Please give me a drink. John 4:7

I am thirsty. John 19:28

We worship a God who became a vulnerable human being. Superman had his kryptonite. Samson lost his hair. Jack Frost relinquished his wintry powers to become the town tailor. Jesus got thirsty. It’s a story that is played out not only in history, but in fantasy, legend and mythology — someone with supernatural powers gives up those powers to become human, and it is always done for one reason: love. That was certainly God’s reason. “But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” (Romans 5:8)

Love always makes you vulnerable. There’s no way you can love without being exposed in some way or giving something up. Love and need go together. God’s love compelled Him to do what He did because that very love created in Him a need for us. By creating us He also created in His heart a place for us, and that need was reflected many times through the life of Christ. Jesus needed a drink from Jacob’s well. He needed food and a place to stay (He was homeless). He needed companionship, and in His most agonizing moment — the night before He died — he just needed someone to stay awake with Him and pray.

Jesus Christ didn’t die for us because it made for good theology; He died for us because He loved us, lost us to sin, and gave Himself up to buy us back. By doing this He had to become vulnerable to the very system He created, that we might see how true love behaves. There is a death in love, and that death is the death of self. Jesus died to love us; we die in order to love and serve others. And part of that death is in becoming vulnerable.

Loving someone means standing inside their shoes and taking into account what they feel about something. To do that, you have to set aside your own thoughts on the subject. Recently, my wife had a pressing need that she shared with me, but I didn’t grasp it from her perspective. I brought my own attitude to the table, but it was not compatible with hers. I would have to give mine up in order to take on hers. Which I finally did, but I waited too long and caused her great anxiety as a result. Love gives up its own for another.

Sometimes the best thing we can do for someone is ask for help. Jesus asked a woman for a drink, and that started a conversation that ended three days later with a whole town believing that Jesus was the Messiah. And three years later, he was asking for the same thing from a soldier as He hung on the cross (“I am thirsty”) — symbolic of the vulnerability He placed Himself into for the whole human race. Being vulnerable to those you love is what love is.