Holy Week: Seven Days in the Sayings (Day 5 of 7) A Basic Lesson in Truth
Guest Contributor: This post is from my Brother and Good Friend, Kyle Boyer!
John 19:38 After
this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture
might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.
A Basic Lesson
in Truth
At
a most basic level thirst is defined as, “a very great need for something” and
there was a time when that need was thought of almost exclusively in the
context of something to drink, specifically water to drink. Today thirst has
new meanings. For instance, ask a teenager what it means to be thirsty, and
their responses might include, “posting on social media and seeking attention!”
Hence the modern thirst trap.
Beyond
the thirst for attention are other more serious examples of thirst, such as
presidential candidates and politicians who are thirsty for power. Another look
and we’ll see that our world is increasingly plagued with individuals who grow
thirstier and thirstier for something worthwhile, while seeking a quenching in
all of the wrong places. A quick scan reveals that some of our brothers and
sisters are thirsty for truth and looking to psychics and horoscopes not
knowing that they already have access to the one who said “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6). Another
glance and we find others looking for purpose and meaning in all of the wrong
places, not knowing that just hours before he hung on a cross, Jesus told a
king by the name of Herod, “For this cause I came into the world, that I should
bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice” (Jn.
18:37). Humanity is thirsty, but perhaps there is nothing more dangerous than a
thirst for the wrong thing.
Don’t believe me? Ask your
neighborhood alcoholic. Even they can tell you there is a difference between water
and alcohol. There are scientific studies to confirm that most of us don’t
drink enough water on a daily basis. A healthy individual can go weeks without
food, but most humans can survive three days at most without water. That’s
because more than any other substance, we need water. Our bodies are 70% water
and through it body temperature is regulated. Through water vitamins, minerals,
and hormones are transmitted to the appropriate places. Water allows our eyes,
joints, and digestive organs to remain lubricated. As Jesus accomplished so
much on the cross he took care to remind us that his sinless and perfect spirit
was still clothed in a human body, and that human body was thirsty. After being
beaten, whipped, abused, and bleeding profusely for some time, there remained a
most basic need for the most basic of substances, which is key to the most
basic physical processes: water.
It
likely started in the garden of Gethsemane. That is, Jesus was probably
experiencing water loss as he sweated, knowing the agony he was soon to face.
By the time we arrive at the text, Jesus was most likely experiencing severe
dehydration. According to John’s account, he had already refused a first drink
of wine and myrrh, because this mixture was used to ease pain, and surely Jesus
couldn’t have it said that he cheated on the cross. Instead, Jesus took care to
fulfill the Psalms, and as death approached he utters the words, “I thirst.” In
mustering the strength to speak, he fulfilled Ps. 22:15 which reads, “My
strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and
thou hast brought me into the dust of death.” He also fulfilled Psalm 69:21,
“They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to
drink.”
Those
are the basics of the story, an innocent man losing bodily fluid at an alarming
rate, but there is more to be gleaned from the text. Scientifically speaking,
there are two types of liquids, acids and bases, measured on something called
the PH scale. This scale, that most of us learn about at sometime in our
primary schooling, goes from 0 to 14 – the lower the number the more acidic the
liquid is, and the higher the number the more basic. Pure water, the substance
we need the most, is right in the middle at 7. Acids typically help to break
down other substances, easily seen through the example of our stomachs which
are full of digestive acids. Bases on the other hand are usually used as
cleaning substances, hence the reason bleach, liquid soap, and ammonia are
among the more common bases in our homes.
As
Jesus died soldiers gave him fermented wine to drink. That wine would’ve had a
PH of about 3.6. Pairing this science with our spiritual lenses, we might be
left asking, is there any significance to the father making Jesus drink
something acidic? I believe the answer is yes.
You
see we must remember that acids are destructive. I believe the father wanted
you and I to see Jesus assuming the burden of every destructive thing in our
lives, and giving us pure life in return. Maybe this is what Jesus meant when
he told the woman at the well, “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I
shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be
in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (Jn. 4:14). How
ironic that Jesus would foretell of giving life-sustaining water, when at the
moment of his death water was the very substance he needed most. Science tells
us that the pure water Jesus needed has a PH of exactly 7, but blood is about
7.35 on the scale--it’s slightly basic. No wonder that when soldiers pierced
Jesus, blood and water came forth (Jn. 19:34).
How
fitting that blood is a base, as bases are typically used to cleanse. The truth
is, only the blood of Jesus--the essence of truth, the ransom for sinner, the flow
of life--only that blood can cleanse our souls. We have bleach to clean grime
in our kitchens, and Tide to clean our soiled linens, but the most basic of
facts, the most eternal of truths, is that the only substance known to cleanse
the sin-sick soul is the blood of Jesus. Because of Jesus’s shedding of basic
blood, our souls are no longer separated from the truth of God’s saving grace,
forgiving power, and eternal reward.
Kyle J. Boyer
@kyleboyer
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