I have been teaching through the book of John and last week was teaching particularly on chapter 6. It is an incredibly confrontational scene where Jesus makes extraordinary claims and eventually many who were following him turned back after hearing him on this occasion.
One of the things He says is that anyone who believes in Him will not thirst. All through the Bible we have images of hungering and thirsting that have to do with seeking God and His kingdom. We see it in the Psalms, in the prophetic writings (see Isaiah 55 for example), and in the teachings of Jesus. He has said something similar to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 and she has proven the depth of her thirst by staying with Him in his metaphor, even after He has pointed out her relationship problems. The promise here is that the thirst we have for spiritual sustenance will be met in the presence of the Holy Spirit and the promise that Jesus will be with us always even to the end of the age (Matt 28).
At the cross, Jesus says, "I thirst." Does that have a double meaning beyond the obvious one that the soldiers attempt to meet? Does it also tell us something of the separation He experienced?
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