March 13, Fifth Sunday in Lent

Lesson: John 19.28-29

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1. Describe a time when you have been thirsty.
1. Perhaps it was a time when you were working outside on a hot summer's day.
1. You blink your eyes and rub them a little to get the salt out.
2. Your top is damp from perspiration.
3. Your mouth is parched.
4. You need a cool drink.
2. I remember the summer of 1971.
1. I had gone from being a pastor to a construction laborer.
2. It was hot, hot, and I was not used to the physical work of laying water main in a 6 ½ foot deep ditch where the sun radiated off the sand with an intensity that almost took your breath away.
3. One time, to rest from the heat, I crawled under the trailer to find some shade.
4. Later I yearned for a drink of water.
5. Bill Burrows, the operating engineer for whom I was laboring offered me a drink from his frosty Igloo cooler.
6. The cold, sweet taste of that water was almost more than I could handle.
3. My situation, our condition has no comparison to the thirst of the man on the cross.

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MAIN BODY:

1. To understand and appreciate his thirst, you need to follow him in his journey.
1. While in the upper room, see him gird himself with a towel and wash the disciples feet.
1. Listen to the pathos in his voice as he served the Passover feast.
2. At the right moment Jesus bids farewell to his betrayer.
2. Proceed with Jesus and his disciples as they make their way to the garden.
3. Listen to his conversation as Jesus attempts to prepare the disciples for the coming test.
4. Don't fall asleep in the Garden or you'll miss the agony of preparation for the ordeal that is to follow.
1. His followers fell asleep three times and were not prepared for the shock of the kiss of betrayal.
2. Did you observe the compassion as he told his impetuous disciple to put away his sword and reattached the ear of the servant of the high priest.
5. We stand with him at the home of Annas.
1. The people present do not like the answers that Jesus gives to their questions, so they strike him on the face.
2. Annas does not quite know what to do with Jesus so he sends him the house of Caiaphas.
6. With Caiaphas are gathered the rest of the supreme council, scribes and elders.
1. False accusations fly in the air saturated with venom and violence.
2. ⁶³...Then the high priest said to him, "I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God."

⁶⁴Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you,
From now on you will see the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of Power
and coming on the clouds of heaven."

⁶⁵Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy. ⁶⁶What is your verdict?" They answered, "He deserves death." ⁶⁷Then they spat in his face and struck him; and some slapped him, ⁶⁸saying, "Prophesy to us, you Messiah! Who is it that struck you?" (Matthew 26:63-68, NRSVA)

3. The cock crows.
4. There is Peter who is in the process of denying him.
5. When morning came, Jesus is brought before the full council, condemned and taken to Pilate.
7. When Pilate finds out that Jesus is a Galilean, he sends him to Herod.
8. Herod had wanted to see Jesus and hoped to see a sign.
1. Herod questioned Jesus and when he did not respond, Herod and his soldiers treated Jesus with contempt.
2. They put an elegant robe on him and sent him back to Pilate.
9. Pilate asks, "Are you the king of the Jews?"
1. Jesus replies, "You say so."
2. In the face of the accusations made against him, Pilate is amazed the Jesus makes no defense.
10. Pilate attempts to release Jesus by offering an alternative, Barabbas.
1. The crowd will have none of it.
2. Let him be crucified, let his blood be on us and on our children!
3. Pilate is not successful in releasing Jesus so he washes his hands of him and sentences him to be crucified.
4. He has Jesus flogged.
5. The soldiers fashion a crown of thorns and smash it on his head, after all, he is the king of the Jews.
11. His blood flows freely and drips on the pavement as he staggers under the weight of the cross.
1. The cross was heavy and Jesus fell beneath the load.
2. See, Simon of Cyrene is pressed into helping Jesus carry the cross.
12. Women cry out in grief.
1. Jesus tells them not to weep for him but for themselves and their children.
2. There are dark and violent days coming.
3. His blood will be on their heads.

