In the last minutes of Jesus' life the apostle John tells us about a final wish of Jesus: "After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst!" (John 19:28).

The "Scripture" is apparently a reference to Psalm 69, verse 21: "They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."

"Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, It is finished! And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit" (John 19:29-30).

That Jesus drank just minutes before His death fulfilled scripture, but perhaps more than just in a physical sense, because the small amount of fluid He drank would not have counteracted the dehydration that would have set in after hours of torture on the cross.

In a conversation with a woman of Samaria Jesus described a water that provides eternal life: "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water . . . The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:10, 14).

To be born as a human being and become our offering for sin, Jesus gave up His existence as a spirit being: "Who, though He [Jesus] was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:6-7; ESV).

Some 18 hours before His death Jesus asked His father to restore His spiritual existence with its glory: "And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was" (John 17:5).

Shortly after taking that final drink, Jesus died. "It is finished", He said. He experienced the next moment of His consciousness as a resurrected, glorified son of God, the firstborn among many brethren.

Do we thirst for the water that leads to eternal life?

With these thoughts I wish everyone a rewarding Sabbath!