Mike Schmid - April 7, 2019
A God Who Thirsts
Thirst, like hunger, is primal. Throughout John’s Gospel, the evangelist has crafted a commercial of sorts for a new water, a better water than that which only slakes a temporary thirst. He has been cultivating a desire for living water. John was baptizing in the water of the Jordan. Water and the Spirit, Jesus told Nicodemus, are the means of being born again. He made two- to three-hundred gallons of water into the finest vintage wine. I will give you living water, Jesus promised the woman at the well. Jesus walked on the water of a stormy Sea of Galilee. He healed a blind man by spitting and making a poultice of mud to smear in his eyes. He washed His disciples’ feet with a bowl of water. And the soldier with a spear would confirm that Jesus was in fact dead, by unleashing the river of blood and water from His side. Just before that, the One who is Himself living water, says, “I thirst.” What could be more human than thirsting? His lips are dry, His tongue sticking to the roof of His mouth. Only man can thirst. Only God can fulfill the prophecy. He thirsts not for Himself but for the salvation of all men. As He is dried up, He is becoming the draft of forgiveness for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
From Series: "Behold the Man"
Pilate’s command to the crowd at Jesus’ crucifixion speaks an incredible truth—Jesus was indeed man. More specifically, He was God and man, an eternal being inhabiting a human body. Jesus had a body. He had a nose. Knees. Toes. Bones. Fingerprints. He hungered, prayed, and bled. He had a mother, He drank wine, He was baptized. This Lenten season, behold the man—the man who suffered, died, and rose again. The man who lived a perfect life and defeated death. The man whose death led to your life.