Rev. Cecil Van Niejenhuis
Apr 3, 2026
John 19:1-30
Five days before, Jesus was paraded into Jerusalem…
He looked, upon entry, every bit a king…
Riding a donkey…
Palm branches waving
Hosannas ringing…hailing him as king…
On this day…Jesus was paraded…parodied out of Jerusalem
He looked, upon exit, nothing like a king
Weighted down by that cross he was dragging…
Yet we said, on Sunday---that though he did not look the part…
Nevertheless, Jesus in what appears to be such powerlessness
Such weakness, such folly…
Jesus was revealing himself very much as a king…
Flexing his royal strength not to avoid the cross, but to stay with it…
A purposefulness
An intentionality to Jesus…
Which John, as he tells us the story
As he reflects on what he witnessed, heard, saw…
Wants us to catch.
On the surface of things—Jesus as king---the Anointed One of God…seemed preposterous…Fake news, by today’s standards…
Look at him, says John…
Arrested…whipped…
Mocked and mistreated like a plaything…
Thorns twisted into a crown and planted on his head
Purple robe draped over him…
Soldiers coming up to him and greeting him sarcastically…
Hail, king ----and slapping him in the face…
Does this look like a king?
`Anything but…. And Pilate presented him to the crowds…costumed in crown and robe: “Here is your king!”
The crowd would have none of it…
Jesus did not meet their expectations of royal power…
And Jesus confused Pilate…Pilate who in his best king-like tone--said to Jesus…don’t you know that I have power to set you free or to have you crucified?
And Jesus…Jesus said simply, directly…
“You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above…”
---a hint, that there is more going on here, than meets the eye…
Back and forth with the crowd…
Then Jesus handed over to the soldiers---they were in charge…
Everyone had a say…
Everyone, it seemed, except Jesus…
The cross was carried out…and Pilate had the inscription placed above…
Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews…
With more controversy…he claims to be the king, but he’s not…
That background noise runs through the whole story as John tells it…
Jesus looks nothing like a king….
No.
But John…John sees in this moment of Jesus’ weakness and suffering and impending death…John sees the heart of God in Jesus…
John sees a strength that is a revelation of majesty…
He shares that in a number of ways…but we’ll focus on just this one window…
Jesus says: I am thirsty.
This is after those awful hours of darkness…after the forsakenness…
Jesus, says John===knowing that all was now completed…and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled…Jesus said…I am thirsty.
Jesus, says John---Jesus knew.
Jesus knew that the worst was over. Hell had been suffered.
And there was just the one last enemy to face…death.
Not as an exhausted rag of a wretch.
Not drifting off…
---sliding into oblivion…worn out and done in…
But Jesus had the presence of mind to know that all was now completed, and Jesus had the will to ask for something to drink…
So that his focus would be clear…his mind alert as he neared the end.
I imagine that when that sponge of wine vinegar was put to Jesus lips…
It was a shock to the system.
It jarred him with its acid…hydrating and dehydrating at the same time
A painful, but productive sip
When acid hits an open sore, a cracked lip…you are utterly aware of every sensation…
And, says John…Jesus received that drink. The word is not tolerated…
Endured…
Suffered…
It’s not the word appreciated or gave thanks either…
It’s simply the word received.
There is something about the way in which Jesus asks and then receives….which underlines the fact that Jesus was moving forward with intent.
Things aren’t just happening to him…
He’s not an unwilling victim reduced to a less than human pulp…
He is aware…of his own place in the bigger story…
He is aware of those around him…Woman…behold your son…
He knows that he is accomplishing something…
There is a purposefulness, an intentionality at work here…
In the gospel stories of Matthew and Mark and Luke…we are told that Jesus was offered something to drink…but we are not told whether he actually drank anything…
---and in Matthew’s telling, Jesus was first offered some wine vinegar mixed with gall, or myrrh…a kind of sedative, we imagine, that might have been used to dull the pain…
Jesus refused that.
There wasn’t an ounce of avoid
There wasn’t a millimeter of minimize
There wasn’t a speck of soothe…
Jesus endured—fully alert to what he was enduring. He suffered all that was laid on him.
Only John tells us that Jesus actually said---I am thirsty…and then received something which he drank…
Curious, isn’t it, that the only other time in Jesus entire life in which he asks for something to drink…is in this same gospel of John…the woman at the well….
Do you remember that?
And do you remember what Jesus told that woman?
Well water is one thing, but I can give you living water…
I am a source of life…a fountain
And here he is…Jesus, the source, the spring of living water…
And he is thirsty.
Irony of ironies.
He refused to drink early on…but now, he asks…and receives.
To sharpen his senses.
There’s something majestic about Jesus, even here---especially here…
And isn’t it John’s gospel that keeps on insisting that the glory of Jesus lies in his suffering??
It is. Glory…suffering…together. A revelation of weightiness, which radiates a surprising splendor.
When he had received the drink they gave him, Jesus was ready to drink to the last drops –the cup his Father had given him.
Alert.
This, dear friends, this is Jesus…our Saviour, our Friend, our Brother, our Lord.
A king with the resolute courage of a lion…
A king with the tender heart of a lamb
For God so loved the world…God gave us Jesus. And we, we are invited to quench our thirst…and to receive.
On this Good Friday…be alert to the wonder of Jesus.