After Pentecost
John 7:37–39
37On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" 39Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus took his place near the altar in the temple shouting out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink."
Now, since this is the Gospel reading for Pentecost Sunday, you might think that this was the feast of Pentecost. However, it was not! It was the Feast of Tabernacles; also called the Feast of Booths. So why is the Pentecost Gospel reading about the Feast of Tabernacles? Hopefully that will become clear by the end of the sermon. But for now, let's talk about the Feast of Tabernacles.
It seems like many of us living in the New Testament era don't know very much about the feast of tabernacles. In fact, I'm sure that some people here today have never even heard of it before. It is the last of the seven feasts which God commanded the Hebrews to celebrate each year. These seven feasts and the weekly Sabbaths formed their church calendar. The feast of tabernacles came at the time of the final harvest. It represented going on a pilgrimage, the 40 years in the wilderness, and the journey to the Promised Land. It was during the feast of Tabernacles that Solomon dedicated the first Temple in Jerusalem, so it had a special relationship with the Temple. It was a time of joy and celebration. It was a weeklong camping trip and the children especially loved it. Tents were set up on the roof tops on in the yard and people camped out for the week. Song and dance lasted well into the night those days and the whole city was illuminated with large candelabra which young men went scurrying up ladders with pitchers of oil to keep them filled. It was a time of joy and celebration.
It came at the time of the final harvest. So it was also closely associated with water. Prayers of thanksgiving were said for the water God supplied for the crops of that year, and also prayers for abundant water were made for the upcoming year. Having just spent the past couple of weeks in a place where temperatures were in the nineties and lower hundreds, but having running water only sporadically, I began to learn the value of water. More than just for drinking, having water to cool off, wash clothes, take a shower and even flush the toilet makes a huge difference in your life and is something we should thank God for. Everyone ran to fill buckets and headed for the showers on those occasional times when bubbling sounds came out of the faucets and water started to flow into the house.
Prayer for water was a major part of the feast of Tabernacles. For seven days a pitcher made of gold was filled with water from the Pool of Siloam and carried to the temple where it was poured over the altar as the words of Isaiah 12:3 were spoken, "With joy you shall draw water from the wells of salvation." On the final day, called the great day, seven pitchers of water were poured on the altar.
It was at that point, as the seven pitchers were being poured out, that Jesus stood near the altar and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink." He was quoting Isaiah 55 but with a slight alteration. Isaiah said, "Let everyone who thirsts, come to the waters." Jesus said, "Let him come to me." Jesus is identifying himself as the one who gives the water that Isaiah was talking about. He was identifying himself as the "wells of salvation."
Why? What does it mean to thirst? Perhaps Jesus also answers that in the Beatitudes when he says, "Blessed is he who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." Thirsty for righteousness? Those who thirst for righteousness are sinful people, unrighteous people who know they are unrighteous and are repentant. People who thirst for righteousness. Thirst comes from being sinful by nature and separated from God. Thirst is the desert and barren places in our lives that are dried out by sinful desires, thoughts and words. Relationships dried out by our sinful selfishness. The hurts and pains we cause others because of our sinful words and attitudes. The hurts and pains others cause us by their sinful actions. Thirst is that desert that God exiles us to because we are unfaithful to him and do not hear or obey his word. Thirst is the judgment of God that we will receive because of our sin. Thirst is what Jesus suffered on the cross as a result of bearing our sins when he cried out, "I thirst." Because of our sin, the rivers of life-giving water had dried up, were reduced down to a final single drop, and that drop had dried out. That is the thirst of the wilderness of our sin. Because of sin, Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden into the dry and barren wilderness. Because of sin Judah was "put into a cage and brought to the king of Babylon with hooks." Ezekiel 19:9. Sin is a desert. Sin dries us up, it kills. It kills our relationship with each other. It kills our relationship with God. It kills us with eternal judgment. God does not tolerate it and casts us away from him where there is eternal fire; eternal thirst; eternal death; just as he disowned his chosen people, turned his back on them and sent them into exile.
So we who repent of our sin thirst for the blessing of God. We thirst for his righteousness. We thirst for the living waters that only he gives. Like living in a land where water is scarce and intermittent, we desire that the faucets be turned on and water run continually like a river.
So Jesus' words come to us as a sweet invitation: "Come to me and drink." He alone can quench our thirst. He alone gives the water the satisfies our soul. He alone gives the water. Whoever believes in me come to me and drink." It is by faith alone in Jesus Christ. There is no other source of living water. For as the scripture said of Jesus: "Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." Rivers of water, living water flow out of Jesus' heart.
Indeed, water is a common theme in Jesus' preaching and teaching. He is the giver of water, living water. In the Gospel of John alone Jesus and water are often seen together. Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that he gives living water. Whoever drinks of the water that he gives will never thirst. Jesus healed a man at the pool of Bethesda; water. Jesus sent the blind man to wash in the pool of Siloam where he gained his sight. The very same pool from which water was brought during the feast of tabernacles. Jesus walked on water to show his dominion over water as creator. Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana. Jesus used water to wash his disciples feet to show them that they were washed of their sins. When Jesus was pierced in the side, water and blood gushed out; just as water gushed out of the side of the rock that Moses struck in the wilderness, and that rock was Jesus Christ. And Jesus told Nicodemus that no one can enter the kingdom of heaven unless he is born of water and the Spirit. How ironic that the one who gives rivers of living water, cried out on the cross, "I thirst." He exchanged his living water for our thirst so that we shall never have to thirst.
Our reading this morning connects the Spirit to water. For when Jesus said that out his heart flows rivers of living water, it says he was talking about the Holy Spirit. The living water that flows out of Jesus like a river is the Holy Spirit of God. That very spirit that Jesus gives us in Baptism when he baptizes us "with the Holy Spirit and fire." Matthew 3:11. Water symbolizes the Holy Spirit; water and the Spirit are connected. Ever since creation when "the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." Genesis 1:2.
So what is the connection to this feast of tabernacles and Pentecost? At the feast of tabernacles the people prayed for water. At Pentecost Jesus answered their prayer and poured out living water, the Holy Spirit, on his disciples and on all who were baptized in the name of Jesus. On Pentecost, Peter preached: "Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Spirit."
"Come to me and drink." "Out of my heart flows rivers of living water..." the Holy Spirit. Drink that water until it overflows in you. Drink that water which was poured on you at Baptism. Drink that water that washes away your sins. Drink that water that transforms your lives. Drink it in word and sacrament until it flows out of your heart.
When the living water flows out from your heart is when the Holy Spirit transforms your lives. Out of the heart of the believer who has the Holy Spirit flows the water of righteousness, of holiness, of compassion, of joy, of peace, of forgiveness. The living water transforms your heart; it changes your lives; your actions, your words, your thoughts and your attitudes.
The living water flows out of you when you witness to others about Jesus. When you invite and bring others to hear and study the Word of God. When you call the unrepentant to repentance. When you show others the way to God which is Jesus Christ. When you speak peace and comfort to the afflicted and hope to the hopeless in the name of Jesus Christ. When you have mercy and compassion on the poor, the weak, the sick, the infirm, and the homeless. Those are the paths that the Holy Spirit leads you on. That is the fountain of living water in you coming forth from your heart, a renewed and enlivened heart in Christ.
"Come to Jesus and drink," all you who thirst. Drink in the living water, the Holy Spirit, in his word and in the sacraments. Then rivers of living water shall spring forth from your heart.
Amen.