and in due season they are legitimate.
"I Thirst", he cried, and thereby asked for some relief from his suffering. It is truly a moving cry to come from someone who claimed, "He who believes in me shall never thirst", but that the living water which he shall give will be a perpetual ever flowing fountain that can never run dry.
That living water he does give. But to secure it for us he himself had to pass through a dry and thirsty land.
When Jesus cried out "I Thirst", one of the soldiers put a sponge upon a reed and dipping it in vinegar or sour wine placed it to the parched lips of Jesus. Apparently such wine was supplied for the use of the crucified to help them bear their agony. The soldier then was kind to Jesus Christ the Son of God when he was dying on the cross.
Each of us if we would think about it would covet to have this chance to be of service in this way to our Lord, but really we don't need to envy this soldier his act of kindness. For so touched is Jesus with the needs of his people that he accounts anything done to aid the most insignificant of them as done unto him, and feels the same gratitude to those who so help as he does to all eternity to that rough soldier.
For he has said-----"In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethern ye have done it unto me."
Nottingham 1967
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