Seven Words From The Cross - My God, My God - I Thirst

When I hear the Lord Jesus say, I thirst, I see the suffering Son of Man, I see the obedient servant of God, and I see the loving Savior of sinners.

Once again we make our way to Calvary as we listen to our Lord Jesus speak from the cross. The first three statements of our Lord from the cross really do not surprise us. You’ll recall He prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And then His second statement when He spoke to the thief and said, "Today you’ll be with me in paradise." And that third statement from the cross when He spoke to Mary and to the apostle John. So the first three statements from the cross do not surprise us. But the fourth statement introduces mystery.

May I read from Matthew 27 beginning at verse 45: Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elijah. And straightway one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be. Let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.

There are three mysteries wrapped up in this statement from the cross. And if we understand something of these mysteries, I think we'll better understand what Jesus can do for us. We begin with a great mystery, and that’s the darkness around the cross. We're told that from noon until three o'clock in the afternoon, there was darkness over all the land. Now this was a supernatural darkness. This was not a sandstorm; it was not an eclipse. It's most unlikely that there would be an eclipse at Passover season. This was not something that men imagined; this was a supernatural darkness sent by God the Father. Which, of course, raises the question immediately, why? What kind of a darkness was it? Why did it come?

I'd like to suggest three answers to that question. First of all, I think it was the darkness of sympathy. Here is the Creator dying on the cross, and all of creation is suffering with the Creator. We have to remember that when the first man and woman sinned, what they did affected all of creation. In Genesis 3, when God spoke, He spoke in judgment. True, He forgave their sin, but He said, "Now you're going to labor by the sweat of your brow." He told the woman that she would conceive and bear children in pain and in suffering. That as the man tilled the ground, there would come forth the thorns and briers, and death came on the scene. You see, all of creation is suffering because of man's sin.

It's rather interesting that everything in creation obeys God except man. God tells the rain where to fall, and the rain goes there. God tells the winds to blow, and they blow. God tells man what to do or what not to do, and man disobeys. And yet creation is subject to vanity because of man's sin. When you read Romans 8, you discover that all of creation is groaning and travailing in pain together. Why? Awaiting the coming of the Creator, who will set creation free. And so I think that this darkness is the darkness of sympathy. All of creation is sympathizing with the Creator.

When Jesus died, He did redeem creation. They took thorns and made a crown and put that crown upon His head as they mocked Him. But really that crown of thorns is symbolic of what He did. He took our sins to the cross. He bore them on His body on the tree, and He has broken the power of sin. As a consequence, one day creation shall be delivered. And one day the King shall reign, and there will be no more thorns and thistles and death and disease. The darkness of sympathy—creation, as it were, wrapped darkness around the Creator when He died for our sins.

I think secondly that this darkness at the cross was the darkness of solemnity. Here we have the just dying for the unjust. Here we have the innocent Lamb of God dying for guilty sinners. I remember that back in the book of Exodus, there was darkness. The ninth plague, you'll recall, that God sent to Egypt was darkness. Now there was light in the dwelling of the Israelites because God's people are the children of light, but there was darkness over Egypt, and then the Passover came. Well, here we have the Lord Jesus in three hours of darkness. I wonder if God wasn't saying that He is judging the world. "Now is the judgment of this world," said Jesus. "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Our Lord's death on the cross was a very solemn, serious, holy event. The darkness of solemnity—the Lamb dying for our sins.

I would remind you that in the Bible, outer darkness is a name for hell. I know some people don't like us to talk about hell. Believe me, if we could find in the Scriptures any indication that lost sinners do not go to hell, we'd tell you about it, but we haven't found it. Jesus talks about outer darkness. Oh, my friend, I would remind you that this darkness was the darkness of solemnity—the Lord Jesus dying for us.

