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Reading Classics Together - The Seven Sayings (Chapter 5)
- 06/05/08
- 9
This morning those of us who are reading some Christian classics together are going to be looking at the fifth chapter of A.W. Pink’s The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross. You can read more about this effort here: Reading the Classics Together. Before we begin, do allow me to apologize for not posting about the chapter last week. When I go to conferences my intentions are always good, but somehow I can rarely do all the things I think I can. Such was the case last week.
Summary
Jesus’ fifth saying on the cross is the word of suffering. According to John 19:28, “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), ‘I thirst.’” This is the simplest of Jesus’ sayings from the cross and could easily be seen as His least significant. Yet in this chapter Pink shows that even such a simple statement is loaded with meaning.
The chapter follows this outline:
- Here we have an evidence of Christ’s humanity.
- Here we see the intensity of Christ’s sufferings.
- Here we see our Lord’s deep reverence for the Scriptures.
- Here we see the Saviour’s submission to the Father’s will.
- Here we see how Christ can sympathize with His suffering people.
- Here we see the expression of a universal need.
- Here we see the enunciation of an abiding principle.
Discussion
By way of preamble, I should say that I was challenged by this chapter, perhaps more than even the others, to be willing to look deeply into even Scripture’s smallest parts. This little phrase we are studying today could so easily be overlooked or could be seen merely as the thirsty cry of a tortured individual. And while it was that, Pink shows well that it was also much more. It is too easy for me, I think, to look only at the most obvious, most surface meanings without digging deeper into the text. Pink is a master of digging deep.
As is usually the case, there were a couple of Pink’s points in this chapter that stood out to me more than the others. The first was his discussion of these words pointing to Jesus’ humanity. While the Trinity is an impossible concept to grasp fully, I am well aware that Jesus was both fully God and fully human. The Bible teaches this with clarity and there is no reason to disbelieve it, even if we cannot get our minds around it. Somehow seeing Jesus’ cry for a drink as an aspect of His humanity touched me. Somehow it shows Him to be so human, so fully human. This comes even more into focus as we later ponder the fact that Jesus could so easily have called forth water to assuage his thirst. He was, after all, the one who created the world! But as Pink points out, none of His miracles were done for His sake, and this would be true as well on the cross. He suffered humbly as one who was fully human, even while being fully God. What a wonder!
The second area that stood out was the discussion of this saying being a sign of Christ’s submission to the Father’s will. He hung on the cross and He hung on the cross with parched lips, in order to be obedient to the Father’s will. He was willing to suffer in order to please and to obey the Father. In this case His Father required that the words of Scripture be fulfilled and Jesus was willing and eager to do so. “In death, as in life, Scripture was for the Lord Jesus the authoritative Word of the living God. In the temptation He had refused to minister to His need apart from that Word by which He lived, and so now He makes known His need, not that it might be ministered unto but that Scripture might be fulfilled.” What an amazing thing that Christ, fully man, was so focused on obeying and glorifying God even while in such a state of agony. Never did Christ forget His mission.
Next Time
We will continue next Thursday with the sixth chapter of the book and look at Jesus’ word of victory.
Your Turn
I am eager to know what you gained from this chapter. Feel free to post comments below or to write about this on your own blog (and then post a comment linking us to your thoughts). Do not feel that you can only say anything if you are going to say something that will wow us all. Just add a comment with some of the things you gained from the this week’s reading.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I write books and blogs for fun while doing web design and consulting for a living. I worship and serve at 
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Comments (9)
I posted a few thoughts on my blog:
Word of Suffering at Writing and Living
That our Lord could have been thirsting for souls and for fellowship with His people never occurred to me. However, those thoughts *did* occur to Cecil Frances Alexander (1823-1895), and she wrote a hymn to express them:
His are the thousand sparkling rills That from a thousand fountains burst, And fill with music all the hills; And yet He saith, “I thirst.”
All fiery pangs on battle fields, On fever beds where sick men toss, Are in that human cry He yields, To anguish on the cross.
But more than pains that racked him then Was the deep longing thirst divineThat thirsted for the souls of men; Dear Lord! And one was mine.
O Love most patient, give me grace; Make all my soul athirst for Thee; That parched dry lip, that fading face, That thirst, were all for me.
