Text: John 7:37-39
Focus: The Spirit flowing
Function: to help people rely on the Holy Spirit
John 7:37-39, NRSV
37On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, 38and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” 39Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
I think this is one of my favorite descriptions of how the Holy Spirit works in the life of the believer in the gospel of John.
It is certainly one of the more bizarre messages that the Lord gave.
The scene is the festival of booths. It was their Darke County fair, so to speak. The festival lasted for one week, and during that week, everyone camped out in tents to remind them that they lived in tents for 40 years while they were in the desert and God took good care of them.
So, they are all together, and in the middle of the crowd Jesus stands up and starts yelling.
It was the best way to get their attention, but what He shouts is mysterious and cryptic. If you are thirsty, come to me.
It is a bold statement to make. It is a divine claim that proves to me that He is the Son of God.
Let the one who believes in me drink.
I love the imagery in the idea of drinking life giving water from Jesus. It is a throwback to several prophecies about Jesus that describe Him as the source of life giving nourishment.
Look at
Isaiah 55:1-2a:
Ho,
everyone who thirsts,
come to the
waters;
and you that have no money,
come,
buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without
money and without price.
2Why
do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and
your labor for that which does not satisfy?
The prophecy is a reference to the life giving grace that is abundant through Jesus Christ.
The Jewish people were holding on to this prophecy of a season of abundant blessing where God pours out enough and everyone has enough.
Some believe it is a reference to what immediately happened after the Church was formed and they started a commune and they shared everything and no one lacked.
And that is true, but I believe that Jesus is talking on a more spiritual plane here about the force for good that lives inside of every believer.
In the beatitudes we read, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be filled.
I don’t believe He isn’t talking about vengeance or retribution, but justice rolling down like a river on behalf of all the oppressed.
When Jesus shouts out this message, the bold claim, it is a message of hope to everyone who is believing in Him.
And remember, these were desperate people. They weren’t living in a democracy where the government existed to protect its citizenry. No, they were occupied by an army that considered their lives worth much less than the occupying force.
The people are desperate and Jesus promises them relief, even purpose for their lives.
And He promises them that the same power that motivates Him will be inside of them. It is an exciting and bold promise and according to the text, it brought power and hope to those who are willing to believe in His hope.
Jesus turned the world around with this Spirit that is inside of us.
But Jesus didn’t do a political revolution. Remember, that is what they were expecting, even after He rose from the dead as we saw last week.
His revolution is the revolution of love as each and every heart is touched by this same Holy Spirit through faith in Christ.
We are in desperate times. My son, a history teacher, posted a meme on Facebook that 2020 is the year students will do most the highlighting because of all the dramatic events going on around us.
David Steele, the General Secretary of the COB put out a call for us to address the issue of racism. And this ties into the passage.
The last couple of weeks have exposed another injustice that has been going on in our country since its inception. And that is the way black people have been treated. It seems to be true that our culture values the lives of black men less than it values our lives.
I know it is hard for us to see here in Darke county where we are isolated, but my neighborhood is about 75-25% white to black.
Many of the families are integrated, just like mine.
I would not have understood what is going on if it were not for the stories that my daughter in law can tell me.
One that sticks out is the time when, before she was married to my son, she was dating a different white guy who was smoking pot in the car right before he picked her up from work.
They got pulled over and she ended up on the ground with a boot on her neck while her white friend suffered no brutality. She has never done any drugs in her life, but she knows that it was the color of her skin that put her face on the ground. And stories like that are common in the experience of the black culture.
Now, change the scene to today’s text and picture a protest march on behalf of Black Lives Matter. Picture Jesus standing up in the midst of it and shouting “Come to Me if you are thirsty and I will fill you with life giving water.”
He is crying out, The Holy Spirit has a way out of this mess for you.
I am not going to condemn the demonstrations even though some are getting violent. I, along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. condemn the violence, but the demonstrations are coming from a place of sincere frustration because some sort of change needs to happen.
The Jews needed change from the oppression that they felt as well.
And in the middle of that desperation, Jesus cries out that the answer is going to come from God and that it is going to flow out of them in life giving rivers.
It is the kindness of God that leads people to change. It is the love of God that covers a multitude of sins.
Yes, the need to protest seems evident after we witnessed a state sponsored execution of a man who was merely accused of a non-violent offense. What happened to George Floyd was unjust.
Injustice was going on with them as well.
And in the middle of that, Jesus tells them that the power of love is inside of them and that power will transform the world.
I see the frustration of the black community and their perception based on their experience that they are not valued as much as their white counterparts. And, peaceful demonstrations haven’t worked.
But Jesus has given us a greater power. We have the power to dance upon injustice as the Holy Spirit flows through us.
In Northern Nigeria Christians are persecuted by the Muslims. About 20 years ago, the Government declared that the police were going to be inactive for an afternoon during which several Churches were burned and several pastors murdered.
Some angry young Christian men decided to retaliate and burned down a mosque. Then they felt bad and went to the elders of the Church. The elders proclaimed a fast in repentance for burning down the mosque.
They began the process of rebuilding the churches, but before they rebuilt any of their churches, they rebuilt the burned down mosque. Several of the Muslim Imans converted to Christianity.
They used the power of love to overcome evil.
They responded to violence with love and in so doing, they danced upon the injustice that happened to them.
I say dance upon it because it is a statement of faith. Trusting God to make things right, but in the middle of that, showing love.
We have seen violence in the last week, but there have been many signs of hope. Police who take a knee with the protesters. Black men circling a white police officer who was cut off from his cohort and in danger.
God’s love can pour out through us in these situations just as it did back then.
Let us look for ways to overcome evil with good, but just as society was rallied up to end the oppression of slavery during the civil war, it is time to confess the sin of slavery and the damage that slavery caused so that we can live up to the high standards that we have set for ourselves, that all men are created equal.
