'The Water of Life' is Thirsty for God!

Good Friday service centred around the seven sayings from the Cross. The saying that struck me with great force was Jesus' words, 'I thirst' recorded in St John's account.

Jesus gives his mother into John's care and following this action it is recorded: And Jesus knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the scripture), 'I thirst'. The ordeal of crucifixion tries every tortured body to this place of thirst. Painful seconds have turned into minutes into hours and the throats of the hanged are dry and without moisture. And like any man, Jesus is thirsty.

We see now the great humility of our Lord who submits himself to great thirst when he is the giver of the Water of Life, the very Water of Life itself!

However, it has also been suggested that our Lord's cry is a thirst for God Himself as in Psalm 63.

O God, thou art my God, I seek thee,

my soul thirsts for thee;
my flesh faints for thee,
as in a dry and weary land where no water is.

If that be so, and it would fit well with St John's style of always saying much more than appears to be being said at face value, it would also remind us of St John's ongoing theme that Jesus is always in step with his Father, always dependent on the Father and always seeking the will of his Father.