Living Water
TRANSLATION
(32) The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him. (33) Jesus then said, “I will be with you for only a short time, and then I am going to him who sent me. (34) You will look for me, but you will not find me, and where I am, you cannot come.” (35) The Jews asked one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go to where our people are scattered among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? (36) What does he mean by what he said, ‘You will seek me and will not find me; and where I am you cannot come?’”
(37) Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If any of you thirsts, let them come to me and drink. (38) Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (39) Now in this he spoke about the Spirit whom they who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified.
OBSERVATIONS
Jesus offering himself as “living water” to the crowd at the feast in Jerusalem should remind us of a similar promise he had previously made to the woman at the well in Samaria: “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn. 4:14).
Repetitions in this segment included “Pharisees” (vs. 32), “look for…find” and “where I am, you cannot come” (both in vss. 34 & 36), “intend to go” and “Greeks” (both in vs. 35), and “Spirit” (vs. 39). What takes place in this chapter complements the events described in the previous chapter where Jesus described himself as the “bread of life” (John 6). He alone can satisfy the hungering and thirsting after righteousness which each of us deeply feels.
OUTLINE
I. The Jewish leaders questioned the meaning of Jesus’ teaching. (32-36)
II. Jesus offered his listeners living water to quench their spiritual thirst. (37-39)
IDEA STATEMENT
By offering himself as living water, Jesus reinforced his claim to being God’s Son, the Messiah.
APPLICATION
Although “I am the living water” is not normally included among the seven “I am” statements found in the Gospel of John, it might as well have been, for in describing himself as the source of living water, Jesus was making the very same kind of messianic claim. The following is a list of the seven “I am” statements found in John’s Gospel:
#1 – I am the bread of life. (6:35)
#2 – I am the light of the world. (8:12)
#3 – I am the door/gate. (10:9)
#4 – I am the good shepherd. (10:11)
#5 – I am the resurrection and the life. (11:25)
#6 – I am the way, the truth, and the life. (14:6)
#7 – I am the vine. (15:5)
Many mythological legends contain references to a “fountain of youth” which could supposedly reverse the aging process of anyone who might drank from or bathe in its waters. The Spanish explorer, Juan Ponce de Leon, searched in vain throughout the New World for such a fountain. Those who belong to Jesus have no need for a “fountain of youth” simply because he has already given us rivers of living water, namely the Holy Spirit, who is, for those whom he indwells, the source of eternal, unending life.