The words have been set to more than one tune, but I like the tune ELMHURST the best. (You can listen to this tune on Cyberhymnal.org.)
On page 105 of our book, the hymn Dr. Pink encourages us to sing is one written by Horatius Bonar, the “Prince of Scottish Hymnwriters” -- the 200th anniversary of whose birth we celebrate this year. This hymn is entitled “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say,” and these lines are the last half of the first verse. But I’m surprised that Dr. Pink didn’t choose the *second* verse, which is:
I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Behold I freely giveThe living water, thirsty one, Stoop down, and drink, and live.” I came to Jesus, and I drank of that life-giving stream; My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in Him.
The music is by John B. Dykes: with the first two lines in a minor key, and the third and fourth lines in a major key, a pattern that marvelously enhances the meaning of the words of all three verses.
Some of my comments are posted on my blog: 7 Sayings - Chapter 5.
One of the sections that particularly stood out to me was the end of Pink's fourth section, Jesus' obedience to God's will. In particular was how Pink drew out how to obey the Father's will meant that he had to suffer even thirst, and even then how I grumble and complain about my own day and circumstances.
I mean I'm a believer privileged to have twenty gazillion times more than adequate shelter, food, clothing and even clean water let alone all of the soft drinks and good food any number of the competing grocery stores nearby will sell me for dirt cheap.
Or even coffee? How many of us take that wonderful cup of coffee in the morning for granted?
And yet I grumble and complain about the future, what I don't have and am fearful and anxious (to say nothing of what Christ says in Matt. 6).
But while I grumble over what I've been blessed with, Christ alone suffers with thirst to stand in my place at Calvary. Instead of good coffee or even a warm cup of water, Christ went and thirsted on a tree in my place. I was the one who deserved to thirst not Him.
How wonderful is our Savior and may he teach all of our hearts to be thankful and joyous ones for every single thing He has done!
I liked Pink's second point:
Jesus had just gone through incredible ordeals. In the garden of Gethsemane he wept bitterly for Israel and shed tears of blood. He was beaten near death, spat upon, and carried His cross up the hill where He was nailed, through His hands and feet, to the cross. There He hung in the hot sun, until the three hours of darkness. This was clearly His most difficult time. He took the sin of the world upon Himself, He became sin, and in those three hours took the wrath of a Holy and Just God upon Himself. His greatest pain was separation from the Father and bearing His Holy judgment. It was immediately after this, Matthew tells us, that He uttered the words, "I thirst".
Pink wants us to understand that this was not just an utterance from the God-man, but clearly an utterance to rekindle His relationship with the Father after suffering God's Holy wrath.
Psalm 42:1-3, "As a deer long for streams of water, so I long for You, God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while all day long people say to me, "Where is your God?"
Do you see it? Jesus was physically thirsty, but most of all, He was thirsty to be back in His Father's presence. He longed for His Father!
As a 51 year old man, I have great streams of tears running down my face. Why? Because my father, for many, many years, withheld his spoken words of love for me. I didn't hear my father say, "I love you", until I was in my late 30's. Up until that time, the deepest longings of my soul were to hear those words and have his approval.
Imagine what it must have been like for Christ to separate Himself from God the Father! What complete and utter horror!
http://www.boomerinthepew.com/2008/06/the-fifth-word.html
Yes, Pink shows in this chapter his incredible gift for digging deep, and that encourages me to be more careful in my reading of the Word!
Two things stood out to me in this chapter. First, for some reason I noticed more in this chapter the focus that Pink puts on speaking directly to his readers, especially his obvious expectation that some would be unsaved. He makes more than one plea for the reader to insure that he does not deny Christ. I know he's done this in most previous chapters, too, but I seemed to notice it more this time.
Second, the thought that Christ would in some way be more refreshed by "supping" with me is profoundly humbling. The concluding point that Christ still thirsts is stunning, and the double emphasis in Revelation 3:20 on Christ communing with us and us with him is something to meditate on.
I posted some comments on my blog, again another weighty chapter from Mr. Pink.
Ron
Ah, a bit slow from the gate, but here's a link to my comment: http://www.livejournal.com/update.bml
Okay, that link I posted is incorrect AND I lost the comment too. I'll have to re-post it to my blog later.