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2. It is about 9 o'clock in the morning when Jesus is finally nailed to the cross.
1. We have listened to his first four words and now we come to the fifth.
1. It is about 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon.
2. He has been on the cross for about 6 hours.
3. From the Passover supper until now he has had nothing to drink.
1. O, they had offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he would not drink it,
2. He would not allow himself to drugged while hanging on the cross.

John Keble wrote in "Tuesday Before Easter"

Fill high the bowl, and spice it well, and pour
The dews oblivious: for the Cross is sharp,
The Cross is sharp, and He
Is tenderer than a lamb.

3. Jesus would die with every faculty clear, and in full sensibility to all his sufferings.

Keble continues:

Thou wilt feel all, that Thou may'st pity all;
And rather would'st Thou wrestle with strong pain
Than overcloud Thy soul,
So clear in agony,
Or lose one glimpse of Heaven before the time,
O most entire and perfect Sacrifice,
Renewed in every pulse.

2. He is thirsty
1. Jesus is tired, beaten, in excruciating pain from the nails that hold him to the rough wood
2. He is gasping for breath, for those who died on a cross did so from asphyxiation.

I work with a man who was in the last stages of emphysema and was not shocked at his gasping for every breath.

3. His cry is one of need, but also to fulfill the scripture:

²⁸After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), "I am thirsty." ²⁹A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth, (John 19:28-29 NRSVA).

1. This was to fulfill Psalm 22:15 (NRSVA)

¹⁵ my mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.

2. And also Psalm 69:21 (NRSVA)

²¹ They gave me poison for food,
and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

3. Wouldn't you be thirsty?

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4. Jesus may also been seen and understood as experiencing another kind of thirst.
1. Thirst may also be used as a metaphor.
1. Jesus is thirsty for:
1. Compassion
2. Companionship
3. Acceptance, not for himself, but for his message of grace and faith.
4. Love
2. He is thirsty for evidence that his word has been accepted and assimilated in action.
1. Jesus is thirsty for those who thirst.
2. John 4, The woman at the well in Samaria

¹³Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,

¹⁴but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life."

¹⁵The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

3. John 6, after feeding the five thousand, Jesus departed, but the crowd followed and found him.
1. He told them that he was the Bread of Life which came down from heaven and gives life to the world.
2. The people responded by saying, "Sir, give us this bread always."
4. In John 6.35, Jesus replies: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
5. John 7

³⁷On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, ³⁸and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, 'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.'"

3. A soldier answers Jesus cry of thirst,
1. A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth, (John 19.29, NRSV)
2. Someone cried out he is calling for Elijah, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down." (Mark 15:36, NRSVA).
5. We take the place of the compassionate one who allowed Jesus to wet his lips with the sour wine, the common drink of the soldiers who were engaged in his dying desire.
1. Remember what we are told about compassionate assistance in Matthew 25

³⁵for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?

⁴²for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,

⁴⁴Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?'

2. What is very clear is the point that Jesus is attempting t make.

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CONCLUSION:

1. It's been quite a journey!
1. We stand beneath a cross
1. This cross is too smooth (the cross in the chancel).
2. It is too fancy.
3. There are no splinters.
4. There is no marks of nails for hands, nor rest for punctured feet
5. On it there is no sweat, no blood.
2. We must not in gazing at this cross, forget the cross.

As Jessie Pounds wrote, the words of a favorite hymn

It is the way of the cross that leads home.

I must needs go home by the way of the cross,
There's no other way but this;
I shall ne'er get sight of the gates of light,
If the way of the cross I miss.

I must needs go on in the blood sprinkled way,
The path that the Savior trod,
If I ever climb to the heights sublime,
Where the soul is at home with God.

Then I bid farewell to the way of the world,
To walk in it never more;
For the Lord says, "Come," and I seek my home,
Where He waits at the open door.

The way of the cross leads home,
The way of the cross leads home,
It is sweet to know as I onward go,
The way of the cross leads home.

3. Not this refined and beautiful cross, but the cross of Jesus Christ.

Amen!

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