The Rev. Paul J Cain
John 7:37-39
Rivers of Living Water
Pentecost Day, 12 June 2011
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Sheridan, Wyoming
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
TLSB: “On the final day of the Feast of Booths, Jesus promises that believers will receive the Holy Spirit (at Pentecost) after His death.” Today we celebrate more than a Jewish fall harvest festival, more than an early summer Jewish festival fifty days after Passover. We celebrate again the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, His spending 40 days with his disciples before His Ascension into heaven, the comfort that heaven is now open to us, and we celebrate the certain truth of the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
37 On 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. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now 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.
The Great Day of the Feast of Booths was the seventh or eighth day closing festival, when the celebration came to a climax. What exactly were the Jewish people celebrating? Beginning the fifteenth day of their seventh month—the dates varied between September and October—they celebrated the harvest and commemorated the Israelite wanderings in the wilderness for forty years. How did they celebrate? They went camping. They hung out in tents, usually translated Booths or Tabernacles, to celebrate the ingathering of the fall crops.
The Lord Himself appointed this celebration in Leviticus 23, a time “of holy convocation, for presenting to the Lord food offerings, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings each on its proper day…It is a statute forever throughout your generations…You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.”
While they were in the wilderness, the people complained, to put it mildly. They were given by the Lord what they needed to survive, including water. Jesus builds on this historic need and His own teaching thus far in the Gospel according to John: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” John 4:14, Isaiah 44:3, and Isaiah 58:11 all make Jesus’ point.
Are you dry? Do you feel weary inside? Have you just about had enough of this life and its troubles? “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”
Jesus dwells with us. John 1 uses the Greek word for Tabernacle to describe His incarnation. He took on human flesh. He “tented” with humanity. And He is present with us this morning.
Paul wrote words of comfort and warning in 1 Corinthians 10: “For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” You can hear the hymn “Rock of Ages” in that text. And then Paul issues his warning: “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.” That evil included idolatry, sexual immorality, and grumbling, the very reasons the people dwelt in tents for a generation.
They had been baptized into Moses in the Exodus, and still they fell away. This Day of Pentecost we remember our baptism into Christ “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Titus 3 says that God saved us through the washing of Holy Baptism, the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior. This is what the Spirit does in the Church and in each Christian. As Luther explained, "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He forgives daily and richly all sins to me and all believers, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will give to me and to all believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true." (Luther’s Explanation of The Third Article)
This is the work of God the Holy Spirit.
37 On 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. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now 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.
Now, Jesus has been glorified. He suffered Good Friday and was raised on Easter Sunday. He ascended forty days after His Resurrection. And this Pentecost we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and the invitation to drink deeply of Jesus. Now is the day of salvation. The invitation permeates all of salvation history, even to the last chapter of Holy Scripture.
Revelation 22:17 says: The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. Amen.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
