Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today is Pentecost Sunday. We think of Pentecost, and we
think what we read from Acts: the disciples in the upper room, the tongues of
fire, the sound of the rushing wind, the large crowd, Peter’s great preaching,
the speaking in tongues, and the conversion of 5000 souls to faith in Christ as
Savior. It’s a story we know, a story we love, a story that ignites the
imagination of what it may have been like to experience such an event and
witness an incredible coming to faith by the power of Jesus at work in the
preached Word. That IS Pentecost.
But then you have this brief reading from St. John where
instead of fire and wind and language and conversion, there is water. Jesus
cries out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes
in me, as the Scriptures have said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of
living water.’” Now, that’s a different picture for us to consider this
Pentecost. What is He talking about? What does living water have to do with the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit? What does that have to do with Pentecost?
Pentecost was the final day of the Festival of Booths. The
Festival was similar to our modern, American Thanksgiving day, but stretched
out over seven days. The Festival of Booths, or sukkoth in Hebrew, was a
time to give thanks and remember God’s providential care of Israel. The harvest
would be complete, so part of the Festival was thanksgiving for God’s providing
through the crops gathered in. But, more than just a harvest celebration, it
was also a time of remembrance. Each family was to live in a tent as a symbol
of the tents they used in the wilderness. During the Festival, Israel retold
the stories of how God cared for their ancestors in the wilderness wanderings
and how He led them to the Promised Land of Milk and Honey. Water was a big
part of the festival. In remembering the Exodus, they remembered how God
provided water at Mamre, at Massah and Meribah, just as they were on the verge
of dying from dehydration. As we know, water is hugely important in an agrarian
community. They thanked God for the rains over the past growing season and also
was a way of imploring God to send rains for the next harvest to come.
On the final day of sukkoth, there would be a
procession in the city of Jerusalem from the pool of Siloam up to the Temple.
Priests would dip a pitcher of water from the pool and pour it into one of the
sacred vessels used that day for sacrifice. Prayers were offered for
forgiveness of their past idolatry, rejoicing for the return of Israel to the
promised land, a pledge of a new obedience to God, and for the continued
protection of the Lord over the security of Jerusalem. But, chief, was the hope
for the restoration of Israel under the Messianic King to come. The ceremonial water-rites
made past-to-future connections of God’s action of creation, separating the
waters above and below, with providing water in the Exodus, His continued
providence, and the prophetic pledge of water to flow from the temple when
Messiah would arrive. The Temple and its waters will become the source of the
paradise to come and the center of the New Israel. “On that day,” Zechariah
wrote, “on that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and
the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness,” (13:
1). He was looking ahead to a great, Messianic arrival when he added that the
living waters of the Temple “will flow from Jerusalem, half of them to the
eastern sea and half to the western sea,” (14:8).
So, when Jesus speaks, He is connecting Himself to the God
of creation. He is in the Temple, and He is drawing a connection of Himself
with the waters poured out in the Temple rites. And He is also identifying
Himself as the very Messiah that the Feast is proclaiming, the provider of the
very redemptive waters that Israel is yearning for. All of the springs, all of the fountains, all
of the rocks from which water flowed, both while Israel was wandering in the
desert and after they entered the Promised Land, all of the waters were
foreshadowing Jesus and His own lifegiving, redemptive work. His plea for
hearers to come to Him and for the thirsty to drink was if He was saying, if
you drink from the pool of Siloam this year, you’ll have to do it again and
again and again. But I give water that gives life, now and into eternity. Stop
doubting; stop waiting; come and drink.
Zechariah, seven hundred years earlier, before the birth of
Jesus, pointed ahead to an even greater fountain that would come flow, giving
life beyond measure. That Fount of Life will appear about a year after Jesus
speaks these words: “when one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, at
once blood and water came out.” Zechariah proclaimed that living waters would
come from Jerusalem, and John helps us see that those living waters, mixed with
the blood of Jesus, came from His side on the cross. The conclusion is simple:
Jesus Christ, crucified, is the new Jerusalem; Jesus Christ, crucified, is the
new Temple; Jesus Christ, crucified, is Messiah who rescues and redeems His
people with blood and water.
So, what does a Jewish celebration of harvest thanksgiving
and exodus remembrance have to do with the disciples in Acts 2, or with us for
that matter? Glad you asked.
John notes that this outflowing of living water has to do
with the Holy Spirit, but “as yet, the Spirit had not been given because Jesus
was not yet glorified.” The Spirit and the cross go together. The Spirit can
only be delivered through Jesus glorification on the cross. Jesus hands over
His Spirit when He is glorified in His death. In other words, the gift of the
Spirit comes only through and with the living death of the Lamb of God. There
is water, and there is blood, and there is death, and there is life, and there
is Spirit.
People often think of Pentecost as the Holy Spirit stepping
up to the plate, making His presence known, and being the star of the show. As
part of the Triune Godhead, the Spirit of God has always been present. Next
week we’ll confess in the Athanasian Creed, the Father is God, the Son is God,
the Holy Spirit is God, yet they are not three gods but one God. If you try to
shine the spotlight on the Holy Spirit, the remarkable thing is He instead
reflects the light of Christ. The Spirit leads you back to the cross. The
Spirit is given and comes only through the means of the cross. Where the cross
is, there is the life-giving Spirit; where the life-giving Spirit is, there is
the cross. The life given by the Spirit is the life of the cross. The life
guided by the Spirit is life under the cross. The life lived in the Spirit is
the baptized life, marked with the sign of the cross. And, now, we are back to
water.
And, in the Church, where there is water, there is blood,
and where there is water, there is death and life, and there is Spirit. And
when water is combined with the word of God, the Spirit of God moves in, with
and under the waters as He did in creation, creating Life in Christ, washing
away sins, uniting together the faithful under the headship of Christ as one
body of believers. Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has
said, ‘out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’.” You leave here
today refreshed by that same living water that has been poured out for you and
on you. That faith, instilled in you by God’s grace, that trusts solely in the
work of Jesus at the cross, that faith flows from you to those around you in
what you say and in what you do. God uses you in your vocation, and from you
flows living water. You speak of Jesus, you proclaim that sins have been
forgiven by His death, you say He is risen – risen, indeed! – and that gives
you Hope (!) in these grey and latter days. You proclaim that victory has
already been assured in Christ and that nothing can separate you from His love.
And in that moment, Pentecost continues: not with fire and
wind and unknown languages being spoken, but with the forgiveness of sins, won
at the cross when the Father sent the Son to die, delivered by God’s grace
through faith that is enabled by the Spirit, who leads back to the cross from
where flowed blood and living water.
Amen.
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