Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
John 7:37-9
I can recall only one time in my life when I was desperately, ready-to-faint thirsty. It was after my first high school football game, played on a hot, muggy August afternoon near Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
It was the first game of the season. It was also the first game ever coached by our new football coach, and, even though he was a young man, our new coach was old-school. He did not allow us to drink any water while we were on the field or on the sideline. Period. We did not have any water bottles. Seriously. Drinking water during strenuous exercise, he believed, would lead to muscle cramps.
So by the end of the game, I was desperately thirsty. I think we won the game, but what I remember most was waiting in line after the game at the water fountain, called a bubbler in Wisconsin, then drinking in as much water as I could as quickly as I could from, as I distinctly recall, a very stingy stream of water.
After parental and administrative intervention, we had water bottles aplenty for the remaining games of the season.
As recorded In our text from John 7, Jesus talks about spiritual thirst, a desperate longing to quench a thirst to know the truth; to be set free from sin, guilt and shame; to be reconciled to God. All people have inherited this spiritual thirst, a desire to know who we are, why we’re here and where we’re going. All share a longing to have our spiritual needs met, our spiritual thirst quenched. All have a restlessness which finds true rest only in Him.
In our fallen nature, we also, of course, thirst after other things: material possessions, physical pleasures, shallow relationships or superficial recognition which ultimately do not satisfy our restless search for “holy water.”
In this text, Jesus talks not only about quenching or satisfying our own spiritual thirst, but also about receiving the power, through the Holy Spirit, to share the love of God with others. Once our spiritual thirst is quenched – or is constantly being quenched – we are empowered to share “streams of living water” through our witness to God’s love and point others to Jesus, the One who restores and refreshes and gives eternal life to all people.
Prayer: May our good and gracious God continue to quench our spiritual thirst through His Word and Sacraments, and through the power of the Holy Spirit may we be bold witnesses to the saving grace of God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
Dr. Kurt Krueger
CUI Past/Interim President