Jesus knew that everything was now finished, and to fulfill the Scriptures he said, "I am thirsty."John 19:28
When Jesus said, "I am thirsty," was He complaining? Was He stating a justified physical need in the last moment of His life? And why would the Bible say everything was "finished" if He was still thirsty?
Jesus rarely ever said things that didn't have deeper meaning—meaning that could only be understood later through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Expressing thirst was His way of telling you and me something, but what? What could He possibly thirst for in His dying breath? It certainly wasn't the sour wine they held to His lips—He refused to drink it.
The fact is, Jesus thirsted for you.
You are the one empty, unsatisfied place left in His longing heart. You are His treasured child and He thirsts to be reunited and reconciled with all of His children someday. He longs for every one of His children with a deep, unquenchable, aching thirst, just as every parent of a prodigal desperately longs for their estranged child to come home.
From the moment of His death, He has longed for the day when everything will be set aright so that He can be with you again in His paradise. He will never get over His holy longing for you, until the day you come home.
The fact is, Jesus isn't the only One who is thirsty. Just like He reminded the woman at the well, He created you and me with an unsatisfied thirst for Him—a thirst that will never be quenched until we are fully reconciled and restored to Him. Like a child longs for a restored relationship with a parent, or a lonely person longs after a soul mate, you are made to always be in that place of longing for Jesus, the lover of your soul.
Jesus thirsted. You thirst. For each other. This thirst will never fully be satisfied this side of heaven. But someday, you will come home to Jesus, and your parched heart and weary soul will at last be quenched in the amazing, satisfying Living Water.