I thirst.
John 19:28
Fully God and fully human.
Those are the two most important things to know about Jesus.
From the beginning, he’s been eternally God. Lest we think he came into being at his human birth, John begins his Gospel by reminding us that Jesus was involved in, at, and before Creation! He is eternal.
Nevertheless, in Philippians 2, Paul reminds us of our Savior’s humanity. Jesus “emptied himself” to come in human form. And nowhere is the lowliness of God-become-human more visible than at Jesus’ birth and death.
At his birth, he was born of human mother, amid all the very earthy smells of a barn.
At his death, he sweat great drops of blood fell as he prayed in anguish for this cup to pass.
His skin was torn apart as they didn’t just whip him, but scourged him. (Sharp shards of bone and metal, were tied to the ends of the whip, pulling away chunks of flesh as the whip was applied and drawn back thirty-nine times.)
After the beating, he was too weak to carry his own cross.
And from the cross, he cried, “I thirst.”
Think about it … God emptied himself. He came in human form. He submitted to the conditions of a world broken by our sin. And while he could have called upon legions of angels to rescue him, he made only one request: I thirst.
And the world gave him vinegar and gall to drink.
In Christ’s Love,
a guy who remembers today
another “person’s” final words --
the Wicked Witch of the West
who said in death,
“What a world, what a world”
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