Water – John 7:25-52

There is a nice little article by a Messianic Jew, Aaron Eby, on the Feast of Tabernacles, where he mentions, as have many commentators, that a part of the feast was the pouring out of water from the pool of Siloam on the temple altar on the seventh day accompanied by prayers for rain (this was a harvest festival).  Jesus speaks at this time about coming to him for living water and for a perpetual spring of water from within them that he would provide.

Then some of those there from Jerusalem began saying, “Isn’t this the one they are seeking to kill?  And yet he is speaking boldly and no one says anything to him.  Might it be true that the rulers know that this one is the Messiah?  But we know where he comes from and when the Messiah comes no one will know where he comes from.”  So Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, “You indeed know me and where I come from, and I haven’t spoken from myself, but the One who sent me is true, and you don’t know Him.  I know Him, because I came from him, He sent me.”  So they sought to arrest him, yet no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.

Many of those in the crowd believed in him and said, “When the Messiah comes he won’t perform any more signs than this one has performed.”  The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring about him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent attendants to arrest him.  So Jesus said, “I have been with you just a short time and I’m going to the One who sent me.  You will seek me but you won’t find me, and where I am you won’t be able to come.”  To themselves the Jews said, “Where is he about to go that we won’t find him?  He’s not planning to go and teach the Greeks in the dispersion, is he?  What does he mean when he says, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and ‘where I am you are not able to come’?”

Now on the last and great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  The one who believes in me, even as the Scriptures say, rivers of living water will flow from within him.”  He was speaking about the Spirit whom those who believed in him were about to receive.  For the Spirit was not yet come because Jesus was not yet glorified.

When the crowd heard his words some began saying, “This is truly the Prophet.”  Others were saying, “This is the Messiah.”  But some said, “The Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he?  Don’t the Scriptures say that the Messiah is from the seed of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David was from?”  So there was a division within the crowd about him.  Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him.

So the attendants came to the chief priests and Pharisees who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”  The attendants answered, “No one has ever spoken like this man.”  The Pharisees told them, “You aren’t led astray, too, are you?  None of the rulers have believed in him or the Pharisees, have they?  But this crowd, who doesn’t know the law, is accursed.”  Nicodemus said to them, the one who had come to Jesus before and who was one of them, “Does our law not judge any man without first hearing from him and knowing what he does?”  And they answered him, “Are you also from Galilee?  Investigate and see that no prophet comes from Galilee.”  (John 7:25-52)

John wants us to see what a mixture of response there was to Jesus.  The Jewish leadership obviously thought him dangerous and worthy of death.  The multitude was more divided.  To some, the fact that Jesus was not already arrested meant that the leadership might think he was the Messiah.  Some had the strange view that no one would know where Messiah came from and they knew Jesus was from Nazareth.  Still others believed that Messiah must come from Bethlehem (as predicted in Micah 5:2).  If he wasn’t the Messiah perhaps he was the prophet Moses said would come to replace him (Deuteronomy 18:15-18).

Jesus speaks in some ways to these concerns.  He doesn’t say, “Hey, I was born in Bethlehem,” but he speaks of coming from God and going to Him.  And he offers to all who thirst to come to him (believe in him) and find rivers of living water flowing from within.  The officers finally sent to arrest him cannot bring themselves to do it.  Jesus’ powerful teaching makes them think it dangerous to arrest someone so obviously graced by God.  Even Nicodemus attempts a defense of Jesus, albeit a mild one, having, it seems, become a secret disciple of Jesus.

But as always, it is only for those whom the Father draws to Jesus that faith arises in the heart.  And for those of us who have believed, we have found the Spirit of God moving in us and giving us life like we never had before.  How can we help but share that with others?

Discussion Questions

1. How many kind of water ceremonies can you think of?
2. What does water symbolize to you?
3. There were Jews from all over at the Feast of Tabernacles, and earlier they had accused Jesus of being demonized for believing that the leadership was trying to kill him, but Jews from Jerusalem seem to know it is the truth.  What do you make of all the confusion about who Jesus is?
4. Why do you think Jesus doesn’t clarify that he was born in Bethlehem?
5. How have you experienced the living waters flowing from within you by the Spirit?
6. How much like or unlike Nicodemus are you?