Pentecost 2023

Text: “37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37-39)

If there is one image that is associated with Pentecost, it’s fire. But today, we have a reading from John’s Gospel that focuses not on fire, but on water. We’re going to talk about water instead of fire. And that water will carry a very powerful and comforting message.

When I say, ‘talk’, it would really be more accurate to say, ‘play’. You’ll see what I mean in a minute. There are two main points that I’d like to make this morning. And I’ll use water to try to make both of them.

Water In A Thirsty Land

Let’s start with the first verse in the Gospel reading: “37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37).

This, first object lesson illustrates how comforting— or, actually, ‘refreshing’ would be a better word— how ‘refreshing’ Jesus’ promise is.

[A table is set up next to the pulpit. On the table are a pitcher of water and four glasses of the same— or, at least, very similar— size. For this first object lesson, only the pitcher of water and one of the glasses are used.]

[The following is read while water is poured, as slowly and ‘dramatically’ as possible:] “37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37).

[Pause for false-dramatic effect.]

There you have it. A refreshing promise, isn’t it? No, actually, it probably feels less to you like the comforting promise of your Savior and more like the vendor at the baseball game crying out to see if anyone wants to buy the drinks he’s selling. But let’s put it back into context. Because that is when it becomes really refreshing.

“On the last day of the feast,” John writes, “the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out...” (John 7:37).

Which feast? The Feast of Booths. This was the annual commemoration of their ancestors living in the wilderness for 40 years before they finally entered the Promised Land. The two enduring pictures of God’s provision and deliverance were the manna—“bread from heaven”—and the rock from which God provided a stream of water to sustain the people in the desert. They continued to take great comfort in those images.

On the last day of that feast, one of the traditions was to take water from a spring under the Temple Mount and pour the water around the base of the altar of sacrifice to commemorate the water that flowed from the rock. My little object lesson was somewhat disappointing because it missed a few things. If you are here in Michigan on a hot summer’s day, that simple act of pouring a nice glass of water suddenly becomes a very refreshing image. And that’s in a time when we have wonderful water literally piped into every home and every building. Water is so common that it takes almost no effort to get some. Still, pouring a glass of water on a hot, Michigan day is a refreshing image.

Now imagine, not a single glass of water being poured, but a stream of water pouring from a rock in the wilderness. A tremendous stream pouring forth to provide water for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people who had no water— and little, if any, hope of finding any. That is the image that Jesus is making use of when He says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” (7:37).

“If anyone thirsts” is kind of an understatement, isn’t it? That water being poured out at the base of the altar as Jesus spoke pointed to the desperate need for what Jesus was offering and just how plentiful His gift was. Especially since He’s not talking about physical water now.

St. Paul wrote that Jesus was the rock from which the people of Israel drank while they were there in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:4). Whether he means that literally or metaphorically, the point is to direct them and you to something even greater the water flowing from that rock.

You live in the wilderness, don’t you? No, I don’t mean the Thumb of Michigan. This hasn’t been wilderness for 100 years? ...150? ...maybe longer? I mean this world as a whole. Life in this world is grueling. You finally put one burden behind you only to find another has taken its place. That’s one of the great lessons of parenting, for example, isn’t it? You start to get your feet under you, so to speak, to feel like you have some idea what you’re doing, just in time for your child to move on to the next stage when everything changes. That is the way most of life seems to work. Living, itself, can drain you as quickly as a desert sun.

And then there are the more direct effects of sin. The sins of others beat on you like ocean waves, wearing you down. The pain of their actions drains your strength. Coping with the damage they do saps your energy and resources.

As if that weren’t enough, your own sins constantly plague you, as well. The Children of Israel constantly lamented how good they had it back in Egypt. They hungered and thirsted for the illusion of the comfortable life they had in Egypt. But, of course, it was nothing more than an illusion for them. The life that they remembered so fondly was, in reality, slavery and death. Still they chased that illusion at every turn rather than receiving God’s gifts to them.

The same is true for you, today. The voice of your sinful flesh constantly whispers to you, “This life would be so much better if God would just let us…. (You know how many ways we’ve come up with to finish that sentence.)”

But it is still nothing more than an illusion. The unbelieving world entices you with all sorts of pleasures— and the opportunity to try to invent countless more!— but it’s an illusion. What looks like comfort and pleasure is slavery and death.

God gave the Children of Israel water through a rock as they traveled through the wilderness. That is what sustained them on their way to the Promised Land. And the spiritual rock that He’s given you is Jesus Christ.

Just like everything that He has given you in Jesus Christ, it all flows from the cross. When Jesus said, from the cross, “I thirst,” it wasn’t just the physical suffering that He was going through for you. It was a reflection of the fact that He was taking the full curse of sin upon Himself. This is what God spoke through the Prophet Isaiah: “19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20 The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, 21 the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise” (Isaiah 43:19-21).

Because He cried out, “I thirst,” because He took upon Himself the sin that makes this world a barren desert, His cross is a life-giving fountain in the wilderness of this world. From it flows the River of Life, bright as crystal, to sustain His People (Rev. 22:1). It is done. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. “To the thirsty [He gives] from the spring of the water of life without payment” (Rev. 21:6).

That is what God is pouring out here, today as He gives His Holy Spirit: He’s pouring out water in the wilderness. In the promise of Pentecost, “17 The Spirit and the [Church, the] Bride [of Christ] say, “Come.” …And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17).

The Holy Spirit flows from this altar, this pulpit, this font, to strengthen and keep you as you pass through this barren, dying world.

Look back to your baptism and see, there, what St. Paul describes in Titus chapter 3, “the washing of [rebirth] and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that [having been] justified by his grace [you are also] heirs [having] the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5-7).

Look to His Supper, to the body and blood He gave and shed for your on the cross, and find, there, the grace to forgive even your enemies as He has forgiven you.

Look to His Word and trust His promise: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11). The power in that Word is nothing other than the Holy Spirit, turning the desert of your heart into pools and the parched land of your soul into springs of water.

The ‘Spring’ Becomes ‘Springs’

And that is where we come to the second object lesson.

Jesus is the rock from which you, by faith, drink deeply of the Holy Spirit who sustains you in this wilderness. But, if you listen closely to Jesus’ words, there is another side to it: You become a rock through which Jesus provides a stream of living water to the world around you.

How do you do that? How do you “fill up” others constantly in your life?

[Try to fill the other three glasses from the one glass.] That feels like trying to fill these three glasses from this one glass. It doesn’t take long until the first glass is empty. And the others are not even close to full.

But there is a way, isn’t there? Some of you may remember from when I used this illustration before, several years ago.

[Stack the glasses in a pyramid, 3 on the bottom, all touching each other, and one on top, in the center. Pour water into the top glass as it overflows into the other glasses, filling all of them.] You are the rock through which Jesus provides a stream of living water— the Holy Spirit— for those around you. His grace overflows in your life into theirs— life life-giving stream of the Holy Spirit.

It overflows into their lives through the grace that flows through you: the words of forgiveness you speak to those who sin against you; the gentle responses you give to the hateful words thrown at you; and through the strength you have available to draw upon through even the hardest moments of life.

Jesus is the rock from which you, by faith, drink deeply of the Holy Spirit who strengthens you in the wilderness. And you are a rock through which Jesus provides a stream of living water to the world around you.

“37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’ ” (John 7:37-38).

Today, on this particular Pentecost Sunday, we don’t look to the image of fire, but the image of water. But, either way, we see a powerful image of God’s gift of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ.