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On that last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, "Truly this is the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was? So there was a division among the people because of Him. Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him.
Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why have you not brought Him?" The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this Man!" Then the Pharisees answered them, "Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed." Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them, "Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?" They answered and said to him, "Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee." And everyone went to his own house.
- John 7:37-52
In our current reading, Jesus is attending the Feast of Tabernacles (Hebrew Sukkot). Yesterday, we read that about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught. And the Jews marveled, saying, "How does this Man know letters, having never studied?" Jesus answered them and said, "My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him. Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?" The people answered and said, "You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill You?" Jesus answered and said to them, "I did one work, and you all marvel. Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." Now some of them from Jerusalem said, "Is this not He whom they seek to kill? But look! He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ? However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from." Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying, "You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me." Therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. And many of the people believed in Him, and said, "When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?" The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him. Then Jesus said to them, "I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me. You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come." Then the Jews said among themselves, "Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him? Does He intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What is this thing that He said, 'You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come'?"
On that last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. This last day, the great day of the feast is the eighth day of this festival, the Feast of Tabernacles. This is an autumn harvest festival, and it commemorates the time Israel spent wandering in tents or tabernacles. This particular day had a ceremony of the drawing of water, and thus provides the context for Jesus' words regarding the "rivers of living water" which flow from the heart of faith, an image of the gift of the Holy Spirit, and, says my study bible, "the new life that accompanies this gift."
Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, "Truly this is the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was? So there was a division among the people because of Him. Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him. Again, John gives us a kind of chorus of the crowds, the various opinions held about Jesus. "The Prophet" was another image of the Messiah, foretold by Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-19). Micah foretold that the Christ would come from Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). Of course, this crowd knows Jesus as a Galilean, from Nazareth, although He was born in Bethlehem. There's an interesting little note to mention here, that a clan of the descendants of David did settle in Nazareth after the Babylonian exile (this is likely the source of the name Nazareth, from Hebrew nezer for "branch" of the Davidic lineage).
Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why have you not brought Him?" The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this Man!" Then the Pharisees answered them, "Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed." My study bible reminds us that the chief priests had sent officers of the temple to arrest Jesus in the middle of the Feast (7:32). But this is the last day of the Feast, and no arrest has been made. These officers, it suggests, have been converted by the Lord's teaching. We can hear in their response that it was impossible for them to arrest Him because of the words He spoke. My study bible cites John Chrysostom who said that the Pharisees and scribes who had "witnessed the miracles and read the Scriptures derived no benefit" from either one. These officers, although they can claim none of the learning of the leadership, were "captivated by a single sermon." When the mind is open, says Chrysostom, "there is no need for long speeches. Truth is like that."
Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them, "Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?" They answered and said to him, "Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee." And everyone went to his own house. In chapter 3, we read about Jesus' discussion with Nicodemus (see How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?). My study bible points out that by this time Nicodemus' faith had grown. "Yet," it says, "his defense of Christ was still based on our law and was not yet a public profession of faith. According to the law, Jesus must be given a hearing before He can be judged (Exodus 23:1; Deuteronomy 1:15-17). It's also noted here that the Pharisees are mistaken in saying that no prophet has arisen out of Galilee. My study bible says, "The Pharisees show their blind hatred and their ignorance of the Scriptures, for the prophet Jonah came from Galilee, from the town of Gath Hepher, which was only three miles from Nazareth (2 Kings 14:25)."
We have this struggle going on between those who are the experts in the Law and Scriptures and regulators of the religious life, and this phenomenon, Jesus. Jesus is in some way like all the prophets, and especially like John the Baptist, because His work is driven by spirit, by the God who is Spirit, and must be worshiped in spirit and truth. That God has given the Law, the Scriptures, the Prophets. So how do we come to reconcile these two things? How do we take what we've been given through the blessings of Spirit, and shape our world around it in a way that doesn't lock out the "new things" God brings us? Jesus alludes to this when He speaks about new wine needing new wineskins in the Synoptic Gospels (Mark 2:22, Matthew 9:17, Luke 5:38). Interestingly, Job uses a similar illustration to say, "I am full of words; The spirit within me compels me. Indeed my belly is like wine that has no vent; It is ready to burst like new wineskins" (Job 32:18-19). There has to be room made for God's revelation to us, whether that be by the "living water" Jesus talks about in today's reading, or, indeed, something spectacular like the Incarnation. This promise of the "rivers of living water" that are to flow out of a faithful heart really is the promise of a gift that comes to us in order to make us expand, and in order to help us to continue to incorporate those changes that come from an ongoing experience as described by Jesus' phrase "rivers of living water." As my study bible pointed out, this statement reflects events on this last, great day of the festival occurring in John's Gospel, when libations would be poured from a pool commemorating the water from the rock (Exodus 17:1-7). It's interesting to think about, because that incident in Exodus resulted in Moses naming the place for the contention that rose among the Israelites, in which God was tested by the people asking, "Is the Lord among us or not?" A stony heart may represent something similar -- how can God be among us when things aren't going well? And yet it is faith that Jesus promises will result in the rivers of living water that flow from the heart, the life He offers, full of grace. A stony heart is like the old wineskins that can't expand, and it's like the Pharisees who won't open their eyes regarding Jesus because they really have other things standing in the way (like fear of losing their own positions, for example). So one thing that holds us back, I suppose we could say, from being like the new wineskins that can expand with God's grace and gracious gifts, is just that tendency to hard-heartedness, to that stony place where we think we have all the answers (and certainly there are hidden motives, even possibly hidden from ourselves), where we are afraid of the place grace is bringing us to. There's a lyric to a popular song that says, "Fear is easy, love is hard," and that just about sums it up. How do we maintain faith in the face of our fears? In the face of the things we're afraid we'll lose? Or the ways we may end up being "the losers?" Think of the faith of those following Moses into the desert. Think of the people at this ceremony, this feast in Jerusalem, in a time of occupation, and all kinds of strife. How are they supposed to think about Jesus and what He's telling them? What -- and more especially -- Who do they trust? The temple guard are told to arrest Jesus, and they just can't do it. His words have too much power. So what do they do? What do we do? Jesus offers the God who is Spirit. He offers the power and authority of that God, just the way that Moses did. How do we put our fears aside to follow Him? And to encounter those rivers of living water within the heart that He offers, and the new life they bring?
