April 2, 2006

Lenten Series – 5

Eight years ago, my wife and I went on an archaeological dig and study tour of Israel.  One of my intense memories of that tour was hiking part of the walk between Jerusalem and Jericho.  That path is a trail through a bleak wilderness canyon.  Nothing grows there.  Not much lives there.  How could it?  There isn’t any water.  And the day we hiked it, it was 115 degrees Fahrenheit.  In the shade.  No, wait a minute.  There wasn’t any shade.

The hike lasted a couple hours.  I have never experienced thirst like that.  I have never wanted water so much.  Water never tasted so good.  We brought plenty along, and drank every sip.  Our first relief was getting to a monastery toward the end of the canyon, where, unfortunately, we had to put long pants on over our sweaty legs to show respect.  But where, fortunately, they had more water to refresh us.  I can’t count how many cups I had there.  By the time Dawn and I had reached the edge of the canyon, we had each drunk well over a gallon of water.  And we were dry and ready for more.

As soon as we landed in Israel, our tour leader gave us a speech about the importance of drinking water.  It is so important for us to stay hydrated.  Did you know that our bodies are roughly 80% fluid?  So what happens if we stop drinking?  We can’t think straight.  Organs shrivel.  We can’t swallow.  Sweat glands can no longer cool our bodies down.  Joints get stiff.  We get tired.  Our head aches.  Painful things happen when our bodies lack water.

Well, blood loss equals fluid loss.  Ever donate blood?  You know how thirsty you get?  Remember how they push fluids on you right after you are done?  Now imagine the blood loss from being crucified.  Doctors say that dehydration was one of the hellish by-products of crucifixion.  Imagine how thirsty Jesus was by 3 o’clock that afternoon.  He was wracked with thirst!  As a human being, He desperately needed a drink!  Our Saviour Needed That Drink.

But He had to drink another cup first.  The cup He was praying about the night before in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” (Mt.26:39).  What was this cup?  Isaiah tells us: “Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger.” (51:17).  This was the cup of suffering Jesus had to go through for us.  The cup of God’s wrath.  Full to the brim with the swill of the world’s sins.

A cup that was filled up by you and me.  We filled this cup on those nights we were out with friends, and by the time we staggered back home, we were filled more by wine than by the Spirit.  We filled this cup when we had opportunities to help people who desperately needed our help, but passed the opportunity by because we had other more “important” things to do.  We filled this cup, when, whether it was because we were sick, or tired, or frustrated by other things, we treated people dear to us with lousy attitudes, harsh words, and cruel deeds.  We filled this cup, when we have been consumed with acquiring more of the world’s goods than we need.  We have filled this cup with our selfishness.  With our laziness.  With our excuses.

We have filled this cup when, like the Pharisees of old, we devoted our weekdays to greed and self-indulgence.  But come Sunday, we cleaned ourselves up, put on our Sunday best going-to-meeting clothes, and put in an appearance at church.  All the time hoping God wouldn’t see what was inside of us.  Sin by sin, drop by drop, we filled that cup of the Lord’s wrath.  So, somebody had to drink it!  Because we filled it, it should have been ours to drink, but it would have taken us an eternity.  We never would have finished it.

That’s why we need Jesus.  The only One who could drink that cup.  The only one whose perfect life could have counted for us.  The only One who could have born all of our sins.  And He did it.  He drank that cup.  Completely, down to the dregs.  He was forsaken by God on the cross.  Separated from Him.  He became cursed in our place.  He suffered hell on earth.  He endured the worst that hell can offer – complete and total separation from his God.

And Jesus finished that cup – to the very last drop.  Our text says, “Later, knowing that all was completed…”  Before Jesus spoke his word of need, He knew that all had been completed.  The cup was gone.  He had paid the price for our sins to his heavenly Father.  His time of separation was over.  The wrath was gone.  Our guilt was gone forever.

And so, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”  He spoke a word of need.  Remember how thirsty someone being crucified must be!  So by this time, Jesus’ thirst was intense.  He really needed that drink!  But when He said, “I am thirsty,” He wasn’t taking an unsanctioned, unscheduled pity break.  Nor was He seeking – in any way – to avoid drinking the full cup of God’s wrath.  You see, that cup had already been drunk.  The suffering for sins in hell had already been completed.  The Apostle John is quite specific in our text: “All was completed.”

