Day Eleven: Rivers Of Living Water
Our passage begins with, “On the last day of the feast.” Early Hebrew readers of the New Testament would have seen the important contextual elements that were required to understand the phrase of Jesus regarding “rivers of living water.” The feast being celebrated during this section of John’s Gospel is the Feast of Tabernacles.
The last day of that feast contained the most memorable portion of the entire event, and it all had to do with water.
For the previous seven days of the ceremony, temple priests would collect from the Pool of Siloam. Carrying the water in a golden pitcher, the priests would march to the temple and around the altar.
There was a particular entrance in the temple known as the ‘water gate.’ As the priests approached the water gate, a shofar would be blown, and the congregation would be called to worship. The priests would then lead the way in reciting psalms of praise together with the congregation. They would further pray to God for rain to fall for their crops to grow.
This rhythm occurred each of the first six days of the Feast of Tabernacles, and then on the seventh day, it was repeated seven times. It was there, on that last official day of the feast, when Christ stood in the middle and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me.”
What a scene this must have been: the priests marching with their water, the congregation singing songs of praise, the memories of the crossing of the Red Sea, and all of God’s promises of abundance in the back of their minds. In that spiritual fervor, Christ made this declaration.
Just as the ground needs water to produce vegetation, so does the soul need God to bear fruit. Apart from God, we wither and wilt like a fading flower cut off from its roots. God is the source of nutrients the soul needs to survive and thrive. The mechanism whereby the human soul is tethered to the nourishing grace of God is belief in Jesus (John 7:38).
There is no other way to bear fruit. Apart from Christ, we can do no good; we are enemies of God, cut off from his promises, guilty not only of our original sin inherited from Adam, which is revealed in our corrupt and polluted hearts, but also guilty for our own sins of commission and omission. We are by nature children of wrath, dead flowers fading under the hot summer sun.
But Jesus grants life to those who truly believe in him. He resurrects their dead souls and grants them a new connection to the life-giver himself. The Holy Spirit indwells that soul and functions like a mighty river flowing through his being, granting life and fruit in every direction. He who believes in Jesus is alive in the truest sense. They have been born again. Oh, may those mighty rivers of living water flow through us again.
The last day of that feast contained the most memorable portion of the entire event, and it all had to do with water.
For the previous seven days of the ceremony, temple priests would collect from the Pool of Siloam. Carrying the water in a golden pitcher, the priests would march to the temple and around the altar.
There was a particular entrance in the temple known as the ‘water gate.’ As the priests approached the water gate, a shofar would be blown, and the congregation would be called to worship. The priests would then lead the way in reciting psalms of praise together with the congregation. They would further pray to God for rain to fall for their crops to grow.
This rhythm occurred each of the first six days of the Feast of Tabernacles, and then on the seventh day, it was repeated seven times. It was there, on that last official day of the feast, when Christ stood in the middle and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me.”
What a scene this must have been: the priests marching with their water, the congregation singing songs of praise, the memories of the crossing of the Red Sea, and all of God’s promises of abundance in the back of their minds. In that spiritual fervor, Christ made this declaration.
Just as the ground needs water to produce vegetation, so does the soul need God to bear fruit. Apart from God, we wither and wilt like a fading flower cut off from its roots. God is the source of nutrients the soul needs to survive and thrive. The mechanism whereby the human soul is tethered to the nourishing grace of God is belief in Jesus (John 7:38).
There is no other way to bear fruit. Apart from Christ, we can do no good; we are enemies of God, cut off from his promises, guilty not only of our original sin inherited from Adam, which is revealed in our corrupt and polluted hearts, but also guilty for our own sins of commission and omission. We are by nature children of wrath, dead flowers fading under the hot summer sun.
But Jesus grants life to those who truly believe in him. He resurrects their dead souls and grants them a new connection to the life-giver himself. The Holy Spirit indwells that soul and functions like a mighty river flowing through his being, granting life and fruit in every direction. He who believes in Jesus is alive in the truest sense. They have been born again. Oh, may those mighty rivers of living water flow through us again.
Posted in Lent
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