Jesus said, “Woman, here is your son.”
Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”
We have two of the last phrases from the death of Jesus. Both of them come from the Gospel of John and right next to one another.
As Jesus is looking down from the cross, he sees those last three people who remained faithful to him in all things. They were the only four that did not abandon him in his time of need and pain.
Mary, his mother was one of them. Of course, she would be. I cannot imagine anything in the world more awful than seeing your own child being murdered, and very slowly at that, right in front of your eyes. What is worse, there was nothing that she could do about it. What is still even worse, it was possible that she might not have been allowed to eve cry for her dying son. See, it was a common practice back then, that when someone was seen to be shedding tears for a person dying on a crucifix, that they would be dragged from the crowd and nailed to the next cross going up. The Romans believed that no one should shed a tear for enemies of the Caesar.
Mary, his mother was one of them. Of course, she would be. I cannot imagine anything in the world more awful than seeing your own child being murdered, and very slowly at that, right in front of your eyes. What is worse, there was nothing that she could do about it. What is still even worse, it was possible that she might not have been allowed to eve cry f
or her dying son. See, it was a common practice back then, that when someone was seen to be shedding tears for a person dying on a crucifix, that they would be dragged from the crowd and nailed to the next cross going up. The Romans believed that no one should shed a tear for enemies of the Caesar.
Mary, his mother was one of them. Of course, she would be. I cannot imagine anything in the world more awful than seeing your own child being murdered, and very slowly at that, right in front of your eyes. What is worse, there was nothing that she could do about it. What is still even worse, it was possible that she might not have been allowed to eve cry for her dying son. See, it was a common practice back then, that when someone was seen to be shedding tears for a person dying on a crucifix, that they would be dragged from the crowd and nailed to the next cross going up. The Romans believed that no one should shed a tear for enemies of the Caesar.
Imagine that: not even being allowed to cry for your son in that place.
The other three were Mary, the wife of Clopas. About her, nothing is known except that she was there. Then there was Mary Magdalene, who was never far from her beloved Lord and who would be the first to see him risen from the grave. And then there was the young disciple John.
When Jesus sees his mother there and John as well, he does an amazing thing. He gives them to one another. Mary who is losing her son Jesus, gets a new one in John. And John, who is losing a parent in Jesus, gets a new one in Mary. Among Jesus’ last acts from the cross, is to give to of his faithful to one another.
How amazing! You see, Jesus gives us all to one another. We are all give to each other in a common trust as Christians. And more than that, just in case we do not remember to go deep enough in our love for one another and our possession of one another, Jesus tells us that we are all family to one another. Mary and John are now mother and son. The disciples all understood this by calling each other sisters and brothers, as is still done in many churches to this day.
The cross is the place where the family of God is created. It is the place where we are bound to one another, made into a new family, a cosmic family with Jesus himself as the mystic cord between us all that will not break.
It is important to notice that everything Jesus says on the Cross related to himself and his needs, or is prayer to his Father. This is as it would be for each and every one of us. The only exception is this word where he gives his disciples and followers to one another. This is, effectively the last act of his worldly ministry before his death and resurrection. It was the last word he thought we needed to hear, even if we missed all the others.
It is also, nine times out of ten, the word that we all still need most to hear from God. It is the word we most often do not. It may be a reason why, while Mary and John could not cry that day, perhaps Jesus did – knowing how dense we could all be sometimes.
After this last act of his ministry, Jesus, says, “I thirst.” The guards below brought him something to drink, some sour wine on a branch of hyssop (a kind of tree). It is not known whether or not he was talking to the guards. Maybe he was talking to himself, or to his Father. We do not know. John just recorded the words.
I suspect that the reason John does not tell you who Jesus is speaking to is because it does not matter at all. This phrase is only at it’s most shallow about the fact that Jesus was physically parched and in need of some fluid. On this level, maybe no other statement of Jesus’ makes more sense. He was out there for hours, baking in the sun, sweating hard, and suffering a pain unto death.
But John wants us to focus still more, at the deeper level of what Jesus means when he says, “I thirst”. Just like Jesus gives us all to one another as family, so he gave himself to all of us and each of us.
Jesus quite literally poured himself out for us. He poured is literal blood out on the ground to save us from ourselves. He, who turned water into wine for a wedding, who promised living water to a Samaritan, who offered all who are thirsty to come unto him and drink…he took none of this for himself. He emptied himself of everything, everything for us. He did this until there was nothing left in him, not water, and not even life.
God loves the world this much! He loved the world so much that the eternal God, the fount of every grace and all life, somehow drives himself to emptiness on our behalf. God drives himself to thirst for us. If I live another thousand years, I do not think I will ever grasp how the eternal God can love us so much that he can actually empty himself that much! It is one of the truest and greatest mysteries of who God is. And that God for it.
