Are You Thirsty? Come And Drink! John 7:37-39a

St. John’s – East Moline 06/04/06

Intro.: Can you picture the scene in our New Testament readings as pious Jews from all over the world poured into Jerusalem? All around the city you could see little huts erected for the pilgrims who flooded the land to celebrate together the great harvest festival, the Feast of Tabernacles. This gathering of the faithful from the ends of the earth as one family was a prophetic symbol of the wonderful thing the Lord was about to do?

I. The Prophetic Symbol.

A. From the courtyards of God’s holy temple, on down through the streets of Jerusalem the people came, packed in like sardines. They gathered to remember what God had done, to celebrate their blessings and to give thanks. Just beyond their green hills lay a desert wasteland, but God had quenched their thirst with life and a bountiful harvest. They understood that it did not matter how hard they worked the land, nor how skilled they were at farming and shepherding, without the water of life that comes from the Lord, they would be lost, and with their crops and livestock they would dry up and blow away. In the Feast of Tabernacles they declared their trust in God’s mercy.

B. One of the things they did in this festival was to remember the miraculous way in which the Lord had delivered them from death by providing them water in the wilderness. Do you remember how after bringing His people out of Egypt they began to doubt His goodness and complained, “Why, Moses, did you free us from Egypt? There we were slaves. But here, we with our children will die of thirst!” Do you remember what the Lord did then? He commanded Moses, “Take your shepherd’s staff and strike that rock!” and out of that rock gushed streams of water! Life-giving water for God’s people! (nt. Exodus 17)

Every year they commemorated that miracle by worshiping God with water! Each day of the festival the crowd would gather down at the pool of Siloam at the foot of Jerusalem’s holy hill. It was the spring that had watered Jerusalem since the day of King David, a thousand years before Jesus’ birth. Even under siege by mighty armies, God’s people had received life from those waters. From that pool the priest would take a golden pitcher, and fill it with water and lead a parade of worshipers. Waving their palm branches they would follow the priest up the hill toward the temple. Joyful trumpet blasts would greet the water, and choirs would sing from Isaiah 12: “With joy (we) will draw water from the wells of salvation!” (Isaiah 12:3) Then the priest, with great ceremony, poured out the water on the sacred rock – the very rock where Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac. This same ritual was repeated each of the seven days of the feast. And the people knew that this was about something more than water.

C. It was about the life and salvation which God was bringing from the spiritual rock who was coming into the world. The rabbis, quoting the ancient prophets Ezekiel and Joel taught the crowd about God’s promise. They reminded them that just as Moses saved God’s people in the desert by splitting the rock to release flowing water, so God would send the Messiah, the Spiritual Rock, from whom would flow life-giving water. Through Him as the prophets promised a spring of life-giving water would stream out from the house of the Lord! (Nt. Ezek. 47:1; Joel 3:18)

In that moment, the city fell into a reverent and prayerful hush… And then one man stood and shouted out: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!”

Who could he have been? Was he a prophet! Could he have been the One God promised, the Messiah? Or was he just that crazy carpenter from Nazareth the leaders had warned everyone about? What the people saw in Him, and what people see in him today really depends upon how thirsty they are. How thirsty are you? And what do you do with Jesus’ invitation? Right here, and right now the Lord Jesus calls upon you to…

II. Admit You Are Thirsty.

A. In today’s Old Testament reading, God showed Ezekiel a valley full of dry bones and announced that they were the bones of Israel. Once a great people blessed by God, now they were spiritually dead and their hope was dried up, because their sin had cut them off from the Lord. After years of rebellion in which they refused to receive the spiritual drink the Lord had offered them they were parched and ready to admit their thirst. (Nt. Ezek. 37:11)

B. What about you? When was the last time you were truly thirsty; thirsty down to your soul? Far too often we ignore the signs and symptoms of our spiritual dehydration. We take church and our faith as seriously as we always have, and want just as much of it as we think we need to get by. We try to be good and think we are pretty good, so who needs anything more? We have been baptized and perhaps confirmed, and so like others before us consider ourselves to be the untouchable children of Abraham, and that’s that! We become smug about who we are and overly satisfied with ourselves. Too many of us are guilty of not being thirsty enough?

