The Word of Deprivation and Want

Jesus exposes vulnerability as intimacy. He represents the denied, deprived, thirsty. His cry demands transformation. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.

Photo by Piotr Arnoldes

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the Scripture), “I thirst.” (Jn 19: 28)

The fifth word from the Cross, “I thirst”, uttered during darkness, manifests Jesus’ perfect humanity with all its vulnerability. Jesus had no easy way to fulfil God’s will on this earth. He had to directly confront the forces of evil. In this mission, he had to go through doubt, loneliness and darkness. He felt that even God had forsaken him. He suffered physical agony in its depth. He did not try to hide his vulnerability and physical needs. He cries out like any other human being and asks for the consolation of a little water that would ease his pain and suffering.

It is unfortunate that as a Christian community we have failed to recognize the humanity of Christ and the hope that his perfect humanity provides for us. The gospels take pains to affirm his humanity and to affirm that Jesus also had all the physical needs and temptations that any human being would have. Jesus was hungry (Mt 11: 12); Jesus became angry (Mk 3: 5, 10: 14, Mt 21: 12-13); Jesus was tired and thirsty (Jn 4: 6-7); Jesus wept (Jn 11: 35); Jesus yearned for affirmation and friendship; Jesus was deeply distressed and troubled; he was overwhelmed with sorrow (Mk 14: 32-38). It is Jesus’ perfect humanity that makes him the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. (Heb 12: 2)

As the Book of Hebrews affirms, Jesus is our elder brother, the firstborn in the family of God: “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death…” (Heb 2: 14) The book of Hebrews further affirms: “For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Heb 2: 17-18)

It is in this vein that the Church fathers affirmed that Jesus’ perfect divinity was in his perfect humanity. We cannot become God, we can only become perfect human beings; Jesus being its perfect model, we can follow him and model him; Jesus is the prototype of the new humanity. Unfortunately, we are more interested in making him our cult deity and worshipping him rather than following him by taking up our crosses. Today, Jesus has more worshippers than followers.

It is important that we acknowledge our needs; they are not to be despised. Jesus enjoyed participating in feasts, whoever might be his hosts. Jesus was in fact abused by the religious leadership as “a glutton and a drunkard” (Mt 11: 19; Lk 7: 34). However, Jesus raised our basic human needs to a more sacred and sublime level of celebrating God’s gifts and also creating communities of love and fellowship. The central act of Christian worship, remembering of Christ, and Christian commitment is a feast, a matter of eating and drinking, but it was turned into a sublime occasion of thanksgiving, self-giving, loving, caring and sharing and building community.

Of course, equally, there is the possibility of food and drink being used for self-indulgence. Extending this theme further, Paul writes in 1 Timothy of those whose “consciences are seared with a hot iron” and continues: “They forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by God’s word and by prayer.”(4: 1-4)

Through this word from the Cross, Jesus comes to us with all his vulnerabilities and seeks entry into our lives. Most of us prefer to hide our vulnerabilities and put up a brave front; we often put up an image of self-sufficiency and self-confidence which make relationships difficult. But Jesus opens up his needs, even physical needs, as a point of entry into the life of others to establish a transforming friendship. The story of the transformation of the Samaritan woman is a case in point. Jesus approaches her with one of the most basic needs of any living organism, water. “Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (Jn 4: 6-7)

Imagine the source of “living water” folding his hands to create something like a bowl and to take on a beggar’s posture to receive water from the Samaritan woman. He begs, “Give me a drink.” Jesus was exposing his vulnerability before this woman as a means of establishing an intimate relationship with her. In fact, we know that this relationship had become extremely therapeutic that she opened up her life and its vagaries before Jesus. It became a transforming encounter.

The cry, I thirst, still resounds in our ears as representing the yearning of Jesus for our friendship and our transformation. We should also take on this posture if we have to enter into a transforming relationship with others and become channels of the “living water”. The cry represents Christ’s ardent desire to receive the love of human hearts and to fill those same hearts with divine charity; it is a sublime and spiritual invitation to love.

Jesus has come down to the depth of human depravity and hence, the cry from the Cross for a little water to quench his thirst. Jesus here represents those who are denied the basic needs of life; he represents the hungry and the thirsty. Many basic needs of a large section of people in this world remain unmet, not because of lack of resources, but because of unequal distribution and access to resources. This is the manifestation of a sinful world. Jesus enters into the depth of this human deprivation and hence, the cry, “I Thirst”. Our response to this cry would finally be taken up in the Last Judgement. We would hear him say, “I was thirsty and you gave me something/nothing to drink… Truly I tell you, whatever you did/did not do for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did/ did not do for me.” (Matt. 25: 35-46)

Water is increasingly becoming a rare commodity, which only the rich can afford. In the Bible, water is depicted as the source of life. In John 4: 10-15, in the conversation that Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at the well, he speaks metaphorically of the life he promises to all who turn to him for “living water” and as “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Jesus further points out in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”(Mt. 5:7) Righteousness is a state of right relationship with God, fellow human beings and the rest of creation. Jesus’ thirst was always to restore right relationships, to heal broken lives and to bring wholeness to humanity and the rest of creation. That is represented in the prayer that he taught us, “Thy Kingdom come” and “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Deep within all of us is a thirst that transcends the physical ones. It can be for love or to be loved; it can be for meaning and fulfilment. This is represented by the Psalmist, “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.”(42. 1) Ultimately, Jesus in this cry represents to God, his heavenly Father, the anguish of all humanity for restoration of right relationships – shalom.

Jesus did not try to hide his humanity and his vulnerability before the Samaritan woman: “Will you give me a drink?” Jesus went through all the privations of humanity. However, through this exposure of his own vulnerability, Jesus was trying to establish a relationship of intimacy with this woman so that she would take the freedom and courage to open herself up to Jesus. She was not just an ordinary woman; she was a woman with lots of critical questions; she had deep within her psyche a longing for living water. She was used and abused by men and finally left to fend for herself. Jesus, by opening up his vulnerability, by his unconditional positive regard, transforms her into recognizing the long awaited messiah in Jesus and becoming the first woman evangelist and credible witness of Jesus Christ. When Jesus cried, “I thirst”, he was expressing his deepest desire for the deepest intimacy with all of humanity, all of us.

In response to this cry, they (probably the soldiers) held a sponge full of vinegar on hyssop to his lips and he received it. (Jn 19: 29) Jesus accepts vinegar which, unlike wine, is very bitter. Jesus accepts the bitter consequences of our sin and gives up his life. This is divine love. And this divine love thirsts for our return and our love. How will you respond to this divine yearning today, “I Thirst”?

~ Prayer ~

O God, you shared our humanity in the person of Christ; you suffered all our wants; you took upon yourself the thirst of humanity disfigured by our own sinfulness. Despite the fact that you are the source of living water, you chose to become one of us who, in the height of suffering and loneliness, cries out in thirst; finally you succumbed to drinking the bitter vinegar of human sinfulness. Help us to realise that you thirst for our salvation and our peace and our right relationships in the world. Help us also to recognize our real thirst and to find it quenched by following your, son our Lord, Jesus Christ who totally abandoned himself for us in love.

Amen