Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Reading: John 7:25-44
Reflection: This passage once again affirms several things that we have already learned about the Holy Spirit. First, the Holy Spirit is only gained through a relationship with Jesus. This is true because the Spirit will be sent into the world by the glorified Christ. Once He is at the right hand of the Father, God the Father will give the promised Spirit to God the Son who will then send that Spirit to fill His church. This is why John says the the Spirit has not yet come because Jesus has not yet been glorified.
Second, the Spirit brings life. Jesus states that when the Spirit fills a believer that rivers of life shall flow out of them. In other words, the Spirit will not only bring new life to the individual by filling them, but will also flow through them into the world. So the Holy Spirit is the power that brings both the energy and order of life to the world.
Finally, only those who are thirsty for life in Christ and come to believe in Him will gain the Spirit. The Spirit is not given to people who think Jesus was a good, moral teacher. Rather, it will be given to those who in their thirst for life cast themselves on the mercy of Christ. It is given to those who have come to believe in the person and work of God's chosen messenger. So, the Holy Spirit is presented to us here as the life-giving person of the Trinity who is sent into the world by Jesus to those who in their thirst and faith have entered a relationship with Christ.
I noticed the imagery of “living water” is repeated here in this passage. Jesus first used it (or at least the first time I noticed) was with the Samaritan woman back in chapter 4. She was coming to draw water from a well so it is easy to see the correlation between water and thirst. In this section, though, we don’t have the obvious connection to thirst – except that he was speaking on the last day of a feast. Would it be similar to the wedding in Cana were the wine could be running out?
ReplyDeleteGood question. I don't have a studied answer to this...but there is the connection to thirst made by Jesus in verse 37 where Jesus talks about the person who "thirsts" coming to Jesus to drink. It seems that thirst here is linked to belief, perhaps suggesting that those who are genuinely, spiritually craving truth and life will find it as they come to faith in Jesus and journey through life with Him. As His Spirit fills their hearts, their thirst is so satisfied that they not only are satisfied themselves, but have enough "spiritual water" to actually give others a drink.
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