The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross-38

"I thirst"

7. Here we see the enunciation of an abiding principle.

There is a sense, a real one, in which Christ still thirsts. He is thirsting for the love and devotion of his own. He is yearning for fellowship with his blood-bought people. Here is one of the great marvels of grace - a redeemed sinner can offer that which satisfies the heart of Christ! I can understand how I ought to appreciate his love, but how wonderful that he - the all-sufficient one - should appreciate my love! I have learned how blessed to my own soul is communion with him, but who would have supposed that my communion was blessed to Christ! Yet it is. For this he still "thirsts". Grace enables us to offer that which refreshes him. Wondrous thought!

Have you ever noticed in John 4 that though Christ said to the woman who came to the well, "Give me to drink" - for he sat there "wearied" from the journey and heat - that he never took a drink of water? In the salvation and faith of that Samaritan woman he found that which refreshed his heart! Love is never satisfied till there is a response and love in return! So with Christ. Here is the key to Revelation 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me".

This is often applied to the unsaved, but its primary reference is to the Church. It pictures Christ seeking the fellowship of his own. He speaks of "supping" and in scripture supping is ever symbolic of communion, just as the Lord’s Supper is a special season of communion between the Saviour and the saved. And observe in this passage Christ speaks of a double supping - "I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me". Not only is it our unspeakable privilege to sup with him, and to commune with him, to delight ourselves in him, but he "sups" with us. He finds in our communion something for his heart to feed upon, something which refreshes him, and that something is our devotion and love. Yes, the Christ of God still "thirsts", thirsts for the affection of his own. O will you not offer that which will satisfy him? Respond then to his own call - "Set me as a seal upon thine heart" (Song of Solomon 8:6).