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February 7, 2010—Fifth Sunday After Epiphany

Lectionary Texts: Isaiah 6:1-13; Psalm 138; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11

Sermon Text: John 19:28

A Human Expression of Need: “I am Thirsty”

1. Each year when we remember the Crucifixion and celebrate the Resurrection, the human drama surrounding the events of that weekend never ceases to amaze me.

2. William Barclay in his Daily Study Bible Series comments on the main characters during the drama of the Trial of Jesus (Commentary on Luke, pp 275-276)

• Judas the traitor, as the man who abandoned God

• The Jews who arrested Jesus, as the men who were blind to God

• The disciples who for the moment had forgotten God

• And Jesus who remembered God

3. Each year, as Easter approaches, I find myself considering these people in the drama of salvation, and ask myself: If I had been alive and part of the drama where would I find myself?

• A traitor like Judas? Selling Christ because of the influence of Satan in my life?

• Blind and deaf to truth, like the Jewish leaders of the day, because of living a life so wrapped up in wanting my own way--that my ears could no longer hear the truth of God and my eyes could no longer see Him at work?

• Or terrified, like the disciples. Disorganized, running away when circumstances became unmanageable and overwhelming. Would I have forgotten God, leaving Him out of the equation?

• Is it possible I could be like Jesus and remember God?

Today’s Scripture reading is found in John’s Gospel. In some ways it is dramatic, and in some ways John writes in almost a matter of fact way: (John 19:28)

Later, knowing that all was now completed,

and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”

A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it,
put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant,
and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.”

With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am Thirsty”

4. Jesus was no doubt physically thirsty.

• Did you know that water makes up around 70 percent of the human body? The average adult loses around 2.5 liters, that’s 5 half liter bottles of water every day through the normal processes of breathing, sweating and waste removal. If we lose more fluid than usual, this tips the balance towards dehydration. At one end of the scale, mild dehydration may cause someone to feel only a little thirsty. At the other end, severe dehydration can result in death.

5. Knowing everything Jesus had physically experienced up to this point, His thirst was very real.

6. But He was also experiencing Spiritual thirst.

• Was this spiritual thirst tied to the cry: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:33-34).

• Being abandoned by God, our Lord and Savior, was experiencing for the first time what it was like to be without the refreshing source of Living Water, which had been His basis of spiritual hydration throughout His earthly life!

7. When John wrote his Gospel account, he was very intentional about what he included as he told the narrative of the Good News of Salvation through Jesus Christ.

• He chose to write about just Seven Signs (or miracles) that help point the reader in the direction of believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name (John 20:30-31)

• He chose to record just Seven Speeches of Jesus. Each speech had the purpose of helping the reader/hearer believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing the reader and or hearer may have life in His name.

8. One of these speeches occurred in the midst of a conversation Jesus had with a woman who came to draw water for her household from a well outside of the town of Sychar in the country of Samaria.

• The story is found in John’s Gospel, chapter four.

• Perhaps you are familiar with this story, perhaps not.

• It’s one of my favorites, because it has all the drama of stories that deal with “us and them” kinds of issues!

• A good, righteous, and strict Jew never went from Galilee to Jerusalem through the country of Samaria, even though that route was the quickest. Good, devout, strict Jews disliked the Samaritan people so intensely that they avoided their territory as much as possible. (The Gospel According to John, Leon Morris, p. 255)

• John tells us that Jesus “had” to go through Samaria (John 4:4)

• That’s John speak for saying: “Others may want to avoid Samaritans, but Jesus wants you to know that these people matter to God in a big way too!”

9. This particular story was also of interest to John because it highlighted the humanity and divinity of Jesus.

• John points out that Jesus is in physical distress: worn out by the trip, he sat down at the well (John 4:6, TM). (I can still see my Greek Professor in college, Dr. Mayfield, pointing out that the Greek actually indicates ‘he sat thus,’ indicating that the way he sat . . . perhaps slumped, showed His weariness).

