Rivers of Living Water

Unlike other chapters, where I've taken roughly half the chapter each day, I'm going to approach this one a little differently. John 7 is difficult to break up in halves, since the whole thing is largely dealing with the same theme: the true identity and role of Jesus, whether He's the Messiah or not. So I'm going to zoom in to a couple verses near the middle:

37 On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out 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 He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. (7:37-39a)

It's taught that this Feast of Booths culminated in the eighth day when people returned to their homes. For the previous seven days, part of the feast involved a procession of a golden pitcher of water from the pool of Siloam to the Temple, a remembrance of their drinking of water from the rock in the wilderness. Assuming that John was referring to this last, eighth day (some think it might have been the seventh, but the point doesn't change other than the nuance that this speech maybe was even more of a sign of sorts, pointing to Jesus replacing the Old Testament feasts and customs), Jesus told them that the true Living Water was God (Himself); people would find satisfaction not even in miraculous earthly water, but in Him.

It's interesting timing that tomorrow morning, we're going to read from 1 Corinthians 10 where the Apostle Paul tells us that the people all drank from a spiritual Rock in the desert, and explicitly says that this Rock was Christ Himself. As He said to the woman in John 4, He is the true Living Water.

But even more than that, the Living Water that He gives will well up in a Christian, and will continue to flow out. In other words, the Spirit is given to a person, and then the Spirit "overflows" to others through that Christian. It's a wonderful Christian metaphor (though more than a metaphor) that a Christian offers a drink of Living Water to others as he or she shares God's Word, shares Jesus with others.

The biblical language about the Spirit is consistently that He is "poured out". There are baptismal overtones in much of that language, contributing to a rich chord struck on the piano strings of the Scriptures, not just the "fundamental frequency" of the proceeding of the Spirit at Pentecost, but so many more overtones of Baptism, preaching, life together in the Church, and more, as the Spirit flows.

To find true and eternal satisfaction, look not to earthly water and ceremonies. Look to Jesus.