This is exactly what had happened to the skeletons in the valley, and to the people to whom Peter spoke in today’s epistle. They had to be made to feel their thirst, before they could drink, and so do we. Who, after all, was it that sent Jesus to the cross? Was it the low-life, lepers, prostitutes and thieves? No it was the “good” people; the “religious” people; the people who considered themselves God’s children who did it. This is what the apostle points out in His Pentecost sermon when He said: “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” so that “when the people heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’” (Acts 2:35-37)

To all of you who have been satisfied with yourselves because you are a member of a church, because you have been confirmed, because you attend worship and read your Bible; to all of you who feel that you are good and religious and righteous; to all of you who do not thirst for more and more words of grace from the Lord; I say: Be assured of this you are the ones who crucified the Lord of life. It is your declaration of self-righteousness which cried out for His death and your sin, not another’s, which nailed him to that cross. You killed the Son of God, but God raised Him up and made Him Lord and Christ. Now feel the thirst, the deep in your soul thirst. See how dried up you really are and stop turning away from Christ’s invitation. Joyfully hear Jesus calling out to you: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!” And then flee to Him, because He is…

III. The Only One Who Can Quench Our Thirst.

A. Nothing this-worldly can ever really quench our thirst. All around us, and perhaps among us, are people who seek to quench their thirst with drink and drugs, sex and pleasure. Many bet that more money will buy them more of the good life, and that trampling others underfoot will satisfy their desires with more power and prestige. They know that they are thirsty for something more, but more of what? It seems the more they drink of this world’s highly advertised thirst-quenchers the more parched they become, and the more withered their soul. As the writer of Ecclessiastes observes: “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” (Eccl. 1:14) And as the prophet Isaiah announces: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, by wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?” (Is. 55:1-2) No there has to be more…so listen again to Christ’s invitation: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to ME and drink!”

B. Only Christ can quench our thirst. Listen to what He offers those who will receive the drink He offers, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” (v.38) Just as Moses split a rock, and out gushed life-giving water, Jesus was lifted up on a cross outside Jerusalem to be stricken, smitten and afflicted for us. There on that cross He died for our sins and the sins of the whole world. He is the spiritual rock from whom we can all drink and be satisfied with forgiveness and eternal life. St. Paul notes in his letter to the Corinthians, “They all…drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that Rock was Christ.” (I Cor. 10:3-4)

St. John describes the scene as Jesus, in death, was pierced for us - how when the Roman spear was thrust into His side, water and blood flowed from his riven side. From that holy wound, Christ poured out His blood which was the ransom used to purchase us from sin and an empty life; the same blood we receive in the sacrament of the Altar. From that same wound also flowed the life giving water through which we are cleansed and satisfied with forgiveness and eternal life, the same kind of water that is poured upon us in the sacrament of Holy Baptism.

Jesus is the only one who can quench our thirst for life-giving water. To the people on Pentecost who admitted their spiritual thirst and asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter answered, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38) To those who dried up by sin, who have lost all hope in themselves, and are truly thirsty for forgiveness, life and salvation Jesus offers something that truly satisfies: He pours out from heaven the gift of the Holy Spirit.

C. He gives us His Holy Spirit to bring new life to these dry bones. As the prophet saw in His vision, when the breath of God comes upon us, and the Holy Spirit enters in there is life and hope. Since that first Pentecost Jesus has flooded the world with the Gospel, and poured out His Spirit into our hearts so that we may believe and live, and find satisfaction in the salvation we have in Christ. From the baptismal font life giving waters are poured over us and we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. From the cross which is the high altar of God’s house streams of living water continue to flow into us and then from within us out to others.

Concl: Listen again to the voice of the one who broke the silence that day in Jerusalem as he calls out to you: “Íf anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!” Come brothers and sisters, let us together drink in the Holy Spirit which Christ has poured out upon us! Let us drink Him in as He comes to us in the Word and Sacraments, so that these dry bones may live, and these parched souls be satisfied with the Gospel of forgiveness. Amen.