So now, it was time to quench his thirst.  Water was thirsty!  Have you ever heard of “water” being thirsty?  Well, it was!  The Water of Life, which Jesus called himself, was thirsty!  You know what that helps us remember?  That it wasn’t just the Son of God on that cross, conquering our sins with his divine power, going unscathed.  It was also the Son of Man.  Jesus was also human.  He was perfect, but He got pretty thirsty, too.  It is helpful for us to remember that God became flesh and lived among us.  As one of us.  Our Saviour knew what it meant to be a crucified carpenter who got thirsty.  It comforts me to see Jesus quench his thirst.

But you know what?  We needed that drink even more than He did!  We needed Jesus to take that drink more than Jesus even needed to take that drink!  That’s right, as thirsty as He was, we were more desperate to have Jesus drink that wine vinegar.  You see, Jesus certainly suffered passively, as He allowed Himself to be burdened with our sins, and then suffer crucifixion and abandonment by God.  That was one part of how Jesus suffered for our sins…

But there was one more sip that Jesus needed to take.  You see, He also needed to actively obey everything God had commanded.  Every last sentence and word of God’s law.  He had to live the perfect life.  He also had to obey every prophecy written about Him.  During his perfect life and innocent death, Jesus fulfilled at least 300 Old Testament prophecies about Him!  300!  There are some major prophecies you probably remember, like that He would be born of a virgin, born in Bethlehem, that He would live in Nazareth, come into Jerusalem as a King on a donkey, be crucified for our sins, and rise again.  These prophecies are all very obvious and would have been noticed if He would have missed fulfilling one.

But who would have noticed if Jesus had not fulfilled the promise of Psalm 69?  “You know how I am scorned, disgraced, and shamed; all my enemies are before you.  Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none.  They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.”  Who would have noticed?  Would you have?  Would I?  Probably not. 

You know who would have?  The Father in heaven would have noticed!  And with that one lapse, that single failure to fulfill one prophecy, Jesus’ perfect record would have been blemished!  And you and I would have been lost.  For God repeatedly made clear what kind of obedience He required to earn heaven.  Perfect obedience.  Complete obedience.  Finished obedience.  Listen to James if you doubt me: “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” (Ja.2:10)

There was a little boy in an orphanage.  His story was not a pretty one.  His parents were abusive, and they were taken away from him.  He had lived alone for so long.  He knew what cold floors and institutions were all about.  He knew about rules.  Rules he wasn’t good at keeping.  And rules that kept other parents from adopting him.  He had been in the office many times.  So many times he had been given hope that maybe this next couple would be able to take him home.  But often when they learned more about him, they pulled out at the last moment.  Or sometimes when a couple had been willing to adopt him, they didn’t qualify according to the standards and rules of the institution.  And so the contract was never fully completed.

And so he remained in the orphanage.  Unloved.  Unwanted.  Without a home.  Without a family.  Until one day, when a loving couple came for him.  They wanted to adopt him into their family.  They wanted to love and take care of him.  They were introduced.  It seemed to be working great.  They seemed to be loving, wonderful!  He was thinking, it’s too good to be true.  So they got to the office.  And the contract was put out onto the table.  And the parents, still smiling, began signing it.  Now look at the boy’s face.  Filled with hope and anticipation.  But also filled with anxiety and concern.  He would not relax until the last t was crossed on that contract.  And then, when it finally was, the father looked up at him and smiled!  The contract was actually and finally completed!    He was now fully a part of this family!  Fear turned to joy!

Like that boy, we earnestly watch Jesus to make sure He spoke those words and took that drink.  We needed that drink Jesus took on the cross even more than Jesus did.  We needed it so that Jesus would finish everything, just as the Father had planned.  Perfectly.  Dotting every i and crossing every t in God’s solemn contract to rescue us!  When Jesus said, “I am thirsty,” He was making sure there would be no exclusionary clause buried in fine print that would take away our salvation.  When Jesus said, “I am thirsty,” He was making sure you and I will never know the excruciating agony that accompanies the never-ending unquenchable thirst of hell.

So when that sponge on the hyssop stalk was lifted to Jesus’ lips, a cup of the water of life was lifted to our lips!  I wonder if He was remembering his thirst and drink on the cross when He gave these words to John in the book of Revelation:  “He said to me: ‘It is done.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.  To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.  He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”  When Jesus said, “I am thirsty,” He was making sure that one day you and I would drink with Him from the river of life in heaven forever!   Amen.

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