"I am Thirsty"- A global thirst for redemption of souls.

Hello everybody! It has been pretty long since I had consistent timing to post on my blog. But the delay will never fade the propagation of this blog. So now God gave me this title to write about and it all started fortnight before when I attended an Indian Classical Music Workshop by Sound of Grace. They were remarkable in their game of instruments. But I noticed that they wrote a song specially for Malaysian visit and they named it "I am thirsty". The troop leader explained it as it was one of the last statements of Christ on the cross before He commended His spirit. I realized that this title has so much depth theologically. And I decided to elaborate further from where they stopped.

We are going to see the depth of these words based on 2 passages in The Holy Bible:
a) John 19:28
b) John 4 (Samaritan Woman)

I believe that many have written and talked about this topic even before decades but God might speak something new to different people. Ok now these words of "I am Thirsty" can be divided into 2 purposes of being said. John says in 19:28 that Jesus said that in accordance of fulfilling the foretold prophecies. And we are also going to look at it as a thirst for global redemption of souls.

We can see that Jesus hardly requested or asked anything from the people or His disciples throughout His ministry. He asked for their complete commitment and divine discipline. Apart from that there is no record that He actually asked for food, money, water etc for Himself. But in these contexts, we see Jesus requesting for something for Himself, outwardly. But actually they don't mean as it's seen. 

Jesus was terribly whipped, spat on, stripped, hated, dismayed, tortured under the scorching hot sun without any food or water given. He was subjected to what we call the extreme pre-cruxifixion torture. In other words, if we were there in His place, we would have died even before getting crucified. Because we have no need to be crucified as we know we are going to die. But Jesus had to hold on to His last breath till all the nails have gone through His nerves and veins. Was it because of this He was thirsty? 

If you get a chance to watch The Passion of Christ, we see that Jesus (Mel Gibson) say that He was thirsty but when He was offered some sour wine, He refused to take it. Its because that wasn't what He thirsted for. Looking at John 4(Samaritan woman), we again see that Jesus here asking for water from a Samaritan woman. This context is an exemplary for evangelism. He asked her for water but ended up doing evangelism by turning the whole village to the knowledge of salvation. When the Samaritan woman ran into the village to tell about Jesus, Jesus refused to eat or drink with His disciples because He said He has divine work to do. It is quite obvious that Jesus did not ask for water literally but the thirst here is a symbolic display of thirst for souls. 

So on the cross, being completely stripped, knowing that He has to give up His life, Jesus thirsted for the redemption of His children. He knew that all the sufferings He went through will lay down as a foundation to redeem the lost souls. His thirst is great and as an effort to quench His thirst, He gave up His life to redeem our lives. Mark 14:25 says that Jesus said He will never drink wine again until He drinks it new in the kingdom of God. It means He renewed the covenant and stretched Himself on the cross so that he could quench His thirst once for all by redeeming us. 

When we thirst, we will turn the whole world upside down to get some water. Similarly, He is The Creator, so He turned the world Right Side Up to quench His thirst for souls. Now we as His redeemed nation, are we having the same thirst as He had? Are we ready to go through times of trouble out of our comfort zone to quench His thirst? Or are we waiting down the street seeing lives perish in vanity and emptiness?

DECIDE FOR THE LORD IS COMING SOON!