Physical thirst is a big deal. If we don't drink, we die. If we drink the wrong liquids, it's harmful or even toxic. Today, the Son of God who made the waters thirsts FOR water. Let's look at:

1. Universal Thirst
2. Cosmic Thirst
3. Satisfying YOUR Thirst

How IS it, for instance, that this One, whom Christians call "God incarnate" now complains TO God in this moment? Is God complaining against Himself? AND the Victim uses foreign language… WHY? AND There are apparently miraculous happenings… in nature… in the Temple and even in the tombs around Jerusalem. AND, at the end, the soldiers carrying out this execution regret what they'd done – "He was innocent…"

That's what I want to look at today – NOT a cold analysis of tragedy that should make us weep – but a way to move beyond being appalled and saddened and instead to get the true meaning of the scene as what it is: the watershed or dividing-line or breakthrough in God's plan, THĒ Crisis Moment in all of history. Let's look at:

1. The Method of Scripture
2. The Meaning of the Symbols
3. Metabolizing the Significance

Leading to this Word of Relationship we find this sort of behind the scenes bargaining between the religious leaders and the Roman Governor, the notorious Pontius Pilate. These frenzied negotiations (if we could call them that) stand in stark contrast with the apparent tenderness and composure of The Third Word. There's an unholy alliance between the Church and the State at the start and… at the finish, a sweet and caring HOLY alliance, that's familial and generous.

I want to look at this juxtaposition of blindness and kindness, of tenderness and treachery and some deeper things we might easily miss but that show the profound significance of this moment and this Third Word: 1)The Way of the World 2)The Way of the King 3)The New and Living Way of Relationship (Heb 10.19-22)