The Scars and Thirst of Christ on Good Friday

What can a break point, a daily look, and an ever-changing culture through the lens of

unchanging truth?

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

I thirst.

Only John's Gospel records these words.

They were uttered by Jesus were told not as a guttural physical response, but with intention.

Knowing that all was now finished, Jesus said, I thirst in order to fulfill the Scriptures.

And yet, we all not think these words are manufactured or insincere either.

You see, earlier in his ministry, Jesus had on the last great day of the feast of tabernacles

stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart, will flow rivers of

living water.

The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal

life.

And now, on the cross, he who said these words was himself thirsty.

Now, why are we told this?

Why is the fact that Jesus thirsted important?

The world changed on all saints day in 1755.

And Lisbon, Portugal, a 10-minute earthquake followed by a tsunami and fires killed and

estimated 60,000 people, many crushed by collapsing churches where they had gathered to celebrate

that Christian holy day.

According to moral philosopher Susan Neiman, for many Western intellectuals, this incident

of natural evil proved that God couldn't no longer be trusted.

The French philosopher, Voltaire, offered scathing words in a poem.

Are you then sure, he wrote, the power which would create, the universe and fixed the

laws of fate could not have found for man a proper place, but earthquakes must destroy

the human race.

And so in the modern era, trust moved from God to man.

And it seemed to work.

The next few centuries were marked by technological advances, scientific progress, and scholarly criticism

of the Bible.

However, the peak of modernism was the 20th century, which revealed that trust in man

was badly misplaced.

The mechanized slaughter of millions in two world wars, communism, Auschwitz, and the

threat of nuclear annihilation.

So where do we turn now if we can't trust God or man?

The cross directly addresses this world of moral and natural evil.

As the prophet Isaiah foretold, he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our equities.

The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.

The cross proves that God is not a lieu from human suffering, as Voltaire had imagined.

Or will human evil have the final say?

Our God once thirsted like we do.

He bled as we do in this existence of fallen people and a fallen world.

In Christ, God entered the world of human suffering, suffered himself, defeated suffering,

and now has the scars to prove it.

Nearly two centuries after Voltaire, theologian Edward Chalito offered a poem with a very

different take on the suffering we experience.

Here are two stanzas of that poem.

If we have never sought we seek thee now, then eyes burn through the dark.

Our only stars.

We must have sight of Thornprix on thy brow.

We must have thee, O Jesus, of the scars.

The other gods were strong, but thou wast weak.

They rode, but thou did stumble to a throne.

And to our wounds, only God's wounds can speak, and not a God has wounds, but thou alone.

Today, on Good Friday, we remember we worship and proclaim this God, Jesus of the scars.

To him, be all glory and praise forever and ever.

Amen.

For Breakpoint, I'm John Stone Street.

Christians are people of hope.

We might not feel like we have hope, but there is hope.

There's hope for the story of the world.

As Christians, our hope isn't simply wishful thinking.

Our hope is rooted in Christ himself.

Truth rising the study is a free study and explores the four truths that ground authentic

hope.

Christ is a risen, Christ is Lord, Christ is making all things new, and He has placed

us here for this time and place.

Take the next step in understanding hope that is anchored in Christ.

Sign up for Truth Rising the Study at colsoncenter.org slash study.

That's colsoncenter.org slash study.