One of the most heartbreaking parts of the passion story is Jesus asking the onlookers for a drink while dying on the cross. God incarnate, being killed by those he came to save, asked for a drink to assuage his suffering. I simply do not have the words to fully express how this makes me feel.
Jesus is fully human (in addition to also being fully divine), so his thirst was natural. Water is absolutely vital for life.
It is no surprise that, living in an arid environment, having a source of fresh water (also known as living water) was of extreme importance for the Jewish people during and before the time of Jesus. So it was natural that living water, the basic requirement for life, became a metaphor for God’s grace.
Human beings have a thirst at the very core of our beings that no water can quench. We are created in the image of God in order to be in a close and loving relationship with God, and in the absence of this relationship we are simply not whole. This was made crystal clear in Jesus’ statement to the Samaritan woman in John 4 that he offers living water that becomes “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” in those who drink of it.
Jesus offers us the living water that makes us whole. May we all drink deeply.
Please pray with me: Lord, I remember today that you, who are the source of living water, thirsted on the cross. May I ever drink of your living water. Thank you for saving me from death and cleansing me from sin by your suffering and death. Amen.
