'I Thirst': The Cross--The Great Triumph of Love

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The Archbishop of Canterbury's official Lent Book for 2004Some of the last words Jesus uttered while hanging on the cross were "I thirst." These sorrowful words are simple, yet very human. Jesus Christ, the thirsty one, shares deeply in the mess and muddle of human living. The cross is about the suffering and the longing of Jesus; it shows us his pain and his love.This book-the 2004 edition of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book-helps penetrate the deep mystery of a God who goes on loving, no matter what. Nomatter how exorbitant the cost, no matter the obstacles in his way, Jesus was determined to be obedient until the end. As Stephen Cottrell peels back the layers of meaning in this simple cry of longing, he prays that readers willexperience, as if for the first time, the magnificent and all-pervading love of God.Cottrell hopes that as we come to the great festival of Easter, we will know afresh that the one who thirsts is also the one in whom our own thirsts are quenched. Only by exploring the remarkable love of this nailed-to-a-cross God can we begin to understand our own mortality and suffering.Included is a foreword by Rowan Williams, the new Archbishop of Canterbury.