Lent JourneySample

DAY 26-32
Scripture of the week:

28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
John 19:25 – 30 (NIV)


EAST COKER

Home is where one starts from. As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated Of dead and living. Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.

T S Eliot

East Coker is the name of a small town in Somerset, England, where the Eliots originally lived.

The poem starts with the words: “In my beginning is my end.”
The poet employs the idea that everything is fleeting, it comes and goes. It reminds of Ecclesiastes 3.

It appears as if he states the experience of youth ‘intense moment, isolated, with no before and after’ in contrast with the complex experience of life as we grow older.

In the end life is like hieroglyphs on old stones, indecipherable.


DAY 26
I am thirsty

For nearly 16 hours Jesus has had no refreshment and He calls out that He is thirsty. He does not complain about the pain that He is enduring. He now craves for that which no human can survive without – water! Jesus is God and man.

I often heard this confession of the church and also confessed it myself: ‘Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man’. However, his perfect Godliness fits easier into my human frame of mind. It helps me in a way to distance Him from my humanness, to think that He does not totally understand my world.

But it is in these words ‘I am thirsty!’ that his humanness lets me call out: ‘You do understand!’

I connect with my own humanly need for water like Jesus, fully human. My needs are so integrated with my being that I absolutely cannot deny them. As He I also want to acknowledge that I need, but more than that – I want to be able to say to someone that I need, that difficult decision to turn to somebody else and say: ‘I am thirsty!’

There will always be help, perhaps from someone you never expected. As with the soldier on the cross, God can even use my enemy to help me. I only need to ask.

EXERCISE
• Read through the scripture twice (slowly).
• Use all your senses to see the chain of events play out in your mind’s eye. What do you see? What do you hear? How do you feel?

Pray the following imagination prayer*.
The group of people around you here on Golgotha is a diverse group.

To one side are the religious leaders apparently pleased with themselves that they could convince the rulers to hand Jesus over. They are whispering among themselves.

You hear the sobs of the ones that are deeply upset by the events. Among them are Jesus’ mother, her sister, and Mary Magdalene. With them is the disciple that Jesus loved.

Your thoughts are disrupted when you hear Jesus call out: ‘I am thirsty!’ A hush falls.
The words are an invitation, and you become aware of your own inner thirst. What is it that long for the most?
How would it have felt to talk to Jesus about this?

Take a few moments to reflect on your experience and talk to God about it. It may help you to write your prayer in a journal.