“Christ cries, ‘I thirst.’
‘I thirst.’ No wonder; there was a fire in His soul.
Such a furnace, that would have dried up the sea, and all the waters of it.
Cast a coal of God’s wrath in the midst of the sea, and it would soon suck it all up if there were as much water as might lie betwixt the bottom of the sea, and the heaven of heavens: between the east point of heaven, and the west point of heaven.
The pure unmixed wrath of God would drink it all dry in a moment.
All the wells in the earth set to Christ’s mouth could not have quenched His thirst.
A drink of His Father’s well was that which cooled His burnt and dried soul.
Christ cried, ‘My soul is heavy unto death. Sorrow is like to kill Me! Fear and horror is like to break My heart!‘
O wells! O lochs! O running streams! Where were you all when my Lord could not get a drink?
Oh fie on all Jerusalem! For there was wine enough in Jerusalem, and yet their King, Jesus, is burnt like a cabbage stock.
O wells, what ails you at your Lord Jesus?
The wells and lochs answer, “Alas! We dare not know Him; we are stopped by warrant; we dare not serve our Master.”
Is there any cooling in all Judea? Or is there any room?
Yea, there are tables full of vomit; but our Lord was forced to take a good-night of the creature, with a denial.
Oh! to hear the wells say, “We will give Herod and Pilate a drink, but we will give Christ none.”
Yea, give me leave to say there is none on earth brewing for Christ; nothing but a drink of gall and vinegar!
The wells say, “We will give oxen and horses drink; but never a drop for the Lord of glory.”
For all His service done at Jerusalem; for all His good preaching; for all His glorious miracles—not so much as a drop of cold water!
Fie on you, famous Jerusalem! Is your stipend this? Is this your reward to your great High Priest?
No, not so much as the beggar’s courtesy, a drink of cold water, to your dear Redeemer, Jesus!
But by this, Christ has bought drink for all believers.”
–Samuel Rutherford, Fourteen Communion Sermons, ed. Andrew A. Bonar, Second Edition (Glasgow: Charles Glass & Co., 1877), 288-289.
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