CH Spurgeon on John 19 verses 28–30

Spurgeon on John chapter 19, verses 28–30

Verse 28. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.

Our text is the shortest of all the words of Calvary. It stands as two words in our language—“I thirst,” but in the Greek it is only one. I cannot say that it is short and sweet, for, alas, it was bitterness itself to our Lord Jesus. And yet out of its bitterness I trust there will come great sweetness to us.

Jesus said, “I thirst,” and this is the complaint of a man. Our Lord is the Maker of the ocean and the waters that are above the firmament, it is His hand that stays or opens the bottles of heaven, and sends rain upon the evil and upon the good. “The sea is his, and he made it,” and all fountains and springs are of His digging.

And yet, though He was Lord of all, He had so fully taken upon Himself the form of a servant and was so perfectly made in the likeness of sinful flesh, that He cried with fainting voice, “I thirst.”

How truly man He is. He is, indeed, “bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh,” for He bears our infirmities. Jesus was proved to be really man because He suffered the pains which belong to manhood. Angels cannot suffer thirst. A phantom, as some have called Him, could not suffer in this fashion, but Jesus really suffered, not only the more refined pains of delicate and sensitive minds, but the rougher and common pangs of flesh and blood.

Thirst is a common-place misery, such as may happen to peasants or beggars. Jesus is brother to the poorest and most humble of our race. Our Lord, however, endured thirst to an extreme degree, for it was the thirst of death which was upon Him, and more, it was the thirst of one whose death was not a common one, for “He tasted death for every man.”

How great the love which led Him to such a condescension as this! Do not let us forget the infinite distance between the Lord of glory on His throne and the Crucified dried up with thirst. A river of the water of life, pure as crystal, proceeds today out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, and yet once He condescended to say, “I thirst.” He is Lord of fountains and all deeps, but not a cup of cold water was placed to His lips.

While thus we admire His condescension let our thoughts also turn with delight to His sure sympathy, for if Jesus said, “I thirst,” then He knows all our frailties and woes. The cup of which you are made to drink, though it be very bitter, bears the marks of His lips about its brim. He has traversed the mournful way before you.

The great Surety says, “I thirst,” because He is placed in the sinner’s stead, and He must therefore undergo the penalty of sin for the ungodly. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” points to the anguish of His soul. “I thirst” expresses in part the torture of His body, and they were both needful, because it is written of the God of justice that He is “able to destroy both soul and body in hell,” and the pangs that are due to law are of both kinds, touching both heart and flesh.

See, brethren, where sin begins, and mark that there it ends. It began with the mouth of appetite, when it was sinfully gratified, and it ends when a kindred appetite is graciously denied. Our first parents plucked forbidden fruit, and by eating slew the race. Appetite was the door of sin, and therefore in that point our Lord was put to pain.

Nor is this all. We know from experience that the present effect of sin in every man who indulges in it is thirst of soul. Metaphorically understood, thirst is dissatisfaction, the craving of the mind for something which it has not, but which it pines for. Our Lord says, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink,” that thirst being the result of sin in every ungodly man at this moment.

Now Christ standing in the stead of the ungodly suffers thirst as a type of His enduring the result of sin. More solemn still is the reflection that according to our Lord’s own teaching, thirst will also be the eternal result of sin.

Now recollect, if Jesus had not thirsted, every one of us would have thirsted forever afar off from God, with an impassable gulf between us and heaven. Oh, wondrous substitution of the just for the unjust, of God for man, of the perfect Christ for us guilty, hell-deserving rebels. Let us magnify and bless our Redeemer’s name.

Verse 29. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.

It was a confirmation of the Scripture testimony with regard to man’s natural enmity to God. Did not the prophecies say that man would give to his incarnate God gall to eat and vinegar to drink? It is done. He came to save, and man denied Him hospitality. At first there was no room for Him at the inn, and at the last there was not one cool cup of water for Him to drink. But when He thirsted they gave Him vinegar to drink. This is man’s treatment of His Savior.

Alas, my brethren, I cannot say much on the score of man’s cruelty to our Lord without touching myself and you. Have we not often given Him vinegar to drink? We used to melt when we heard about His sufferings, but we did not turn from our sins. We gave Him our tears and then grieved Him with our sins. We thought sometimes that we loved Him as we heard the story of His death, but we did not change our lives for His sake, nor put our trust in Him, and so we gave Him vinegar to drink.

I cannot think that natural thirst was all He felt. He thirsted for water doubtless, but His soul was thirsty in a higher sense.

“I thirst” meant that His heart was thirsting to save men. This thirst had been on Him from the earliest of His earthly days. He thirsted to pluck us from between the jaws of hell, to pay our redemption price, and set us free from the eternal condemnation which hung over us. And when on the cross the work was almost done His thirst was not assuaged, and could not be till He could say, “It is finished.”

And now, brethren, our blessed Lord has at this time a thirst for communion with each one of you who are His people, not because you can do Him good, but because He can do you good. He thirsts to bless you and to receive your grateful love in return. He thirsts to see you looking with believing eye to His fullness, and holding out your emptiness that He may supply it.

Verse 30. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

I like to think of our Lord’s saying, “It is finished,” directly after He had exclaimed, “I thirst,” because these two voices come so naturally together.

Our glorious Samson had been fighting our foes. Heaps upon heaps He had slain His thousands, and now like Samson He was sore athirst. He sipped of the vinegar and He was refreshed, and no sooner has He thrown off the thirst than He shouted like a conqueror, “It is finished,” and quitted the field, covered with renown.

Let us exult as we see our Substitute going through with His work even to the bitter end. O souls, burdened with sin, rest ye here, and resting live.

Jesus thirsted, then let us thirst in this dry and thirsty land where no water is. Even as the hart panteth after the water brooks, our souls would thirst after Thee, O God.

Beloved, let us thirst for the souls of our fellow men. We ought all to have a longing for conversions. Fix your hearts upon some unsaved one, and thirst until he is saved.

As for yourselves, thirst after perfection. Hunger and thirst after righteousness, for you shall be filled. Hate sin, and heartily loathe it. But thirst to be holy as God is holy, thirst to be like Christ, thirst to bring glory to His sacred name by complete conformity to His will.