Dear Christian friends:

From the fourth word of Christ we learned that Jesus having been forsaken by God suffered the mental and spiritual pains of hell for us. The fifth word from the cross informs us of the great physical torments of hell which Christ also must suffer to make our redemption complete.

Previously His body had been bound, bruised, scourged, crowned with thorns, and now had hung for six long hours upon the cross. This terrible cry, "I thirst," marked the climax of all His physical suffering.

While these words are dreadful to hear, they are at the same time the greatest of comfort and hope for us sinners. So let us consider them briefly.

In the Good Friday Psalm Jesus tells us through the prophetic pen of David exactly how He felt as He groaned these words: "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and Thou hast brought me into the dust of death." (Psalm 22:14-15)

Jesus is here speaking to His heavenly Father and states that it is He who brought this terrible affliction upon him. Yes, "God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" The very fact that Jesus cries "I thirst" plainly shows that He is a true human being that He has taken upon Himself our flesh and blood that He might be our Substitute under the Law and pay for our transgressions of the Law. He is a true man. He becomes thirsty as any man, and yet He is and remains true God, the Creator of brooks and rivers and lakes and great oceans of water. But wonder of wonders - the Creator of all waters is now denied even one drop to cool His tormented tongue.

And this is the exact reason why He is our perfect Savior; the reason why His brief suffering upon the cross is so precious, so efficacious. It is good for all men for all times, even for you and me, because the perfect Creator suffers hell for His wayward creatures, even becomes one of them that He might pay the price and win them back to Himself. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." (1 Corinthians 5:18)

And what a price He must pay! These words, "I thirst," are symbolic of the torment of hell. They indicate that there is no satisfaction in hell. The lust, the greed, the pride of sinful man is never, ever really satisfied. His thirst for the pleasures of the flesh for riches and power are never ended even in this life.

Bernard Baruck once compared man with a squirrel. He noted that a squirrel will gather nuts and store only as much as it will need for the winter. Then it is satisfied and rests. But sinful, lustful, thirsty man never rests. After the first affair he must have the second and the third and the fourth. After the first million he must have the second and will destroy himself, his marriage and his good name to get it. And when he's all done he's still thirsty. As he is on earth so he will be in hell, only so much the more, and hopelessly without reprieve. This, too, Jesus endured for us as He suffered upon the cross - a terrible gnawing, unquenchable thirst.

This He suffered that we could be freed of our passions and lusts, and rest in God. "I am the Bread of Life," Jesus tells us, "Come to Me and you will never be hungry. Believe in Me and you will never be thirsty." And in Psalms David tells of the perfect satisfaction which comes to those who believe in this Savior: "In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures forevermore." (Psalms 16:11)

Jesus endured the terrible hunger and thirst of hell, that we might never be hungry or thirsty again, no not in this life or in the life to come.

"I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in Him."
Hymn: I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say

Amen.