What did Jesus mean when he said I thirst?

"After this Jesus, knowing that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be accomplished, saith, I thirst. (Ps. 69:21.) A vessel (therefore) was standing there full of vinegar; and they, having filled a sponge with vinegar and put hyssop round (it), put (it) up to His mouth. When, therefore, Jesus received the vinegar, He said, It is finished, and, bowing His head, delivered up His spirit." It is not only that in human tenderness He provides for all left behind in that supreme moment, but He thinks of Scripture in spirit or in terms not yet fulfilled. No doubt there is the distressing physical effect expressed of all that mind and heart and body had endured till then; but His last request is here bound up, not with His want only, but with His undying zeal for the word if only a single thing lacked to make it honourable. Every word that proceeds through God's mouth must be fulfilled; and had He not said of Messiah, "My tongue cleaveth to my jaws," and "In My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink"? Then, having drunk, the Saviour says, "It is finished," with a Divine calm as perfect here as His expression is given elsewhere of His unfathomable suffering.

We find now the divine end reached, and as it only could be, by the divine way; the Lord Himself here declares the perfect accomplishment of all that Scripture has foretold, save one thing only, and in death, as in life, Scripture is for Him the authoritative word of the living God. As in the temptation He had refused to minister to His own need, apart from that by every word of which, He declared, man lives, so now, on the same principle, He makes known that need, not that it might be ministered to, but that Scripture might be fulfilled. He does not Himself fulfil it; God can be trusted to take care for that; but He gives utterance to the distress which will as uttered occasion the fulfilment. The terrible thirst of crucifixion is upon Him; but that is not enough to force the parched lips to speech; but it is written, "In My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink:" this opens them. He will show Himself, as ever, in active obedience to the will of God, which He came to accomplish. He simply says, "I thirst:" and by the unsympathetic hands of those around His cross, the vinegar is tendered, and the prophecy fulfilled.

All is finished: and His own lips declare it. The very smallness, apparently, of this last matter cared for is absolute proof that no scripture whatever could be left as of no importance. The entire body of Old Testament prophecy is confirmed and certified with all the weight of Christ's authority. He had said before, "Scripture cannot be broken:" and we know exactly what for Him was "Scripture." Here, amid the intense sufferings of the cross, we see how completely He owned and was guided by it. That will of God which He came to do was here marked out for Him. The Law was in His heart; and in the very replacing of the Old Testament sacrifices by His one supreme sacrifice, (of which the psalm referred to speaks,) every part of this was honored and upheld. The Antitype necessarily confirmed the type He was displacing, and we have seen this in all the detail given us in the Gospels.

The End. — The Lord had interceded for His murderers (Luke 23:34). He had assured the penitent thief of being with Him that day in Paradise, granting more than the man had asked (43). He had commended His mother to the care of John the son of Zebedee (John 19:26-27). The awful cry, recorded by Matthew (27:46) and by Mark (15:34), had been heard proceeding from His lips. The three hours of darkness were, we presume, now passed. All, too, that He had to suffer at the hands of His creatures, short of actual death, He had patiently endured. So writes John: "Jesus, knowing that all things are now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, says, I thirst" (19:28). It is questioned, whether the clause "that the Scripture might be fulfilled" is to be connected with "all things are now finished," or with "I thirst." Many names may be cited for the one and for the other. We would rather connect it with "I thirst." All that the Lord had to suffer of indignity from man and the forsaking of God was over. But a scripture had spoken of giving Him to drink vinegar, or sour wine (Ps. 69:21). Was that to be left unfulfilled? No. So thirsty, the common effect of crucifixion, the Lord said, "I thirst." Really a man, the natural feelings of a man He experienced. And provision had been made to meet such a want. A vessel with the sour wine, the drink of common soldiers, was there. A sponge was at hand, and a stalk of hyssop was in readiness. To His utterance attention was given, and one of the soldiers proceeded to administer to the want. Just when crucified He had been offered wine mingled with myrrh to deaden the pain. He refused that. Then Luke informs us (23:36), that the soldiers in mockery offered Him of their sour wine to drink. But now it was not in mockery, but to relieve His thirst, that one ran, we elsewhere read, dipped the sponge in the wine, and gave Him to drink. He received it, and said, "It is finished." No Scripture now remained unfulfilled of all that had been written of Him ere He should die; hence His word, but one word in the Greek, "It is finished." And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit.

