Quenching Our Thirst

The feast of tabernacles had a drama all its own. Attendance was compulsory for all adult male Jews who lived within 15 miles of Jerusalem. The festival derived its name from the fact that the people left their houses and lived for the duration in booths. These impermanent structures were made of leafy branches, enough to give protection from the weather, but not shut out the sun or the stars. The purpose was to remind the people in an unforgettable fashion, that once they had been homeless wanderers in the desert living without a roof over their heads. It was also a celebration of the harvest. Each day of the festival the people came to the temple with their palms and willows and marched around a great alter. At the same time a priest took a golden pitcher and went down to the pool of (Silom?), and having drawn water, he carried it back through the watergate, while the people recited Isaiah 12:3, "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." The water was then carried up to the temple and poured out as an offering to God.

On the last day, the ceremony was doubly impressive. They marched seven times around the alter in memory of the seven-fold circuit of the walls of Jerico. But they did not pour out the water as on the previous six days. As so with the minds of the crowd on all that had been taking place, Jesus stands and in a loud voice says, "If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." With the people's minds focused on the quenching of physical thirst, Jesus turns their attention to the deep needs of their souls.

There is a sense in which all men and women are by nature thirsty, in that they lack the water of life. This human thirst reveals itself in many different ways in our modern materialistic culture. Men and women try to quench their longings with thoughts of success, the acquisition of possessions, and the hoarding of money. Others are involved in wrongful sexual relationships, while others are held in the viselike grip of habitual drug taking. They know that they are thirsty for some thing. They just don't know that they are thirsty for some one. When God begins to work in their hearts, their thirst will bring them to the only One who can answer their longings.

It is to these that Jesus issues His most gracious invitation. He first of all invites men and women to come. Time and again in the Gospels we find that Jesus is issuing this invitation to come and follow Him. In every case, it is a turning from sin and a turning to faith and trust and obedience. He invites them to drink. To drink is to believe. There is no difference in meaning; the one is a picture of the other. And in the Gospel of John, always seem to indicate the present possession of life. The result is to be quite dramatic. The individual who drinks will not only be transformed by the power of Christ, but from his or her very life will flow these streams of living water. John provides the commentary on this by making clear that the full force of this picture was not to become apparent until after the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The reference here is to Pentecost, when the gift of the spirit transformed everything. The atoning work of Christ was the necessary prelude to the work of the Spirit. The believer's life is not to be like the Dead Sea which simply has water flowing into it, but nothing flowing out. Instead we are to be like rivers of life flowing out into the community around us.

John tells us that the reaction to Jesus' words was varied. Amongst the crowds there was division. Some said that He was a prophet, while others maintained that He was the messiah. Others still denied this on the basis of their mistaken notions about his birthplace. Nothing much has changed. This remains the case amongst the crowds in our modern cities. Many have rejected the claims of Jesus Christ without any consideration of them, and walk in consequent darkness.

John also tells us that the temple guards in reporting to the Pharisees, were honest enough to make clear that they had never ever heard anybody speak in this way. It was the authority and majesty and power of the Lord Jesus which restrained these officers. The Pharisees were irritated by the reaction they received and offer a stinging rebuke upon those who, from their perspective, are far too easily deceived by this man Jesus. The sentiment they express is not absent today. It is not unusual to hear people essentially say, "Nobody who is spiritually and academically of any account would believe in this Jesus. Only ignorant fools accept Him."

But in the midst of all of this there was Nicodemus. In appealing to the law, he calls for Jesus' right to a full and fair hearing. This may not seem all that much upon first reading. However, the Pharisees having asserted by implication that none of them believe in Jesus, are immediately confronted by one of their own numbers speaking up in his favor. Also having just denounced the rabble for their ignorance of the law, they are now confronted by their own ignorance, or unwillingness to obey. And so in their anger, they urge Nicodemus to search the Scriptures, and then he would see that there were no prophets from Galilee. They had forgotten Jonah.