“I Thirst”: A Good Friday Meditation on the Meticulous Detail of Christ’s Cross

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished,
said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”
— John 19:28 —
Nothing was done by Christ which was not foretold;
nothing was ever foretold by the Prophets concerning Christ, which was not done.
— Alexander Watson —

Tomorrow I will preach a Good Friday message focusing on the single word: dipsō (“I thirst”). For the last four years, our church has considered on Good Friday one of the seven words spoken on the cross. This year, we come to the fifth word, “I thirst,” a word that highlights the humanity of Jesus and the hostility of his enemies (see the context of Psalm 69). But it also shows how meticulous our Lord was in fulfilling Scripture.
In John 19:28, the Apostle notes the sharpness of Jesus’s mind, even as he bears the pain of crucifixion. And what is on Jesus’s mind as hangs on the cross? The Word of God that he must fulfill. To that point, he says, “I thirst,” a statement that may refer to Psalm 22:15, but more probably cites Psalm 69:21, which speaks of drinking sour wine, which Jesus does in John 19:29.
Tomorrow, I will consider the meaning of this fifth word, but today, I want to focus on the way Jesus perfectly fulfilled all the Old Testament, including this final statement of thirst. To help with this, I turn to Alexander Watson, a nineteenth century Anglican curate, who in 1847 preached a series of sermons called “The Seven Sayings on the Cross; Or, The Dying Christ Our Prophet, Priest, and King.” For the last few years, I have read these sermons—one per year—and have profited greatly. (For those in the know, I have not preached Watson’s sermons).

In his exposition of “I thirst,” Watson highlights the way Jesus fulfilled all the Old Testament. And his words are worth citing. He begins by observing “a sure and convertible rule” that “nothing was done by Christ which was not foretold,” and “nothing was ever foretold by the Prophets concerning Christ, which was not done “(81). As Jesus says in John 5:39, all Scripture is about him. And in the Gospels, we see repeated citations and allusions to the Old Testament, as the four Evangelists identify Jesus by the Hebrew Scriptures.
Drawing out this point, Alexander helpfully lists those associated with Christ’s “last bitter Passion” (81). He writes of Christ, outlining the fulfillment of the Old Testament in a series of questions. (N.B. I’ve changed the format and modernized the punctuation and capitalization).

To these questions, Alexander cites John Chrysostom, saying, “that some [Old Testament] actions are parables; and some actions are prophecies such are all types of CHRIST.” Then he picks up his questions again,

To this list of questions, Alexander adds one more, the one designated in John 19:28 as necessary to complete Scripture: “I thirst,” which fulfills the words of Psalm 69:21, “When I was thirsty they gave me vinegar to drink.”
In all, Alexander gathers fifteen different prophecies fulfilled by Christ and his cross. And remarkably, this list but scratches the surface in showing the attention to detail which our wise God and Father put in place when he inspired the Hebrews Scriptures. Moreover, it shows the perfection of Christ in going to the cross to accomplish our salvation. He did not simply finish the work in general, but he finished it to the most exact degree. That might even say something about the intentions and extent of the atonement, but I’ll leave that for another time.

This week, as we ponder the good news of Good Friday, we should marvel at how Christ did everything necessary to fulfill his Father’s will on the cross. Indeed, standing in contrast to a world filled with failed projects and men who leave jobs undone, Jesus fulfilled his mission, going so far as to cry out in agony, “I thirst.”
Incredibly, this little detail could have gone unnoticed to everyone else. That Jesus included this statement and the Spirit led John to capture in his Gospel tells us how meticulous God’s plan was, and is, and will forever will be. Ordained in eternity, every step of Christ’s journey to the cross had to be completed. And, in this statement (I thirst), we have every reason to believe that everything we need for salvation has been accomplished.
God does not skip one detail in his work of redemption, and as we approach Good Friday, we can confess his goodness in knowing that the thirst of the Son was planned too. And more, every thirst that we have is also planned by God, so that Christ can satisfy us and give us living water. To that end, may we come to the cross of Christ and drink of his grace, his life, and his love. All of these things were planned by God, outlined in Scripture, and fulfilled in Christ. Therefore, let us bring out thirsts to him to his life-giving water.
Soli Deo Gloria, ds