Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. (Amen.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed, Alleluia!)
You may or may not have heard the recent news about the latest crazes in soft drinks: what are called “dirty sodas”, fizzy drinks mixed with syrups and creamers (like at an old-time soda-fountain), and “boosting” traditional sodas, adding such things as protein and fiber. At the same time, some people are reportedly thirsting for old favorites, such as “Bubble-Up”, which debuted in 19‑19 long before “7-Up” and “Sprite”, and “Five-Alive”, which was discontinued nearly 30 years ago. There is something else to drink in today’s Gospel Reading, as Jesus calls both for those who thirst to come to Him and for those who believe in Him to drink. For, from Jesus flows the Holy Spirit, like rivers of living water. And, as essential as water is to our physical life, so essential is the Holy Spirit to our Spiritual life (confer Wietfeldt, CPR 36:2, p.48). This morning we consider today’s Gospel Reading, directing our thoughts to the theme “Thirsting and Drinking”.
We consider today the fiftieth day of Easter and the New Testament Feast of Pentecost, just as the people in Jesus’s Day would have considered today the fiftieth day after Passover and the Old Testament Feast of Pentecost. Today’s Old Testament Reading narrates an earlier giving of the Holy Spirit (Numbers 11:24-30). Today’s Second Reading narrates the coming of the Holy Spirit on the New Testament Feast of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21), with St. Peter’s use of a passage from the book of Joel, a few verses after which passage the prophet foretells of a fountain coming forth from the house of the Lord (Joel 3:18). And, today’s Gospel Reading foretells of the coming of the Holy Spirit like a flowing river on the New Testament Feast of Pentecost.
In today’s Gospel Reading, however, Jesus and the other people are keeping the Feast of Tabernacles, which observance included both pouring water and wine over the altar of sacrifice and singing words that associated that water and wine with salvation (Isaiah 12:3). That particular rite apparently was done one time each day for the first six days, six times on the seventh day, and not at all on the eighth day. That eighth day, with its lack of water, seems to be when Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me, and let him drink, the one believing in Me”. Then, on the basis of Holy Scripture, Jesus essentially claimed to be the Messiah, the exclusive source of that which quenches the thirst of faith. And, the Divinely‑inspired evangelist St. John explains that Jesus was speaking about the Holy Spirit, Whom would be given in the manner of Pentecost, after Jesus was glorified in His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.
Of course, the Holy Spirit was present and active in the world at the beginning, for example, hovering over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2). Good thing, too! Otherwise, no one would ever have believed, not even the apostles, whom today’s Gospel Reading mentions as believing. With the Small Catechism, we believe, teach, and confess that we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ our Lord or come to Him (Small Catechism II:6), as He in today’s Gospel Reading essentially commands us to do. We could have the greatest thirst—the greatest longing for the water of life, the greatest desire for salvation—but we still would be unable to drink, if He did not give the Holy Spirit to us. On account of our inheriting original sin, we do not fear, love, and trust in God above all things, and we cannot! We sin in countless other ways, too, and so we deserve nothing but death here and now and torment in hell for eternity. But, out of God’s great love and mercy, God the Holy Spirit enables us both to turn in sorrow from our sin and to trust God the Father to forgive our sin for the sake of God the Son, Jesus Christ. As we did in today’s Psalm, we plead for God not to remember our sins or transgressions but to pardon our great guilt (Psalm 25:1-15; antiphon v.4). When we so repent, then God forgives us, our sinful nature and all our actual sin, whatever our actual sin might be.
In the verses before today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus had been teaching in the temple, and the Jewish leaders were seeking to arrest Him; they even sent officers to arrest Him, but no one laid a hand on Jesus, because His hour had not yet come (John 7:14-36). But, in time Jesus’s hour did come, the hour for the Son of Man to be glorified by His being lifted up on the cross and drawing all people to Himself (John 12:20-33). Truly, Jesus, the Son of God in human flesh, died on the cross for the sins of the world, including your sins and my sins. He died for us, in our place, the death that we otherwise deserved. On the cross Jesus thirsted (John 19:28); on the cross Jesus gave up His Spirit (John 19:30); and on the cross from Jesus’s pierced side flowed blood and water (John 19:34). On the third day, Jesus rose again. Forty days later He ascended into heaven (where He still sits at the right hand of the Father), and ten more days later, as promised, the Father, through the Son, sent the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
In our day, the Holy Spirit is given through the Office of the Holy Ministry’s preaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments. Somewhat like the elders in today’s Old Testament Reading, who prophesied one time but did not do so again, yet still had authority to serve as elders, the New Testament apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and at least that one time spoke in languages that they had not learned, giving authority to their preaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments. Their successors, pastors today, likewise receive a gift of the Holy Spirit in their ordinations with authority to preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments. Thus you and I on the eighth day can be born from above by water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism (John 3:5); we can be forgiven in the Triune Name in Holy Absolution (John 20:21-23); and we can partake of Jesus Himself—eating bread that is His Body and drinking wine that is His Blood—in the Holy Supper, in connection with which Supper He promises that whoever comes to Him shall not hunger and whoever believes in Him shall never thirst (John 6:35; confer 1 Corinthians 10:1-4). In all of these ways, we who repent receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
When considering today’s Gospel Reading in its broader context in St. John’s Gospel account, noticeable is the division, both before and after the Gospel Reading (John 7:40-52), among the people who were in Jerusalem and the Jewish leaders. For example, some people thought that Jesus was a good man, while other people thought that Jesus was leading the people astray. Perhaps in today’s Second Reading the Pentecost pilgrims who were amazed, astonished, and perplexed by the apostles but mocked the apostles similarly were divided because of the apostles’ teaching. Faithful teaching does bring division between those who believe and practice rightly and those who believe and practice wrongly. As we did in the Collect of the Day, we pray that God, Who once taught the hearts of His faithful people by sending them the light of His Holy Spirit, would grant us in our day, by the same Spirit, to have a right understanding in all things and evermore to rejoice in His holy consolation. Most important is not our speaking in unlearned foreign languages but God’s filling our hearts with faith toward Him and fervent love towards one another (confer Fickenscher, Looking Forward, 148; Collect #402, Lutheran Service Book, p.166).
Whether “dirty” or “boosted” sodas, “Bubble-Up” or “Five Alive”, there may be any number of things for which we today might be thirsty. Jesus calls for those who thirst to come to Him and for those who believe in Him to drink the living water of the Holy Spirit. This Day of Pentecost, we thank and praise God that by His grace we are among those who are “Thirsting and Drinking”. The conversion of each one of us is no more or less of a miracle and no more or less important than the conversion of the roughly three thousand souls whom, the book of Acts goes on to say, the Lord added to the Church that Pentecost Day (Acts 2:41, confer 47). We continue to extend the Lord’s call to still others, saying, “Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17).
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed, Alleluia!)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +
