Welcome to the Mariners Church Life Group Leader podcast. This weekly conversation is designed to equip and resource you to build a healthy life group community that studies God's word, practices spiritual rhythms, and changes the world together. Welcome back to the Life Group Leader podcast. We are entering into week five of our conversation through the series from the cross.
We're looking at the words of Jesus as he spoke them from the cross. And this week, we get the shortest of the phrases as Jesus says, I thirst. And so as we jump into this topic, Jeremy, what's the big picture for this? And really what are we gonna get out of a passage where it's only two words?
I love that you point out how short the statement is. I thirst because it would be easy to overlook as just kind of a quick fact here in the account of the crucifixion, but what we see here is the reminder and just a clear statement of Jesus humanity, that he was not only God incarnate, but that incarnate means that he was fully human and he had physical needs and physical responses. And this again is a very literal and real death that he is about to experience. And right now he's in this moment, he's experiencing thirst.
So we have a God who knows and understands what it means to be human. And we don't worship a God who's immune to pain, but we worship a God who stepped into pain for us. Okay, so bear with me on this little tangent for a second. Okay, but I was a big fan of the show, 24, like way back when I remember Jack Bauer and I'll see to you.
And in that show, you watched the hero, Jack Bauer, saving the world from all of the terrorism units that are out there trying to, you know, whatever, do everything, every minute of his life you watched for 24 hours and he was never hungry and he was never thirsty and he never used the restroom. Okay, contrast that. So here we have this passage of Jesus where you could make the case that Jesus is in world religions, the great hero that we get to see on display. He is the one that we should be looking at to understand God.
And I love that scripture puts this little detail. You see him taking naps, you see him hungry, you see him like, you see the humanity of Jesus. And then right here on the cross, we see that Jesus thirsts that he is actually in some kind of need. So with that, with this picture of Jesus and us getting a chance to see something so personal about him, how can we as leaders prepare for this?
And then kind of take us right into the first part of this leader guide so that we can ensure that we start our group off like a right tone. The what we can do to prepare is to plan for a time of extended prayer in this group. We have a natural rhythm reminder. We've provided some questions and additional scripture to even read the guide of prayer time.
So we're going to look at our physical needs, kind of the holistic care of God, both for our physical, emotional, mental, spiritual needs that he cares about us as humans. So reflect on that in your own life, but prepare your time this week to not just discuss the passage but to have some extended time of prayer for one another. Right, in some ways, the discussion is the same length as the phrase, right? It's like it's a brief one and it's really intended for us to unpack it a little bit, but then to really pay attention to how can we pray and how can we meet the needs of others in the same way that Jesus was kind of requesting here.
So right off the top in the look down section, Jeremy, you ask us, is the sour wine compassionate or is it cruel? Help us understand why is that kind of this either or sort of question in here? So this question is here because I have heard, I've heard personally growing up, I've heard different interpretations of this, I've read different interpretations from commentaries. And to a degree, I think it can acknowledge maybe something in our own hearts and minds, the way we view this passage, but to lay it out there, it's basically there to call attention to something kind of the elephant in the room, that there's a good chance that someone in your group has heard something made of this, the wine that was offered to Jesus and the fact that it's called sour wine.
Some would see it as this is what the soldiers had, this was common for them. So what's being offered is an actual gesture, even in Jesus suffering, he's being given sort of what is there, even though it's not great. But I've heard others who say that this is just one more layer of mockery, kind of like the crown of thorns and the rough robe and all these things, just one more way just to kind of mock his pain and his suffering, essentially offering something like a vinegar that won't quench your thirst to actually make it worse. And so this question is there, just to kind of put us in the moment and think about the reality of what's happening, but what I don't want people to do is get sidetracked on kind of speculating about this.
We do want to kind of call it out, point it out, but the emphasis is not on what was offered to him, but the fact that Jesus had the need and asked, basically said he was thirsty, that's the emphasis of our discussion. So I kind of bring it up just as a way to acknowledge it and then we can move on. Yeah, that's great. I think that's really well articulated that.
