Thirst (Part 1)

Living Water

If spiritual transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit in us to form, conform, and transform us into the image of Christ, then how do we view the Spirit in our lives? Since I grew up in the faith tribe of the Churches of Christ, the Holy Spirit was not only something I really didn’t understand, but also something we rarely talked about. With this blog, I want us to look at what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit and consider how thirsty we are for the Spirit’s living water.

Let’s begin with a reading from the gospel of John 7:37–39 (ESV):

‌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. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 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.

So, what does Jesus mean by all this? What does this have to do with the Holy Spirit? Well, to understand it, we must understand it in the context in which Jesus was speaking it. It was on the last day of the feast, the great day. Well, which feast and what great day?

Five days after the Day of Atonement comes the most joyous feast of the year for Jews—the Feast of Tabernacles, or what is called “Sukkot.” It is the plural of the Hebrew word sukkah, meaning “booth” or “hut.” During Jesus’ time, huge celebrations were held in the temple for Sukkot, and they would last for seven days. 

There is a lot we could discuss about this celebration with all its symbolism, but there is a significant lesson during Sukkot that Jesus is addressing in John 7. You must realize that, very often in the Holy Land, for the six months between May and October, very little rain falls. So, when Sukkot arrives, the land is parched and dry. The green of spring has dried-up and died. 

Sukkot is, therefore, a time to pray that God would send “living water,” or rain, for the coming year. Rain, or “living water,” is a critical need and a common worry. During Sukkot, it is easy for people to remember how dependent on God they had been in the desert of Sinai and why the water from the rocks was such an important part of the story.

To remember all of this and to beseech God for “living water,” on the last day of Sukkot (or “the great day”), the priests would perform a water libation ceremony with passionate prayers for “living water” to come in the form of rain. The ceremony is called the “Simchat Beit Hashoavah,” or the water-drawing festival. 

The priests would go down to the pool of Siloam in the City of David (just south of where the Western Wall is today), and they would fill a golden vessel with the water there. Then they would go up to the temple through the Water Gate, accompanied by the sound of the shofar, and they would pour the water so that it flowed over the altar, along with wine from another bowl. This would begin the prayers for rain in earnest, and at that point, the joyful voices of thousands of worshipers reached a thunderous intensity. One rabbi commented in the Babylonian Talmud about the celebration, saying, “He who has not seen the rejoicing at the place of the water-drawing has never seen rejoicing in his life.”

The ceremony refers to Isaiah 12:2-3: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”

Now, for a moment, consider this passage and understand that one of the names for this day, the great day, is “Hoshana Raba,” which means Great Salvation. You may or may not know that this has the same root as Jesus’ name—Yeshua, or “Salvation.” The Hebrew word literally says, with joy you will draw water from the wells of Yeshua!

Now, with that picture in mind, it was on this last and greatest day of Sukkot that Jesus stood up in the middle of the celebrating crowds and shouted, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37–38). ‌At this, the people went into an uproar, some believing, others confused, and still others angry—so much so that they were calling to arrest Jesus. This was HUGE! In this moment, Jesus not only said who He is, but that only through Him would anyone receive the Holy Spirit that had been promised by God for hundreds of years. 

This is the same Spirit that filled the early church and empowered them to do the work Jesus called them to do. This is the same Spirit that fills us!

Why does that matter?  Stay tuned for Part 2 of this post, and find out!