We live on the driest continent on earth. We know about droughts. Some have seen stock dying of thirst. It’s not a pretty sight. Right now in many parts of the world there are people walking for many kilometers each day to get just a little water to bring back to their families to drink. Fresh water is essential to survival. Apparently a human body can survive for weeks without food (though not very healthily), but only 2 to 3 days without water. The world is largely covered in water, but most of it is salty. People have survived shipwrecks only to die of thirst as they floated on the open sea. They are surrounded by water, but it’s undrinkable.
On the cross, Jesus cried out “I am thirsty.”
It is a cry of desolation. The cry of every human heart that lacks what we need to survive: a healthy relationship with God. A relationship that flows with love.
The writer of Psalm 63 knew this was his deepest need. In verse 1 he cries, “O God, you are my God, and I long for you. My whole being desires you; like a dry, worn-out, and waterless land, my soul is thirsty for you.”
Do you know God is your deepest need? That you need him as much as you need fresh clean water? And even more than water? Do you yearn for him, like the psalmist? Or are you content to live in a constant state of dehydration, thinking that it’s normal to lack spiritual vitality and freshness?
God grieves the breakdown of our relationship with him.
One indication that a relationship isn’t healthy is when there is little or no
communication. It isn’t healthy when those in the relationship ignore each
other, and don’t spend any time together. Many people are angry with God and
believe that he has let them down. Or that he isn’t interested in them. But
listen to what he says in Isaiah 65:1-2
(1) The LORD said, "I was ready
to answer my people's prayers, but they did not pray. I was ready for them to
find me, but they did not even try. The nation did not pray to me, even though I
was always ready to answer, 'Here I am; I will help you.' (2) I have
always been ready to welcome my people, who stubbornly do what is wrong and go
their own way.
Hear also Jeremiah 2:13 "My people have done two things wrong. They have abandoned me, the fountain of life-giving water. They have also dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that can't hold water.
Just as we need water for our physical bodies, we need spiritual water, living water to keep us alive spiritually. Salt water won’t do it for our bodies. And no self-styled substitute for the true living God will sustain us spiritually.
Our attempts to hydrate ourselves from our own sources are as helpful as drinking seawater. We need to be rescued from the leaky refugee boats of our existence in this life. We need to be brought to a safe place, and given fresh drinking water.
Who will help us? Who will come to our aid?
You know the answer: It is Jesus our Saviour.
But do you understand what he had to go through, and what he chose to go through, to rescue us?
Many people have suffered terribly in this world. Maybe you are suffering terribly right now. You wonder, ‘Where is God?’ and ‘Does he care?’
God’s answer is on the cross. Jesus, God in human form, suffering for you. For me. For all of us. Suffering our thirst. The dryness, the barrenness, the desolation, the hopelessness and despair.
Jesus spoke the first words of Psalm 22 from his cross:
“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” He may well have quoted the whole
psalm. (We said part of this psalm earlier in our service today). Verse
15 relates directly to Jesus’ cry of thirst: “My throat is as dry as dust,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have left me for dead in the
dust.”
Psalm 69:20-21 is another Scripture that is fulfilled by
Jesus on the cross:
“Insults have broken my heart, and I am in despair. I had
hoped for sympathy, but there was none; for comfort, but I found none. When I
was hungry, they gave me poison; when I was thirsty, they offered me
vinegar.”
Hear verses from Isaiah 53
(4) Surely he has
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…(5) he was wounded for our
transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement
that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
(11) After a life of suffering, he will again have joy; he
will know that he did not suffer in vain. My devoted servant, with whom I am
pleased, will bear the punishment of many and for his sake I will forgive them.
God is your deepest need.
You need him as much as you
need fresh clean water.
Have you been spiritually dehydrated?
Do you have
thirsts that you can’t seem to satisfy? A sense that something is missing?
Are you aware that the problem is your relationship with God, but you’re not sure what he thinks of you, after all the grief you’ve given him… or the indifference you’ve shown him?
Today the Lord invites you to see him on the cross. Suffering your thirst. Paying for your sins. Opening the way for you to come back to him.
As fish belong in water, we belong in a relationship with God. A relationship of peace, and joy, and love. This is the relationship that God establishes with us, through the suffering and death of Jesus.
They gave Jesus a sponge soaked with vinegar. He tasted
it, then said, ‘It is finished.’ The work of paying for our sins, was finished.
The debts paid in full. The permanent source of living water was secured, for
us, forever.
John 7:37 Jesus says, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me
and drink.”
I close with verses 1,3 and 4 of James Montgomery’s hymn (71 in the Lutheran hymnal –of LCA), “Come to Calvary’s holy mountain”
1. Come to Calvary’s holy mountain
Sinners,
ruined by the fall;
Here a pure and healing fountain
Flows to you, to me,
to all,
In a full perpetual tide,
Opened when our Saviour died.
3. Come in sorrow and contrition,
Wounded, impotent,
and blind;
Here the guilty free remission,
Here the troubled peace may
find:
Health this fountain will restore;
He that drinks shall thirst no
more.
4. He that drinks shall live for ever;
'Tis a
soul-renewing flood:
God is faithful; God will never
Break His covenant of
blood,
Signed when our Redeemer died,
Sealed when He was glorified.
God’s word is true, Amen.
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