• He is thirsty: A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of water?” (John 4:7-8, TM).

10. As a result of this very human expression of need: “Would you give me a drink of water?” comes the most amazing discussion about the properties of living water.

• Of course the woman can only think of what it would be like to have literal water on tap at all times without the need of daily trips out to the well, filling her jar and carrying it back to her household.

• But as the conversation unfolds, Jesus gently reveals to her the kind of water He is offering that will meet her thirst for God!

11. There are parallels between this woman’s encounter with Jesus and the passion narrative as John tells it . (See The New International Commentary on the New Testament, The Gospel According to John, by Leon Morris, p. 255, quoting R.H. Lightfoot).

• in both we read of Jesus’ physical distress (4:6; 19:1ff)

• in both we read of His thirst (John 4:7; 19:38)

• in both accounts there is the note of time: “the sixth hour” (4:7; 19:14)

• in both there is reference made to the completion of His work (4:34; 19:30)

• and then as the story with the woman at the well concludes, Jesus is called “the Savior of the World”

• John is no doubt very deliberatively recalling this story in order to point to the purpose of Jesus coming into the world. The purpose visually seen as the Passion unfolds and bursting forth on Resurrection Sunday!

12. Which brings us back to these words of Jesus, “I am Thirsty”

13. This concept of having a thirst for God is a common Scriptural metaphor, a word picture if you please.

• The Psalmist spoke of his soul being thirsty for the living God (42:1)

• Isaiah told everyone who was thirsty to come to the waters and freely drink (55:1)

• Anyone who had grown up in a Jewish home would have had lots of religious language alluding to this idea of the thirst of the soul that could only be quenched with the living water that was the gift of God (William Barclay’s commentary on John’s Gospel, vol. 1, p. 154)

• My favorite image/word picture is found in Isaiah 12:3-4: “Joyfully you’ll pull up buckets of water from the wells of salvation. And as you do it, you’ll say, ‘Give thanks to God. Call out his name. Ask Him anything! Shout to the nations, tell them what he’s done, spread the news of his great reputation!” (TM)

14. When Jesus said: “I am thirsty”

• He was not only dealing with the reality of His physical dehydration, and all the suffering involved in that

• He was indeed experiencing what you and I experience--a thirst that is a human expression of need:

o Physiologically: absolutely!

o Spiritually: without a doubt

Closing Illustration:

1. As you came into the service today you were given a clear condiment container. Some containers had water in them. Some were empty.

2. This is also “No Excuse Sunday”

• We’ve had fun over the last month thinking about all the excuses we might or might not give when it comes to church attendance

• I’m sure we’ve all thought of a few good excuses

• As I’ve looked at these words of Jesus, “I am Thirsty,”--said from the cross--I find myself compelled to ditch my well thought of excuses and take advantage of the Living Water He so freely offers

• When I think of quenching my thirst, I get an image of drinking clean sparking water

• The water in your container is clean, maybe you’ve been looking at it and thinking how thirsty you are.

• The message today is a reminder that each one of us comes to a point in our life when we say with Jesus: “I am Thirsty”

• Like the Woman at the Well, we are invited to drink the Life Giving Water that Jesus spoke of in John 4:13-14: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

2. Are you spiritually thirsty this morning? Come and drink from the source of Living Water!

Closing Song: All Who Are Thirsty, lyrics by Misty Edwards.
Sources:

NIV The Message Parallel Bible, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2004, 2006.

The Daily Study Bible Series, Revised Edition. The Gospel of John, Volume 1, William Barclay. Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, London, Leiden,
1975.

The Daily Study Bible Series, Revised Edition. The Gospel of Luke, William Barclay. Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, London, Leiden, 1975.

The New International Commentary on the New Testament, F.F. Bruce, General Editor. The Gospel According to John, by Leon Morris. Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1971.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/dehydration1.shtml, BBC Health