by Michael Youssef, Ph.D.
“Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty'” (John 19:28). This cry, the fifth statement from the cross, was a cry of personal agony and physical pain, but also a cry of deep spiritual need.
Two days prior to the crucifixion, our Lord Jesus went through a tremendous amount of tension and apprehension. First, there was the upper room where He told His companions, who had walked with Him for three years, that one of them was about to betray Him.
That was followed by Gethsemane, where our Lord was sweating blood, asking the Father if there was some other way that this cup could pass, that His people could be redeemed. Then there was the tension and the apprehension of His arrest in Gethsemane. Following His arrest, He was dragged back and forth from one place of interrogation to another for a total of six interrogations. Jesus was then flogged before being hung on the cross with nails tearing His hands and feet.
No wonder His soul was anguished with the cry of physical thirst! It was the anguish of His thirst that assures us that He will never turn down one who comes to Him crying, “Lord, save me.” If you have ever doubted that the Lord has heard your cry of surrender, meditate on His cries from the cross and be assured that He will always hear you.
Prayer: God, thank You for the reminder today that You will always hear me. Thank You for enduring so much physical suffering to make a way for me to come to You. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
“Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy” (Psalm 130:1-2).
I COMMIT MY SPIRIT
As Jesus nears the end of His agony, we meditate on the sixth statement from the cross: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).
This cry was not the cry of defeat, but the cry of victory. It was not the cry of one conquered by death, but of one conquering death. It was not the cry of a victim of circumstances, but of one in control of His circumstances. As a commander would dismiss a servant from his presence, Jesus dismissed His own Spirit and went to be with God the Father, speaking the words of Psalm 31:5: “Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God.”
When the centurion at the cross witnessed Jesus’ victorious cry, the officer recognized the difference between Jesus and every other dying man he had seen. It was in this moment that he said, “Surely this was a righteous man” (Luke 23:47).
Prayer: Lord, thank You for conquering death. Thank You for Your words that remind us You were not a victim but the one in control. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
“Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God” (Psalm 31:5).