Alex Tang
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Medical Students /Paediatric notes
Meditations for Good Friday
by Dr Alex Tang
Text: John 19: 28,29
28 Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. (NIV)
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” 29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth (NKJ)
Scripture- Psalms 69:20,21 (David)
Reproach has broken my heart,
And I am full of heaviness;
I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none;
And for comforters, but I found none.
They also gave me gall for my food,
And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. (NKJ)
John is reminding us of the many prophecies concerning Jesus and that He is indeed the Messiah or Christ.
Hyssop-Exodus 12:21-22
21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning.
John is calling attention to Jesus being the perfect Passover sacrifice.
“I thirst”
Such a common term. We know what being thirsty is like. Our mouth is dry. Our tongues stick to the roof of our mouth and our lips are dry. And it is such a common term. Man gets thirsty. Animals get thirsty. Does God get thirsty? Jesus who is fully God and fully man does. Jesus said, “I thirst”. His human body was dehydrated after a night of torture and the whole morning on the cross in the hot sun. He is thirsty. Jesus knows what it is like to be human. He knows about our bodily aches and pains. He knows about our worry and fears. He knows what it is to be despised. One day when Jesus stands before the throne of God and intercedes for me, He will understand us. He will remember what it is like to be fragile human being. One who once was thirsty.
“I thirst”
The end is coming and Jesus, who is the living water, knows that the river which connects Him to the Father will dry up. He will not longer receive the ‘living water.’
He will no longer receive this living water that gives eternal life and those who drinks from it will never be thirsty again. He is thirsty because the end is near.
“I thirst”
Jesus is thirsty because as a man he was dehydrated. Jesus was thirsty because though He is the Son of God, He knows the time is coming when He is not longer connected to God the Father. The river of life will be cut off from Him.
Let us meditate on the suffering our Lord Jesus is willing to bear for us.
Soli Deo Gloria
|posted 14 April 2006|