Thirdly, it was the darkness of secrecy. In those three hours, Jesus Christ was accomplishing a great work that only He alone could accomplish. You'll recall that on the Day of Atonement, when the high priest went into the tabernacle or the temple, he did it alone. He carried on that transaction with God alone. When Jesus Christ was on the cross during those three hours of darkness, He was carrying on an eternal transaction with His Father. He finished the work that He came to do. He said in His prayer, "I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do." Now what was that work? The work of salvation. He was silent for three hours, and then He spoke and said, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Here’s a great mystery: the darkness around the cross. But there's a greater mystery—that's the loneliness on the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ gradually moved into loneliness, seclusion, separation. He went with His twelve apostles into the upper room; Judas left. There were now eleven with Him. He took the eleven to the garden of Gethsemane; three entered into the garden with Him, and they went to sleep. Then Peter and John went into the courtyard where Peter denied Him, and then they all forsook Him and fled, and He was left alone.

But you know, the Father was with Him. He Himself had said in John 8:29, "And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him." In John 16:32, He said, "Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." And now the Father left Him. The loneliness of the Savior on the cross.

Now why was He lonely? Why was He forsaken of the Father? Well, that's what sin does. Sin isolates. Sin separates a man from a man. Sin separates a man from himself. You recall the prodigal son came to himself. Sin separates a man from God. When Adam and Eve sinned, they ran and they hid themselves because of the loneliness of sin. Now God has never forsaken you. If God forsook you for one second, you would die, because in Him we live and move and have our being. He was with Joseph in his trial; He was with Daniel; He was with David. But now His own Son is forsaken. Why? He was forsaken of the Father that we might never be forsaken of the Father. He went through darkness that we might have light. He went through isolation—that's what hell is. Hell is eternal loneliness, eternal isolation. There's no friendship in hell; there's no fellowship in the darkness of hell. There's a great mystery here—the darkness around the cross. There's a greater mystery—the loneliness on the cross.

But I think the greatest mystery of all that is identified with this statement is the blindness before the cross. Here were the people, the soldiers and others, before the cross, and they heard His cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" But they were blind. They said, "He’s calling for Elijah." Someone says, "Now let's wait and see if Elijah comes." But you see, He wasn't calling for Elijah. He was quoting Psalm 22:1. If these people had not been blind to the Scriptures, they would have recognized Psalm 22. Psalm 22:1, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Psalm 22:2, "I cry in the daytime... in the night season, I am not silent." There you have darkness and light; they didn't recognize it. Verses 7 and 8 of Psalm 22: "All who see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him." They didn't recognize that, did they? Verse 18: "They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture." The blindness before the cross—blind to the Scriptures, blind to the Savior, blind to their own sin. I trust you aren't blind today, but that by faith you have seen the Lamb of God who died for you. For the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto that perfect day.

"I thirst." This simple statement paints yet another picture of Christ on the cross. When I hear the Lord Jesus say, "I thirst," I see three portraits of Christ in this word. I see the suffering Son of Man. I see the obedient servant of God. And I see the loving Savior of sinners.

Let's take this first portrait: the suffering Son of Man. Now Jesus Christ was truly man. Our Lord Jesus was holy and harmless and undefiled, perfect man. He never, ever exhibited in any way any kind of sin, for He was sinless. However, He did participate in the sinless frailty of human flesh. When our Lord Jesus was on the cross, He felt the depths of suffering—physical suffering and spiritual suffering. It's rather interesting to note that when He came to Calvary, He was offered the same narcotic that the two thieves were offered. Apparently, they partook of it; He did not. He refused to drink the wine that was mingled with myrrh because He did not want His senses to be stupefied in any way. Our Lord Jesus Christ when He died on the cross was in perfect control of His faculties. He did not seek to escape pain in any way.

Now the high priest in the Old Testament, when he was ministering in the tabernacle or the temple, was warned not to drink strong drink. And my Lord Jesus Christ, offering Himself as the sacrifice for sin, did not want in any way to be identified with strong drink. He was in full control of His faculties. He was the suffering Son of Man. Now do you know what this means for us today? It means that Jesus Christ is able completely to sympathize with us, to identify with our pain and our need and our hurt. We're able to come to one who understands just how much we hurt, just how we feel, just what burdens we're carrying, what pain we are enduring. Wherever I go, I find people who are hurting. There's physical pain, there is emotional pain, spiritual burdens and battles. And my Lord, the suffering Son of Man who cried, "I thirst," has identified Himself with our every need. That encourages me to pray. That encourages me to keep on going. That encourages me not to quit because I can come at any time to the throne of grace and find grace to help in the time of need.

