The Seven Sayings from the Cross: #6 — "I thirst."
Welcome back to our series, “The Seven Sayings from the Cross.” In our last study, we discussed Christ’s promise to the thief on the cross: “Woman, behold thy son!” Now, we’ll hear a phrase that seems almost simple, yet within it lies a depth of meaning that touches both heaven and earth.
“After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.”
— John 19:28
The One who spoke rivers into being now asks for a drink. The One who told the Samaritan woman, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst,” now thirsts Himself. This is the paradox of the cross: that the Fountain of Living Waters running dry for the salvation of man.
His words remind us that the suffering of Jesus was not symbolic or distant but was real, physical, and complete. He was fully God, yet fully man and in that moment, His body cried out with the same thirst that every human being would feel under such torment.
John is careful to tell us why Jesus spoke these words: “that the scripture might be fulfilled.”
Hundreds of years earlier, David had written in Psalm 69:21:
“They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”
Even in agony, Jesus was consciously fulfilling the Word of God. Nothing in His suffering was accidental. Every word, every moment, and every pain had purpose. When He said, “I thirst,” He was not merely expressing pain, He was declaring that God’s promises were being satisfied down to their smallest detail.
The Gospels reveal that Jesus refused the earlier offer of vinegar mixed with gall, which was a crude painkiller given to crucified men (Matthew 27:34). He would not dull His suffering. He chose to endure the full weight of the cross, feeling every pain and bearing every sorrow for our sake. Now, near the end, He accepts the vinegar. This was not to ease His suffering, as that was almost done away now, but to fulfill the scriptures.
“I thirst” also reminds us that our Savior truly understands human frailty. He was hungry, tired, and now thirsty. He knows what it is to feel weakness. As quoted in our previous study, Hebrews 4:15 says,
“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
When you are weary, when you feel abandoned or empty, remember this: the Son of God entered into that same experience. He knows what it means to thirst and because He knows, He can comfort.
The sixth saying may be the shortest, but it is among the most profound. It proves that Jesus was no phantom or distant deity untouched by suffering. He felt pain. He felt dryness. He felt the full cost of bearing sin in a mortal body.
The One who thirsted upon the cross now offers living water to all who come to Him.
“If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” — John 7:37
He thirsted, that we might never thirst again. He was deprived, that we might be filled. He was emptied, that we might overflow. At the cross, humanity and divinity met and, through Christ’s own thirst, our souls found satisfaction.