God in heaven can never be thirsty, for He is the source of all things. St. John describes the throne of God as the source of the river of living water (Revelation 22:1).
Although the transcendent God could never be thirsty, there were at least two times when God on earth became thirsty. One was on the cross when Jesus said, “I thirst” (Matthew 29:18). The second was when he asked the Samaritan woman at the well for a drink (John 4:7).
When Jesus asked her for a drink, the Samaritan woman was incredulous, for Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each other, especially across gender lines. The two clans despised each other, with the Jews considering themselves to be God’s chosen and righteous people, far above the heretical Samaritans. She asked Jesus, “Why do you, a Jewish man, ask for something to drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (John 4:9).
The thirsty Jesus was intentionally relating to her on His level of weakness and need as a means of sharing the living water of the Spirit with her, giving her the opportunity to come to faith in Him as the Messiah.
Sometimes others can best relate to us when we come across not as strong, fortified people, but as those with weaknesses and needs. In the 1960s a young, independent missionary name Bruce Olsson went to live among the Yukos Indians who lived in the mountains along the border between Venezuela and Columbia. He lived with them for four months and learned a bit of their language, but was sick, bored, dissatisfied, and felt alienated from them.
He could not find anything he liked about the people and decided to leave them. Happy to get rid of him, they gave him a good donkey and showed him the path back to civilization. After carrying Bruce for about an hour, the seemingly docile animal reared back and threw him, leaving him hurt in the mud. The liberated donkey immediately galloped back to the Yukos tribe.
Bruce had no choice but to return, where he was greeted by laughter and jeers from the Yukos. The big white man could not even ride a donkey. Humiliated, Bruce quickly saddled and remounted the donkey, returning to the trail. This time he rode for three hours before the donkey threw him over his head. The donkey did not run this time, so Bruce got up to try and catch him. The donkey reared up and kicked him in his face and arm. Blood spurted out of his mouth and onto his clothes. The pain was blinding and felt like a vibrating shell all around him.
When the pain subsided enough for him to see, the donkey was gone. Bruce put pressure on his mouth and eventually stopped the bleeding. By now it was too late to continue on the trail, so he spent a cold, miserable night in the open jungle, sleeping only fitfully.
In the morning, Bruce began a long, miserable hike back to the Indians, falling down repeatedly due to his injuries and weakness. Shortly before nightfall, as he finally approached the Indian village, he began to yell, “Help me, please help me” in their language. He did not care if they laughed at him, he was desperate.
A few Indians appeared and the chief was with them. This time they did not laugh, and the chief himself carried him into the village and helped take care of him for a week before Bruce was able to gain the strength to walk again. Now, his relationship with the Indians changed. Before, he had felt like a despised outsider. Now, he was one with them in their suffering. In the following months, he was able to learn their language better and become friends with them.
Our Lord Jesus Christ left his throne in glory and became one with us in our thirst and our suffering. Only then were we able to receive his witness of the good news of God’s love. He came to us thirsty, asking us for a drink, but our thirst for living water is far deeper than any physical thirst He had.
When we go to the cross of Christ and see His suffering, we are able to relate to the Son of God and hear a message about living water that can quench our deepest thirst and give us life.
Dr. Dan Darby is a retired United Methodist pastor.