We don't want to get stuck in that moment, but we do want to find ourselves really identifying with Jesus and it's this profound picture of him being thirsty, him being in a place of need, right? And in calling out for help. And so as we get into our prayer time, we'll have an opportunity to share some of our needs to pray for one another to make this deeply personal. And I think what's really critical for us to always keep in mind anytime we share these kinds of things is that no need is too small.
No circumstances is sort of like above the opportunity to pray. Although we want to recognize that there are some significant things that are always happening in people's lives and we don't want to make one thing feel like we're diminishing another person's as we ask for prayer, right? Yeah, that's something that can happen a lot of times and sometimes with very good intentions, but we feel like, oh, I don't need to bring this up or I can compare it to say, oh, my stress over the situation or my suffering in this way is nothing compared to someone else's suffering maybe in this group or around the world, it's easy to feel like, on the one hand, that can be respectful and it does help us keep things in perspective. But in another way, we see over and over and over that God cares about the details of our lives.
And even here, Jesus is suffering, crucifixion and is about to die, but the fact that he's thirsty is still important. That's not an unimportant detail to God. And so there should be that reminder that whatever we're going through, whatever is kind of there before us, all of our needs, that nothing is too small for God and nothing is too small to take before him in prayer. So take us into this lookout section where we start to pay attention to the needs of others.
What are you hoping and intending for us in this set of questions, the kind of discussion and then what the action may be from this? So as we look at both the passage from John and the passage from Hebrews, we provided a supplemental passage to remind us of the fact that Christ is the one who identifies with all of our needs. We have a passage from Matthew about the fact that God will meet all of our daily needs as well. Then we move to the lookout of saying, knowing that God has provided for my needs, knowing that he cares about every detail of my life.
How does that affect the way I see other people around me? And how does that remind me? We touched on this last week of the fact that the gospel is holistic, that the Christian life is holistic in nature. It's not just about how can I save somebody's soul so that it can kind of fly off to heaven when we die, but what does it mean to live the abundant life here now?
And to love God with all my heart, mind, and soul and strength and love my neighbor as myself. So that abundant life that we experience as those who follow Christ, how can I meet the needs of people around me, knowing that God cares about my needs, he cares about those around me too. So how might he want to use me as an answer to those prayers as a way to meet the needs and make sure that they're suffering and their needs are cared for as well? Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus meeting people's physical needs prior to him teaching them.
It is this acknowledgement of, I have this thing I wanna share with you, but I recognize that you won't hear it unless I'm able to actually provide the thing that you need. And so even in our own lives, we think about maybe coworkers, family members, neighbors, friends that we have, they may be in need and they may need, they may be in a place where we can come alongside them and demonstrate the kingdom before we proclaim the kingdom. And that right there is, I think a really important thing about being a follower of Jesus that we do both of those things, that we proclaim the gospel, but we also demonstrate the gospel. And various circumstances are gonna determine which comes first.
And in this passage, we see that Jesus is saying, don't neglect the physical needs of people because he had physical needs and we see that he met physical needs throughout his whole earthly ministry. So I think that this is an opportunity for us as a group to spend really a good time together, maybe better understanding circumstances people are going through, slowing down, praying for those things, taking the time to give, to just give these things to Jesus and to say these are real concerns, the real circumstances that our brothers and sisters are going through. So I would encourage you just as Jeremy did up top, set some time aside this week for prayer. Don't make the whole thing about discussion.
Let's do the exercise, the practice, the spiritual practice of praying for one another. So Jeremy, any final notes for us? I'm excited for groups to really spend this time. And like you said, to not just feel like, okay, that was a shorter discussion this week, we've got some free time this week, but to really take the time to love one another, to listen to one another, to pray for one another, because we have a God who cares about every part of our lives.
Yes, we do. Well, Jeremy, thank you again so much. And leaders, we are grateful for you. I hope that you have a very beautiful and meaningful time together as you pray for one another.
And we will see you next week.