It Is Finished

I’m thirsty

 

When Jesus said this from the cross, it was more than him needing a refreshing beverage as he hung there. This was the deep broken soul of the messiah, relating to the empty, hollow feeling of nothingness we often feel inside. 

 

Just moments before this, he took on the weight and punishment of mankind’s sin. And in that moment, he felt the abandonment of His Heavenly Father. Now, Jesus hung on the cross, broken, ashamed, and alone. 

 

So John tells us in verse 28 of chapter 19, 

 

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 

 

He wasn’t just responding to his physical awareness when he said this. He was thinking of the full pictures. The scriptures being fulfilled, and the soon coming conclusion of his earthly life was at hand, he thirsted for completion. He was ready for the curse of sin to be broken, and to be reunited with His Heavenly Father once again! 

 

I wonder, did Jesus flash back through his earthly life? 

 

Did he see those moments where the angels proclaimed his birth? 

 

Did he know of the shepherds who came and visited him as a newborn baby? 

 

Did he understand what was happening, as he stood in the temple answering questions of the religious leaders? 

 

Did his mind stop at his baptism, and did he look at his temptations in the wilderness and say, “This is what it was all leading to?”

 

Did he travel in his mind, straight through the moment in the garden, and right up onto the cross? 

 

Did he see that everything spoken in scripture up to this moment, and what it would mean, was all coming to a crescendo? 

 

Because as he breathed his last moments, he was able to say, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. And then with one last exhale, “it is finished.”