Tenebrae 2021

“After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), ‘I thirst.’” ( John 19:28 ) Meditation on the Fifth Word There is a kind of timelessness about hanging on a cross. It is not a quiet death, over in an instant, in one glorious moment of martyrdom. A cross is as much an instrument of torture as it is a gallows from which to hang, the day wears on, seconds stretch into minutes, which stretch into hours, until there comes a point when time enters into eternity - when it can no longer be measured except in pain. As his body gradually weakens, there is an ever more insistent demand for that substance which is so vital to life, so foundational to all living things, so basic to existence as we know it: water. Water to moisten a parched mouth. Water to free a swollen tongue. Water to open a rasping throat that cannot gasp enough air. Water to keep hope alive to keep life alive just a few moments longer. Water, to a crucified man, is life. "O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee as in a dry and weary land where no water is." Who can tell if these words from Psalm 63 went through Jesus mind, but a thirst for water is a thirst for life, and a thirst for life is a thirst for the God who promises streams in the desert, mighty rivers in the dry land, and living water to wash away every tear. Here, at the end of it all, those promises seem far away. Yet Jesus - forsaken by God - still clings to the memory and the hope of life. "I thirst." Extinguish Fifth Candle and Dim Lights Hymn: # 363 – Let Thy Blood in Mercy Poured “A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished’.” ( John 19:29-30 ) Meditation on the Sixth Word What a sigh of relief! What a cry of deliverance. Finally, after seemingly endless pain and gasping torment, it is over at last. The suffering is ended. The ordeal is finished and nothing remains but the blessed peace of the absence of all sensation. When all there is, is pain, its ceasing is the greatest blessing of all, even when its ceasing comes only with death. But Jesus' cry is more than just welcoming the ending of pain. It is more than joy at the deliverance death brings. He does not merely say, "It is over" he says, "It is accomplished, fulfilled, achieved." Jesus' cry isn't a cry of defeat and despair. It is a cry of triumph - even at the moment of death: the race has been run, he has endured to the end, the strife is over and the battle is won. Jesus' cry is a cry of relief to be sure, but it is also a cry of victory: "The work I came to do is complete." There is nothing more to add. "It is finished."