Seven Statements from the Cross • Week 5

Statement V • John 19:28 • Sunday Kickoff

Two words. From the cross, in the middle of the worst suffering anyone has ever endured, Jesus looked at the people around him and said two words that should have been easy and were somehow the hardest thing he said all day.

I thirst.

He had a need. He could not meet it himself. He said so out loud. The one through whom all things were created, who turned water into wine and walked on it, looked at the people around him and said: I need something from you.

This is Statement Five and it is the one most of us skip every single day of our lives.

Why We Will Not Say It

We have a version of ourselves we are trying to maintain. The husband who has it together. The father who does not need help. The man of faith who trusts God enough that he does not have to admit when the weight has gotten too heavy. We fine our way through every conversation. We perform wellness at church on Sunday and fall apart quietly on Tuesday. We let the people who love us feel that something is wrong without giving them anything they can actually hold or help.

James 5:16 says to confess our struggles to each other and pray for each other so that we may be healed. Not so that we may be forgiven. Healed. We go to God for forgiveness. We go to God’s people for healing. And healing requires saying out loud the thing we have been carrying alone.

We are only as sick as our secrets.

Where Love, Joy, and Peace Enter

Love requires letting someone close enough to actually love us, which means letting them see what we are actually carrying. Joy is the power to endure hard things, and that power grows inside community, not isolation. And Peace, the kind that is whole and complete and lacking nothing, cannot be built on a performance. It is built on the truth. The man who finally opens the door does not lose something. He gains the only thing that was ever going to help.

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