The Fifth Saying of Christ: “I Am Thirsty”



We are meditating on the seven last sayings of Christ on the cross. By the time of the fifth statement, Jesus had been on the cross more than five hours, His blood slowly dripping from all the wounds He had received. As death drew near, He spoke for the fifth time:

5) “I am thirsty” (John 19:28).

Getting weak through the pain and loss of blood, Christ’s body was beginning to shut down, and as Psalm 22:15 states, His tongue was sticking to His mouth, a normal process of crucifixion. This statement of Christ was foretold 1000 years previously by King David, who wrote, “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth” (Psalm 22:15). 

Some scholars say that being thirsty, He was beginning to suffer in His body what the rich man experienced in hell upon death (Luke 16:24). Their thought is that due to the sins of the world being laid upon Christ, His body was now beginning to experience what those in Hell experience. The rich man had been thirsty in hell and desired Lazarus to dip his finger into water to cool his tongue (Luke 16:24). 

Jesus had now drunk the cup of God’s judgment on sin to the full (Luke 22:42), so he looked for some relief to be able to shout His next words of victory. John wrote that one of the Roman soldiers brought a sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant:

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 (John 19:29). 

It was the hyssop plant that was raised to His lips, the same plant that was dipped in the blood of a lamb and used to strike the doorposts and lintels during the Passover from Egypt (Exodus 12:22). This time there was no myrrh, no narcotic in the drink; it was sour wine on a sponge held to His mouth.

Why would John mention the hyssop? With John, there was always significance in the little details. When the Israelites were slaves to Pharaoh and Egypt, the means of deliverance was the blood of a pure and perfect lamb whose blood was to be shed and placed in a basin at the bottom of the door. They were then to take a bunch of the hyssop plant and dip it in the blood in the basin and apply the blood to the lintel and both sides of the door forming a cross.

“Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.22Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. 23When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down (Exodus 12:21b-23 Emphasis mine).

When God would see the blood, He Himself would protect the household and not permit the destroying angel to enter the house (Isaiah 31:5). In the same way, the blood of the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31) is applied to our spiritual lives and we now belong to the Lord and are completely delivered from Satan (Pharaoh) and the world (Egypt) through the sacrifice of Christ. 
Lord, I believe. Thank you for the blood of this New Covenant that forgives from all sin. Keith

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