We have a most beautiful illustration of our Lord's jealous care for the fulfilment of the very smallest statement of Scripture at the close of His life. He is hanging upon the cross. Competent authorities tell us that death by crucifixion was not only excruciating, but that intense thirst was one of its most painful features. Without doubt, our Lord had this thirst in all its intensity, for He had refused any stupefying draught. He says, "I thirst" — just what any sufferer in a similar position would have said; but why does He say it? Was it to relieve His own sufferings? "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst" (John 19:28). In the 69th Psalm, the Spirit of God had prophetically declared for Him: "In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink" (verse 21). Everything had been accomplished — His betrayal, trial, rejection by His own people, His disciples scattered, the mocking of the Gentiles, the scorn and railing — He is about to yield up His Spirit to His Father; but one small prediction remained, and for that reason He permits His intense suffering to be known. Blessed Jesus! "That the Scriptures might be fulfilled."

In verse 28 we get another of those flashes of omniscience which characterize this Gospel. A few verses earlier we saw the soldiers fulfilling Scripture, though utterly unconscious that they were doing so. We now see Jesus Himself in that dark hour surveying the whole field of prophecy, and well aware that of all the predictions centring on His death only one remained to be fulfilled. In Psalm 69 David had written, "In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." A small thing in itself, but every word of God must be verified in its season, and we are informed that in that hour of suffering He was able to rise above His circumstances and not only discern the one thing lacking but also utter words that at once brought it to pass. No mere man could have done either the one or the other.

We consider Him now in those closing moments. He is reaching the end of His mighty undertaking, and knowing that all things were now accomplished He speaks of His bodily suffering for the first and only time; and this only serves to bring out the perfection of His human nature. He is no stoic boasting indifference to pain, He suffers and He declares it. His strength is dried up like a potsherd and His tongue cleaves to His jaws (Ps. 22) and He says, "I thirst." In this same Gospel He had appealed to a Samaritan woman for water, now His cry is to whosoever will hear it; is that cry more than an expression of need? Is there not in it a final test for His foes? They had shown Him no pity, who had always pitied them, but will they relent at last in answer to that poignant cry? They answer Him with vinegar, the sourest thing the earth can yield, and they fulfil the Scripture which says "They gave Me also gall for My meat and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink" (Ps. 69).

The world still offers Him vinegar, what shall we give Him? Certainly He would not have suffered on the cross of Calvary if He had not thirsted for what we can give Him. Can we withhold from Him the sweet wine of true hearts?

John has nothing to say of the darkness which enshrouded the Cross. Nor do we find here the cry of the forsaken One: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" The Father did not forsake the Son; this was His statement in Chapter 16:32. "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst." It is not so much the awful thirst connected with crucifixion which is viewed here, as it is His perfect obedience to do the Father's will and that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. "He bowed His head and gave up the spirit." In Luke's Gospel we read that He said: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (23:46); John says nothing of Him commending His spirit, for as the Son of God He did not need to commend Himself to the Father. The final word preceding the giving up of His spirit is the majestic "It is finished." In the Greek it is but one word, "tetelestai." Never before and never after was ever spoken one word which contains and means so much. It is the shout of the mighty Victor. And who can measure the depths of this one word!

I think sometimes we forget that the Lord suffered physically, probably as no other could suffer. He never used His Godhead power to alleviate His human suffering, and when He cried, "I thirst," we see the suffering Man, the suffering Man in His perfection expressing the fact that He suffered. Was there any relenting in His foes who heard that cry? That cry of distress? Was there any pity, any mercy in any of them? He tells us in the 69th Psalm, that they gave Him gall for His meat and in His thirst they gave Him vinegar to drink; and that that Scripture might be fulfilled, though they did not know they were fulfilling Scripture, the sponge was pressed to His mouth. There was no pity, no mercy for a suffering Saviour.

After the three hours of darkness, knowing that all was perfectly accomplished, the Lord Jesus said, in fulfillment of scripture, “I thirst.” He who gives the water of eternal life has Himself, in accomplishing the will of God, deeply thirsted. But men gave Him not water, rather vinegar, with the intention of adding bitterness to His sufferings. Previously they had mingled gall with vinegar, but He would not drink, for this was stupefying (Matt. 27:34).

One thing more which, after the manner of our Evangelist, has a character all its own. Twice in this Gospel of the Son of God, our Lord's bodily needs are spoken of; twice He asks that His thirst may be quenched. There is a blessed connection between the two requests. We do not read indeed that lie received the draft of water from the woman of Samaria, but how His soul was refreshed by one brought out of distance and shame into the joy of the gift of God. Thus He could say: "I have meat to eat that ye know not of." It is this thirst, we may be sure, that filled His holy soul more intensely than bodily craving for water upon the cross. He does not ask simply to have His thirst relieved, but that every word of Scripture, the immutable purposes of God as recorded by the Holy Spirit, should be fulfilled to the very last jot. Thus it is that, all other things having been accomplished, this scripture too must be fulfilled. In the deliberateness of divine omniscience and power, our Lord accomplishes in meekness and lowliness every word written. It is after this that those blessed words are uttered: "It is finished" — referring surely to more than the draft of vinegar which He had received.