The Water of Easter

Psalm 114 NASB95

1 When Israel went forth from Egypt, The house of Jacob from a people of strange language, 2 Judah became His sanctuary, Israel, His dominion. 3 The sea looked and fled; The Jordan turned back. 4 The mountains skipped like rams, The hills, like lambs. 5 What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? 6 O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs? 7 Tremble, O earth, before the Lord, Before the God of Jacob, 8 Who turned the rock into a pool of water, The flint into a fountain of water.

The Water of Easter

Psalm 114 doesn’t sound like your typical scripture reading for an Easter Sunrise Service. Usually Easter Sunrise services have scriptures that speak about life and light and the Resurrection. And should it should be for it is biblical and most fitting to talk about light. We are more familiar with the “Light of Easter” dawning than we are the “Water of Easter” rushing. Have you ever heard about the Water of Easter?

Allow me to share with you a deep truth about the Water of Easter that will expand our Easter celebration.

One of the first glimpses where we see this “water of Easter” is in Exodus 17 and of which Psalm 114, which we just read, points back to.

Water from the Rock

In Exodus 17 we are told the story about the people of God (Israel), after having been delivered from Egypt, were wandering in the desert with God guiding and leading them. Wandering in the desert was new to Israel, though they were just delivered from slavery, which was all they knew for 400 years, and here they are in the middle of no where, in a desolate place that is not known to have food nor water and it would seem reasonable to find this a little concerning because typically people who find themselves in the wilderness of the desert don’t survive without food or water. This causes the people to grumble about their thirst. So Moses, annoyed at their whining and complaining brings this up to God. Moses tries to mediate this tension that Israel has towards God, who has already provided manna for their food. So God tells Moses how He will quench their thirst. God instructs Moses,

Exodus 17:6 NASB95

6 “Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Now, I am no scientist but bringing water that is “living” from a rock “which is non-living” seems pretty miraculous and impossible. Which begs the question, why does God tell moses to “strike” a rock? Why not something that makes a little more sense like cutting open a cactus so they can ladle out water from within? Or why not just cause rain to pour down and fill the dirt with pools of fresh water similar to what God did with the Manna? But if you know the scriptures, then you know that God is always intentional in what He does and there is a reason behind His words and deeds. But how does this story have anything to do with Resurrection? Jesus helps us make this connection in the Gospel of John with the story about the woman at the well. What Jesus tells the woman at the well, draws out the meaning of living water.

But later in the New Testament Jesus, himself, talks about the Water of Easter in John 4 with the Woman at the well.

John 4:7-24— The Woman at the Well

Jesus tells her, “if you knew the “gift of God” you would ask me and I would give you living water.” But Jesus has nothing to draw water and the Woman picks up on this. So Jesus explains.

John 4:14 NASB95

14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

The Woman is thirsty and wants this living water, and after hearing about this living water of which Jesus provides, the woman believes that he is the Messiah. Jesus goes on to tell her that the hour is coming and is now here when she will worship God in Spirit and truth. How does water and worship fit together?

When you put these stories together with what we know about the Resurrection, we are given a new perspective on Easter that doesn’t involve light but water.

The Water of Easter and Resurrection

God causing living water to come out of a rock is the foreshadowing of the resurrection of Jesus coming out of the tomb. A barren, lifeless object turns into a perpetual flowing tide of Resurrection life. And all who thirst can come and drink and find their lives revived and sustained for all eternity.

Is this not why we have come to celebrate this morning? Are we all not people who are parched and thirsty? Don’t we all want to drink water that complete quenches our thirst and satisfies our soul? Don’t we want be rid of this life of death and experience the true life that Resurrection offers?

May we drink of the water of Easter that will cause us to never thirst again. May we declare that the dead body of Jesus which has been struck now pours forth water and blood so that all who want to live can truly live and worship God in Spirit and in Truth.

Those who hunger and thirst, come, taste and see that the Water of Easter, the resurrected Jesus, is good and will revive your soul to everlasting life. Experience the ever-abundant, ever-flowing, perpetual tide of the Love of God which is displayed in the Resurrection of Jesus. In Christ’s death we see the doom and gloom of our own sin being justly dealt with upon the cross which resulted in Jesus’ death. But in the Resurrection of Jesus, our hearts are restored to a new hope, new life, that pours forth from Jesus into our lives causing us who are dead to be reborn and live the resurrected life forever. There is glory in the cross of Christ. But there is great joy in a hollow rock where once the dead body of Jesus lay, but from which now flows the Living resurrected Jesus. Praise be to God for the “Water of Easter.”

Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed.