Jn.19:28, Jesus knew that His mission was accomplished, and to fulfill the Scripture, Jesus said: “I am thirsty.”
30When He had sipped the sour wine He said, “It is finished, My bride!”
34But one of the soldiers took a spear and pierced Jesus’ side, and blood and water gushed out!
These scriptures are from the Passion Translation and tell the love story of the Cross so well. When Jesus cried “I thirst,” He wasn’t saying He was physically thirsty; instead, He was proclaiming the infinite love of God for humanity. He was making a statement of explanation as to why God would step out of eternity, and live as a man; exposing Himself to temptation, and suffering, that was consummated during Holy Week, and now at the Cross. He was saying He went through all of this because of the infinite thirst of God to have us for Himself. His thirst for us to receive His love, and to be made whole by Him, in hope that we would love Him in return, is why He went through all of the indignity and suffering. He was driven by the “divine madness” of His great love for those created for His love. May you be that one who satiates His infinite thirst, by fully, and mindlessly receiving His love, and loving Him back with reckless abandonment.