The Lord is in the Details

We woke up again to another fresh coating of snow, ole Punxatwaney Phil was wrong again !!  A little weather detail gone awry !!  Though its officially spring now, the reality has yet to set in with us here in Pennsylvania !   Many around here are saying we were spoiled by last year’s weather as it was unusually warm then.  But I am grateful to be serving the Lord rain, shine, snow or heat.

Today I was putting finishing touches on a sermon for Palm Sunday and as I have been studying Jesus’ sayings on the cross I was challenged and heartened by what He said which we can so quickly read in the Gospel accounts and it whiz over our head.  Let me just touch on one and not let too much out of the bag for Sunday.  How about when Jesus stated very simply “I thirst” as John records it so succinctly in John 19:28.  And he adds a little preface to the Lord’s words thus: “that the Scripture might be fulfilled”.    John alludes to a psalm of David a millenia before in Ps.69:21, “They gave Me also gall for My meat: and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.”   A small detail, a terse saying of Jesus while on the cross, one of only a handful recorded for us in the Bible yet nonetheless important for us to consider !

Imagine how parched he must’ve been at this point.  Up all night having gone through a sham trial, beaten and scourged by soldiers. I can’t think of anyone in the gospel accounts who would’ve been close enough to Him to have had enough pity to give him a simple drink of water. So to say He was thirsty was incredibly true and it reveals something very needful for us and salvation to have been accomplished. It reveals to us that He truly was human !!    Yes, He is God but He also became man and if He hadn’t the wrath of God would not have been satisfied on that cross.  A man had to die for man’s sin but that man had to have been perfect in every way as the sacrificial lamb was spotless, only His purity had to be more than outward !

The next time you’re in a need of wetting your whistle with a refreshing drink remember He said “I thirst” and rejoice that He has paid your ransom from sin and for salvation !!!