“Living Water” John 7: 37-52

 I have had several conversations with people over the last month about how blessed we are to be able to turn on our facets and have water rush out. I’m not sure what led to this realization at the same time by multiple people, but it is true. We turn on the facet and we have water to brush our teeth. We turn on the washing machine and there is water to clean our clothes. We turn on the tap in the kitchen and we have water to make dinner or to clean. Water seems to be around us in abundance. 

Yet, we know that this isn’t true in many places - both in our own country and around the world. Water is a precious resource. 

A few weeks ago, we talked about the task of carrying water, going to the well, several times a day, to draw water for the household, for chores, for animals. It is the source of life, yet people knew just how costly it could be to obtain. 

Enter Jesus. It is now the last day of the Festival of the Tabernacles, a week long celebration in the fall, to commemorate the Israelite’s 40 year journey through the wildness to the promise land as well as the blessing of the harvest. During this time there would be worship. People would often sleep in tents or take their meals in them. 

Jesus and his disciples have once again traveled to Jerusalem for this religious festival. And on this last day he stands up and proclaims, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.” In other words, come to me and be filled. Come to me and be renewed. Come to me and find life. 

It seems like an odd thing to proclaim unless you unpack some of the particulars of worship during this festival. As part of the worship, which came out of Rabbinic tradition, is that water would be carried from the pool of Siloam, a freshwater reservoir, into the temple. Water was central to the celebration. And Jesus is proclaiming - this is me. I am the life-giving water. 

And folks again miss the point. They start to speculate amongst themselves who Jesus could be. Is he a prophet? Is he the Messiah? No, he can’t be the Messiah because there’s no way the Messiah would come from Galilee. The people were divided. 

There is enough division and curiosity that the temple guards overstep a bit and go up to the Pharisees and tell them to invite him in. To hear what he has to say. Only they are dismissed as well - being told that they had been sucked into his deception. Only those who don’t know the law - those who aren’t as studied in the Word - could be tricked by Jesus. 

Except Nicodemus. Remember Nicodemus who went to Jesus at night. Nicodemus who is trying to tell the other Pharisees that the law said to at least listen to Jesus. And they mocked him as well. 

In a lot of ways, we have been leading up to this moment for the last several chapters in the Gospel of John. Starting in chapter 4, where Jesus invites the woman at the well to receive life-giving water, water that would make it so she could never be thirsty again. Jesus is trying to show people that he is the well-spring of life, only the people in power around him aren’t really willing to hear it.

They would rather argue about scripture and correct interpretation (sounds a bit like the woman at the well, as well doesn’t it?) For they believe that authority and ability rest soundly in being correct - having the correct interpretation and understanding of the law. 

What course is humorous is that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law. And he himself is paraphrasing this beautiful passage of scripture from Isaiah 55:1 “Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”

Christ is saying, loudly, come if you are thirsty and find life-giving water. Come to me and drink freely. 

And those folks who thought they knew all of the law and interpreted it correctly - they were so caught up in their idea of “rightness” that they missed what Jesus was offering. 

In fact, they didn’t just miss it, they actively dismissed the thought that Jesus could be the Messiah. They saw Jesus as this individual who had come to destroy all of their traditions, when really, Jesus was standing firmly in tradition more than they could know. Jesus is saying again and again, “this is me!” In the Gospel of John. It isn’t a secret. He is trying to show people who he truly is - that he is the Messiah. And they are not willing to accept it. 

We, like the folks from long ago, want simple answers. Or maybe a better way to say this is that we want God to simply fit into our expectations. And then Jesus shows up and acts in a way that is beyond our wildest imagination and we don’t know what to do with him. So we try to dismiss him. Or push him aside. Or put him back in our own boxes of “right” thinking. 

But the truth is that rules, laws, and norms of this world are not the same as the realm of God. And there are going to be things we never fully understand, even if we trick ourselves into thinking that we are always right. 

Or maybe even deceive ourselves into thinking that we are never thirsty. 

It’s not lost on me that Jesus points out that he is water in this text. Life-giving water. Our bodies are composed of water. We can’t last very long without having a fresh supply. We need water as part of our daily lives. Water runs in and through every moment of our days. 

Yet, we often take it for granted until we are thirsty. I mean really thirsty. The type of thirsty where you need to have water now. Your mouth feels parched and your skin gets dry. Your eyes may get a little itchy. That type of thirsty. 

Then we know that we need water. 

Friends, Jesus isn’t just talking about being the water that quenches our bodies. He is talking about being the water that brings life to our spirits. And if we think we don’t notice that we are physically thirsty until it is all upon us, that is even more true when it comes to being spirituality dry. When we start to act out of anger. Or snap at people. Complain more. All because we have this deep longing that we do not know how to identify or meet. 

When you are thirsty what do you do? Turn on the tap. Go to the source. What do we do when we are spirituality thirsty? Go to Jesus. Go to the source. And be filled. 

But when we are filled, after we have come and received, that water needs to spill out of us. We need to share the gift of the spirit, pointing others to the life-giving source. To how Jesus has not just quenched our thirst for a period of time, but truly changed us. 

How about you, friends? Have you received the life-giving water? And how are you being invited to share this source of life with the world? Amen.