Living Water

The Day of Pentecost, A

June 8, 2014

John 7:37-39

Introduction

Today we celebrate the Day of Pentecost, the end of the Easter Season. We read in our first reading that Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples "when the Day of Pentecost was fully come" (Acts 2:1). Pentecost (πεντηκοστή, pentekoste) is the Greek word for 'fifty days', thus Pentecost is the fiftieth day of Easter (seven weeks of seven days plus Easter Day itself). The Day of Pentecost is also considered the "birthday" of the Church because the Church was born with the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples.

What is the Day of Pentecost? Pentecost is the ancient Jewish festival called the Feast of Weeks, or in Hebrew, Shavuot. It is called the "Feast of Weeks" because it is a "week" (shebuah) composed of seven weeks. According to Leviticus 23:15-16, the Day of Pentecost is computed after the Sabbath after the Passover. Thus, Pentecost always fell on a Sunday, the day after the seventh Shabbat. (Remember that Jesus celebrated a Passover supper with his disciples on Maundy Thursday, which was the eve of the Passover. He was crucified the following day, Good Friday, which was the Feast of the Passover itself.)

According to Jewish tradition, the Day of Pentecost was the day when God gave the Law (including the Ten Commandments). Just as fire descended on Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law, on the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples to give birth to the Church!

"In the last day, the great day of the feast" (John 7:37) In our Gospel reading, Jesus stood up on the last and greatest day of the "feast". This is not the Feast of Pentecost but the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:2), called Sukkoth in Hebrew. According to the Bible, the Feast of Tabernacles is an eight-day festival celebrated starting the fifteenth day of Tishri, the seventh month of the Jewish calendar (Leviticus 23:39). During this time, the Jewish people are commanded to construct and live in "booths" (in Hebrew, sukkoth) as a reminder that they used to dwell in tents (tabernacles) during their journey to the Promised Land (Leviticus 23:41-42). "The last and greatest day of the feast" is the eighth day, when the Jews hold a solemn assembly (astereth; Numbers 23:35).

In Jewish tradition, the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles is called Shmeni Atzeret. On this day, the Jewish people pray for rain!

On this day there was the greatest concourse of people, and they were then wont to fetch water from the fountain of Siloam, which the priests poured out on the great altar, singing one to an other, With joy shall ye draw water from the wells of salvation. On this day likewise they commemorated God's miraculously giving water out of the rock, and offered up solemn prayers for seasonable rains. (Notes Upon the New Testament)

(We can remember that Jesus healed a man born blind at the pool of Siloam in John 9.)

So we can see that when Jesus stood up on the last and great day of the Feast of Tabernacles and talked about the Holy Spirit as a "spring of living water", the Jewish people were pouring water on from the pool of Siloam on the altar of the Temple and praying for rain!

What does Jesus mean when he talked about "living water"?

I. Living water can only come from Jesus (John 7:37)

Jesus said, "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink." Jesus is the only source of living water. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman,

Whosoever drinketh of this water, will thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, will never thirst... (John 4:13-14a)

That is why Jesus said that only those who believe in him can have this living water (v. 38).

Jesus told the Samaritan woman the whoever drinks water from the well where they were talking, even it was dug by the Patriarch Jacob himself, will still thirst and will have to go back to the well again. Such are the things of this world! The world can give us food, drink, clothes, money... But these cannot truly satisfy a person. We will always want more food, more drink, more clothes, more money.... Only Jesus can quench the thirst of a thirsty soul.

Happy are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be satisfied. (Matthew 5:6)

II. Living water flows out of a person into eternal life. (John 7:38)

Jesus said, "He that believeth on me, out of his belly (as the scripture hath said) shall flow rivers of living water" (v. 38). In the language of the Bible, "living water" is fresh, flowing water, as opposed to still, stagnant water. That is why his imagery of living water is flowing water: "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water". Jesus described the water that he will give to the Samaritan woman as a fountain:

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, will never thirst; but the water that I shall give him, will be in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:14)

Speaking of everlasting life, only Jesus can bringing everlasting life. The things of this world like food, water, clothes, & c. can only bring life in this world (olam hazeh) but not in the world to come (olam haba). When a person believes on Jesus, everlasting life will spring from him like water from a fountain.

III. Living water is the Holy Spirit who is given to the believer. (John 7:39)

St. John the Apostle and Evangelist explains that the living water Jesus was talking about is the Holy Spirit: "This he spake of the Spirit, which they who believed on him were to receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified" (v. 38).

In the New Testament, there are seven verses (Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; John 1:33; John 3:5; Acts 8:35; I John 5:6 and 7) where the words "water" and "Spirit" occur. (In linguistics, this is called "collocation"). One of these is John 3:5:

Jesus answered, Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

This Spirit is the one that is given to us in the Sacrament of Baptism. In all of the seven verses where the words "water" and "Spirit" occur, the context was that of Baptism. When Jesus commanded his disciples to "go...and disciple all nations", he commanded them to baptize "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:19). We may not have felt anything because we were children when we were baptized or there did not experience "supernatural" signs if ever we were baptized as an adult. But we can rest assured that in the Word of God that whosoever believes on Jesus shall receive the Holy Spirit!

Conclusion

The Holy Spirit comes not only as tongues of fire as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, but also as living water. This living water comes only through Jesus Christ himself and accessible by faith. Things of this word cannot truly satisfy us because they are temporary. But when the Holy Spirit is in our lives, we shall have a fountain of living water that will spring up into eternal life. Amen.