The first portrait we see in the words, "I thirst," the suffering Son of Man. The second portrait: the obedient servant of God. Now why did Jesus say, "I thirst"? That the Scripture might be fulfilled. He was completely obeying the word of God. In fact, everything our Lord did was in obedience to the word of God. In Psalm 69:21, we read these words: "They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." Our Lord Jesus was obeying the word of God. Why was He born in Bethlehem? It fulfilled the prophecy. Why did He go down to Egypt? It fulfilled prophecy. Why did our Lord move to Nazareth? It fulfilled prophecy. Why did He do what He did? He was obeying the word of God, obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The obedient servant of God. The most important thing in the life of a believer is to know the will of God and do it—doing the will of God from the heart, says Ephesians 6:6.

Well, we've seen two portraits of the Lord Jesus in this statement: the suffering Son of Man and the obedient servant of God. Now the third portrait: the loving Savior of sinners. Jesus was thirsty to be sure because of the physical agony He was going through, but I would remind you that He had just come through those three hours of darkness when the sun had veiled her face. Jesus Christ in that time of darkness had cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" I would like to suggest to you that when the Lord Jesus was made sin, when He took care of that great transaction for our salvation, He endured our hell for us.

You see, hell is a place of thirst. In Luke 16, our Lord tells about a man who died and woke up in the place of judgment. And in that place of judgment, he was thirsty. This is what people are saying in that place of judgment: "I thirst." When my Lord died for me and was made sin for me, He thirsted. I would suggest to you that hell is a place of eternal thirst where people will be thirsting for God but they won't be able to be saved. They'll be thirsting for reality and for satisfaction, but their thirst will not be quenched.

I've noticed that there were several cups at Calvary. There was the cup of charity; they offered Him that wine mingled with gall, an opiate to deaden His pain, and He rejected that. There was the cup of mockery; the soldiers offered Him wine. There was the cup of sympathy; somebody put some vinegar on a sponge and lifted it to His dry lips. But the greatest cup of all was the cup of iniquity. He said in the garden, "The cup that my Father has given me to drink, shall I not drink of it?" He thirsted that we might never thirst again.

Have you ever traced water in the gospel of John? In John 2, our Lord turns water into wine. Everything the world has runs out; they ran out of wine. The world cannot supply what you need; only Jesus can. In John 4, Jesus said to that woman at the well, "If you drink of this water, you'll thirst again. You drink of the water that I'm going to give you, you'll never thirst." Sin never quenches thirst; it makes the desire even stronger. In John 7, our Lord boldly at the Feast of Tabernacles cried out, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." Here He was referring to that rock in the Old Testament that was smitten that the waters might flow forth. He was smitten on the cross that we might have the water of life. There's no thirst in heaven. They shall hunger no more, and they shall thirst no more. In fact, the last invitation in the Bible talks about if you thirst at all, come. Come and partake of these waters that flow so full and so free.

And so the question today is not do you thirst, because all mankind has a thirst for reality, a thirst for God, a thirst for forgiveness. The real question is how long are you going to thirst? When you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, you'll never thirst again. I was having dinner one evening with a preacher friend of mine, and as so often happens in restaurants, the girl came along and said, "Would you like something from the bar?" And my friend very tenderly said, "Honey, over twenty years ago I took a drink, and I haven't been thirsty since." And he told her about the Lord Jesus. This is true. The important question is not do you thirst; the question is how long are you going to thirst? The Lord Jesus Christ thirsted on the cross that we might never thirst again. He is the suffering Son of Man. He is the obedient servant of God. He is the loving Savior of sinners. And when you put your faith and trust in Him, He satisfies and you discover that you will never thirst again.