JOHN 7:37-39 THIRSTY?

37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Every morning during the Feast of Tabernacles, the priests led a water procession from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple, and then the priests circled the altar once and poured out the water offering. On the last day, the priestly procession would circle the altar 7 times. This was a great time of revelry and joy for the Jews because they were remembering how God had provided for them in the wilderness. Two of the prophetic passages from the Hebrew Scriptures associated with this feast were Isaiah 12:3 (“With joy you will draw water from the well of salvation”) and Isaiah 55:1 (“‘Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters.’”).

When Jesus stands up and cries out over the revelry that he is the source of the water, he is making a claim to be more than a miracle worker or even a prophet. Jesus is claiming to be God, but he does so through issuing an invitation. What divine graciousness. Our human way would be to assert our power. Our tendency would be, to quote Mr. T from the A-Team, “Pity the fool” who doesn’t know I am God. But Jesus calls out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” The invitation is based on our need. Are you thirsty? Do you know that you are thirsty?

During the summer months in much of the United States, our hospital emergency rooms treat a significant number of people for dehydration. For the most part, these folks needed fluids but did not perceive a great enough thirst to seek out a drink. Jesus knows that all human beings are spiritually thirsty. In fact, most of our sinful behavior is related to our natural attempts to slake our unperceived spiritual thirst. The invitation therefore is to all people, but only those who perceive their thirst will respond. As physical fluids are normally taken in by mouth and spread throughout the body, Jesus offers us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which once received will well-up throughout our bodies and be manifested as fruit – the works of God to the glory of God. This is the water of eternal life. When it is received, eternal life begins in the here and now.

Deliver me, O Lord, from my tendency to join in the celebration of the reality but not participate in the reality. May I see the truth to which the feasts and festivals of the Church year point, and use that to guide my thinking and my living. Allow me to experience my thirst so that I will seek the source of the water of life and depend upon God for all my life. Amen.