Jesus' Invitation To Drink

Jesus’ Invitation To Drink

(John 7:37-39)

A man walks into a library and asks for a bottle of water. The librarian says, “This is a library.” So, the man whispers, “Sorry, a bottle of water, please.” You can’t overestimate the significance of water to life. A website lists no less than sixteen benefits of drinking it. Among them, it helps create saliva which aids in taste and digestion. It regulates your body temperature through perspiration. It helps to lubricate and cushion your joints, spinal cord and tissues. It helps you lose weight. It improves blood and oxygen circulation. It helps fight off illnesses. It helps boost energy and improves cognitive function. And it is said to even improve your mood! No wonder we’re encouraged to drink plenty of water! It’s as essential as air. While we can go a long time without food, we can survive only a few days without water. But the truth is, even our food-supply depends on an ample amount of water. Without it life would not be possible. That’s why scientists search for the presence of life on other planets by looking for evidence of water. Without water there can be no biological life. That helps to understand this passage.

37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

While it is true that without H2O we would die, the fact is that in sin we are already dead . . . “separated from the life of God.” (Ephesians 4:18) And without the water Jesus offers we can never live. The need for water was very obvious as Israel traveled through the desert on their way to the promised land. That experience lies in the background behind this invitation of Jesus as we’ll soon see.

Context (verse 37a)

According to verse 37 it was “on the last and greatest day of the festival.” The particular festival was the Feast of Tabernacles. (verse 2) It was the third of the three pilgrimage feasts in which all adult Jewish males were expected to come to Jerusalem. It was also referred to as Sukkoth, the Feast of Booths and the Feast of Ingathering. It commemorated two things . . . the ingathering of the harvest and Israel’s forty-year journey through the desert. To celebrate, the Jews built brush booths in which they lived for an entire week. In this way they relived the experience of their ancestors. The booths (or tabernacles) were made of natural materials, reminding them of God’s provision and protection during that ordeal. The feast lasted a full week and included two special ceremonies. The first of those ceremonies was the Illumination of the Temple which happened each evening. The lighting of a lamp symbolized the shekinah, the divine glow that originally emanated from the Temple. It may have been during one of these lighting ceremonies that Jesus announced, “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12) The second ceremony was the Drawing out of Water which also took place each day at the time of the morning sacrifice. A priest went from the Temple, through the Water Gate to the Pool of Siloam where he drew water with a golden pitcher. He then carried it to the Temple where he poured it out on the Great Altar. The feast this particular year was a time of controversy in Jerusalem. And Jesus was the object of that controversy. The last time he was there he’d healed a lame man on the Sabbath. (chapter 5) The “stir” this act generated spilled over into his next visit to the city. His brothers, who didn’t believe in him, had encouraged him to go up to Jerusalem for the feast in order to “go public” with his claims and signs. But because it was not his “time,” he waited until his brothers had already gone. And he went secretly because the Jews were seeking to kill him. The city was abuzz about this man who’d healed the lame man at Bethesda. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others insisted, “He deceives the people.” (verse 12) Halfway through the feast he began to teach at the Temple. The Jews asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?” (verse 15) When he accused them of trying to kill him they said, “You are demon-possessed.” (verse 20) The leaders’ failure to silence him caused some to ask, “Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah?” (verse 26) Some declared, “Surely this man is the Prophet.” (verse 40) “Others said, ‘He is the Messiah.’” (verse 41) The leaders even sent out the Temple guards to arrest him, but they returned empty-handed. When asked why they’d not brought him in they said, “No one ever spoke the way this man does.” (verse 46) So, it was a day of controversy. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? That’s what the people were asking. Well, it is very possible that while the priest was pouring out the water from Siloam onto the Great Altar that Jesus extended this invitation to drink.