“Now on the last great day of the festival, Jesus stood and was crying out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in me, just as the Scripture said, “Rivers of living water will flow out from his stomach.”‘ But He said this about the Spirit, whom those who believe in Him were going to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, since Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:37-39; my translation).
Here, Jesus explicitly identifies the rivers of living water as the Holy Spirit, flowing from someone’s heart, or literally “stomach” (in Greek thought, the bowels were the seat of human emotions and being, much as the heart is in our day). His quotation is not from any biblical text “but draws together themes found in a number of Old Testament passages” (Koester, 193). Just as Jesus said His teaching is consistent with the Law of Moses but not derivative from the Law (John 7:14-24), He is saying the same thing about Him being the source of living water—His teaching here is not exactly derivative from Hebrew texts, but it is consistent with one of its themes. For example, Proverbs 13:14, “The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life”; Proverbs 18:4, “The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook”; and Psalm 1:3, “He is like a tree planted by streams of water,” just to name a few.
What does this mean? Jesus is inviting His hearers to partake of divine wisdom, yet this wisdom does not come from the Law like it did before. Jesus Himself, being the direct revelation of God, is the source of divine wisdom. This is best understood in the context in which Jesus is speaking, which is the weeklong festival of the Feast of Booths. During this festival, the Jews commemorated the 40 years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, specifically from Leviticus 23:42-43, “You shall dwell in booths for seven days… that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.”
So, during the festival, “people erected booths roofed with leafy branches where they would eat and sleep to remember the way their ancestors lived in simple shelters in the desert. Stories about Moses providing water for their ancestors were part of the festival context. After leaving Egypt the people traveled through a desert where they found no water [Exodus 17:1-6; Numbers 20:2-13]” (Koester, 195). At the end of their wilderness wandering, Moses announces that God is going to raise up a prophet like him (Deuteronomy 18:15-18).
Therefore, by identifying Himself as the source of living water like Moses had provided in the wilderness, Jesus is also identifying Himself as the one whom God promised to send. Moses was the one who struck the rock to provide water, but the Scriptures identify it as God who provided the water, just as the Psalms do, “He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers” (Psalm 78:16); and, “He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed through the desert like a river” (Psalm 105:41). The Prophets do the same. Isaiah uses the images of Israel’s exodus to provide hope for Israel’s deliverance where God will provide rivers of water (Isaiah 41:18; 43:20; 48:21; 49:10; 55:1). Jeremiah identifies Yahweh as “the fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13). Thus, Jesus also identifies Himself as Yahweh incarnate.
Jesus announces His words on the last day of the Feast of Booths. He therefore announces Himself as the one in whom the celebrators find the festival’s final fulfilment. John the evangelist writes Jesus was speaking about the Spirit. Jesus’ words here further bring us to the cross where water flowed out from His side (John 19:34). Water and Spirit bring God’s kingdom to those who believe (3:5).
So then, what does this mean for you? Come to Jesus and drink. Come to Jesus and be baptised, through which you are born of water and Spirit. “What if I was already baptised?” Luther describes the Christian life as a “daily baptism” through repentance since Baptism begins with repentance since Baptism’s power and effect “is nothing else than the slaying of the old Adam and the resurrection of the new creature… What is repentance but an earnest attack on the old creature and an entering into a new life? If you live in repentance, therefore, you are walking in baptism” (LC IV, 65, 75). In repentance, you drink the waters of Baptism again, which come from Christ and His Spirit.
Bibliography
Koester, Craig R. Symbolism in the Fourth Gospel: Meaning, Mystery, Community. 2nd edition. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.
The Lutheran Column 