1st Monday of Advent (December 2). RIVERS of LIVING WATER

Prepare to Listen.  Let anyone who is thirsty come to me.
 
Prayerfully Read John 7:37-39
37On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, 38and let the one who believes in me drink.  As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” ’  39Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
What puzzled or delighted you in Jesus’ words?
 
Jesus was at the Festival of Booths (or Tabernacles), a seven-day festival to commemorate the exodus from Egypt and God’s provision for the Hebrews in their wilderness wanderings.  Water was always an urgent need for them.  Thus, a daily ritual during the festival focused on water as the priest poured fresh water on the altar, that then flowed from the temple.  This ritual connects John’s story to Ezekiel’s vision of water flowing from the temple, becoming a mighty river.[1]  Jesus came to bring Ezekiel’s vision of life-giving water to fruition.  On the last and great day of the festival, “When Jesus cries out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me’ (v. 37), he positions himself as the life-giving water of Tabernacles.”[2]
 
He also cried out, “As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water’.”  The word cried, suggests Jesus saw himself as a prophet making the way for a new and distinctive gift, which he identified as the Spirit.  There is no exact match in Scripture for Jesus’ quotation.  But, since the backdrop is the ritual pouring of water on the altar, with the imagery of water flowing from the temple, it’s appropriate to link Jesus’ saying to Ezekiel’s vision of a river that gives life wherever it goes.  Jesus’ offer to the thirsty, those longing for God and for life, dramatically announces the coming of that which the symbolic practice points to—rivers of living water in the Spirit.  Life-giving water is on offer to whoever is thirsty and comes to Jesus.
 
How thirsty are you for this water?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord, give me this water and may it become rivers of living water that will refresh, not just my soul, but also others around me whom I’ll meet today.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Believe/trust in Jesus and drink.
[1] See 1st Sunday of Advent on Ezekiel 47.
[2] O’Day, Gail and Hylen, Susan.  John.  Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press 2006, p. 86.