“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters…” – Isaiah 55:1
“There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me drink,” (For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to Him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water…everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'” – John 4:7-14
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.‘” – John 7:37, 38
“I thirst” – John 19:28
Have you ever been thirsty? Isn’t it ironic that the Creator of all life, the source of the everlasting living water is thirsty? Yes, Jesus had been thirsty before. Yesterday on our Lenten journey, we talked about how this word from the cross revealed His humanity. The God who created us became flesh and experienced life as we do. He experienced hunger, pain, sleepiness and thirst. However, I believe that this reveals more than just the humanity of Jesus. This thirst is more than just a physical sensation…it is spiritual as well. It reveals a deeper side of what was happening on the cross. This thirst is showing us how God emptied Himself (Philippians 2:6) out for us.
It makes sense that the disciple John would hear this word while he watched the crucifixion. It is in his gospel that we read the story of Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4) when He tells her that He is the One who can quench her spiritual thirst. It is also John who records the words of Jesus at another feast when He said that He would not only quench the thirst of those who believed, but that faith would produce “rivers” of that water from the heart!
So Jesus, the giver of the living water of eternal life, the answer to our deepest longings…is thirsty. He has held back nothing to make your salvation possible. He has poured out the living water from the cross that you might drink it and have eternal life. O Believer, He has become thirsty so that you don’t have to thirst anymore.
He invites you today to drink from the spring of living water. Come to the cross. Come the fountain of Christ. “Come all who are weak and heavy laden…” (Matthew 11:28). “Come, everyone who thirsts…” (Isaiah 55:1). He can quench your thirst for meaning and purpose in life. He can satisfy that longing to be loved and to belong. You are invited to come and to drink.