Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” (John 19:28)
Why did Jesus speak this word? If we accept the principle of the most obvious answer probably being the correct one, then the answer to the question, “Why did Jesus speak this word?” would appear to be because he was thirsty. And there’s no doubt that he was. A raging thirst was one of the effects of crucifixion.
It does us good to hear this, for it reminds us that although Jesus acted and spoke differently on the cross than you and I would have—words of forgiveness and love rather than words of anger and self-pity—what he was experiencing on the cross was real. Because Jesus was a living, breathing human being, he was feeling very real pain, every bit as much as you and I would have felt.
Therefore, what took place on Calvary that day was not a charade. Jesus was not pretending to suffer. These were actual nails, those were actual tendons and nerves, and that was actual pain. This was actual thirst. All this reality reminds us that a real payment for sin was made on the cross on our behalf. Our sins have really been paid for.
Back to the matter of Jesus’ thirst. Was his thirst—and a desire to quench it—the primary reason Jesus spoke this word? Was there enough wine vinegar in all the world to take away the thirst Jesus must have felt? I doubt it.
Actually, if the most obvious answer is probably the correct one, then the answer to the question, “Why did Jesus speak this word?” is the one mentioned in the text: “so that Scripture would be fulfilled.” The same Savior who said that he had come to fulfill every last bit of God’s commands (Matthew 5:17,18) had also come to fulfill every last prophecy made about him. In Psalm 22 Jesus had prophesied about himself, “My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth” (v. 15). Then in Psalm 69 he said, “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst” (v. 21).
Given all he’d been through, it hardly seems critical that Jesus would fulfill this small portion of Scripture, but that had never been Jesus’ way. He didn’t take any days off from being your Savior. He never took even a coffee break from being your perfect substitute. He left nothing undone.
Therefore, there’s no need for you to do something to be saved, to finish off what Jesus started. Even in this seemingly most minor of matters, Jesus has done it all.