The Surety's Thirst

“Jesus said, I thirst.” — John xix. 28.

Oh, well for us that thus the work was so completely done! What glad tidings of great joy to us come forth, not only from that thirst and that cry of the Son of God, but from the silence of the Father! It is finished, said the Son on earth. It is finished, said the Father from heaven. And it is when we learn the meaning of that thirst and that cry; when we so learn their meaning as to add our Amen to the “It is finished” of the Father and the Son, that the great reconciliation begins between us and God; and in proportion to our increasing perception of the completeness of the wondrous sacrifice, our peace deepens, our joy overflows, our hope kindles into new brightness; the shadows of the cross bringing out, in full relief, the vision of the approaching glory.

But it is not only from heaven that there is no response; from earth there comes no answer, or, at least, no sympathy. Man does not understand the thirst, and heeds not the cry of the Sufferer. If ever there was an appeal of anguish that could reach man’s heart, and call forth any latent spark of love or pity, it was this cry from the cross. This seemed to be God’s last appeal to man, — his last test, applied, to see if there was any goodness, any right feeling remaining in him, any sympathy with the Son of God. For when was the cry for water refused, or the thirst of the dying mocked? But man heeds not the anguish of the Crucified. God’s last appeal to him is in vain. He meets the cry of the Son of God with mockery.

It would seem that Jesus was offered vinegar more than once, and possibly among some of those who presented it there might be a feeling of pity; for the simple fact of its being vinegar is no proof of its being meant as insult, seeing that vinegar was the only thing at hand; being the usual drink of the Roman soldiers. If this were the case, it only shews how utterly unable man was, even if willing, to relieve the anguish of the Sufferer. Help from man was vain. All that he could offer was but like the feather wetting the lips of the dying. But it is clear, both from the passage itself and from the Psalms, that the offering of the vinegar was meant as mockery. The Jew said, in taunt, and with pretended misunderstanding of his words, “This man calls for Elias;” and the Gentile presented his vinegar; thus between them completing the mockery. This is the last venting of man’s enmity against the Son, the last drop of the old serpent’s venom poured upon the seed of the woman.

It was not, indeed, in man’s power fully to relieve this awful thirst; vet he could have done something; and even had he failed, he could have shewn his pity. But pity is not in his bosom where God is concerned. “This is the heir; come; let us kill him,” is his feeling. He has got God into his power; he has got the Son of God hanging helplessly on a tree; and his enmity to God now gets vent to itself. He can mock God safely now. Samson has lost his strength, and his enemies may work their fill of malignity against him. Thus man’s hatred of God comes out in all its bitterness; and it does so, just at the very point where God’s love was coming out in its fulness. Never did love and hatred, kindness and enmity, so meet together. Never was love so requited, and kindness so mocked, as here. God has come down to prove man: he dwelt on man’s earth; he lived a life of service for man; he emptied himself; he reduced himself to the extremity of weakness and suffering; he put himself into man’s power, and appealed, not to his highest and noblest feelings, but to the commonest sympathies of mere humanity. But all in vain. In such circumstances even the worst malefactor would be pitied and relieved. The fact, however, of the sufferer being a holy man shuts out their sympathy; and the fact of his being the Son of God rouses their hatred. That very thing, which ought to have overawed them, and drawn out their profoundest sympathies, is that which calls forth insult, which extinguishes pity, which steels them against the Sufferer’s cry, which rouses all hell in their bosoms! Towards men they would have acted and felt as men; towards God they are as devils!

Now is their time for taunt, and insult, and cruelty. So long as he is going about, doing miracles, they are afraid to touch him. They know not how he may avenge himself. But now, when he is dying on a cross, they may hate and mock him as they please. Now, when the lion of the tribe of Judah is in chains, and expiring of his wounds, they may trample on him at will. 0 man, such is thy heart! Such is the extent of thy enmity to the God in whom thou livest, and movest, and hast thy being!

But though, at the time, there was no response from heaven, and nought but mockery on earth, this state of things was only for an hour. The silence cannot last: the cry of the only-begotten Son must be heard, though at another time and in another way. Him the Father heareth always; and this appeal of the Son of God for something to quench his thirst is not unheeded. The answer is denied at the moment, but only that it may be given in all its largeness thereafter. The denial of the request finished the mighty work, through means of which, a glorious answer was to be vouchsafed, in which he was not merely to have his thirst quenched, but to see of the travail of his soul, and to be satisfied. His death, which immediately followed this silence, was the smiting of the rock, from which the waters were to gush forth which were to quench the thirst both of soul

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and body; and not his own thirst alone, but that of millions, — the whole vast multitude of the redeemed from among men.

Yes; God’s answer to the cry of his Son is his raising him from the dead, crowning him with glory and honour, exalting him to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and forgiveness; depositing in him those gifts for the rebellious, which he was to bestow on men; making him King and Head over all things, and investing him with a kingdom which shall have no end. He humbled himself to the death of the cross, and therefore God hath highly exalted him. Thus, in the end, the Father’s love to the Son is manifested, and his righteousness vindicated. He hath done all things well.

And then, how has God avenged himself on man for his refusal to heed the cry of his Son? Here, too, evil has been overcome of good; and where sin abounded, there grace has much more abounded. Man mocks the thirst of God, but God pities and relieves the thirst of man. He makes man’s wrath to praise him, and to be, besides, the means of blessing to himself. This crucified Christ, whom man only insults, is the appointed Saviour; and man, though he knew it not, has been carrying out God’s redeeming work. Man, though he meant it not, has been slaying the sacrifice by which reconciliation is accomplished. He has been helping to smite the rock, from which the living water was to gush forth to satisfy the thirst of sinners.

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Herein is love; not man loving God, but God loving man; so loving man as to persist in his great work of grace, notwithstanding man’s utmost hatred and rejection. Here is the fountain which love has opened, and which flows in the waste places of earth like a river. Here is God’s provision, not only for man’s pardon, but for his fullest joy. The Surety thirsted that we might not thirst; he drank of the vinegar that we might not drink it; he drained the cup of wrath that we might never taste it; he was wounded that we might be healed. And, standing by that very cross, where the Son of God was mocked in his thirst, and refused a cup of cold water to moisten his parched lips, the messenger of God’s free-love lifts up his voice, and says, “Let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.”