Water of Life

Water of Life

Good Morning Friends,

Many people say that Jesus is the living water, and of course God will be what God will be including living water, but what I think Jesus Himself intended the phrase to mean was and is about the Holy Spirit who dwells in believers and seals them for salvation. There are more than a hundred “I am” statements in the Bible and not one of them that I can find says that Jesus is “Living Water.” It is not one of the seven great “I Am” claims in the Book of John about Jesus. Still I am not one to put God in nice Trinitarian boxes. I like the powerful and beautiful image of God as both giver and gift of the Water of Life.

Scripture: With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Isaiah 12:3 (NRSV)

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”

Exodus 3:14 (NRSV)

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, by and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”

Isaiah 55:1 (NIV)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

Revelation 21:1-6 (NRSV)

On 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, and 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.'” Now 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.

John 7:37-39 (NRSV)

Message: In the beginning when God created the Heaven’s and the earth, the uniqueness of this place we live was that it had water and was such a distance from the Sun as to allow the water to freeze and evaporate and condense in a cycle of renewal. To this day about 70 percent of the Earth is covered by water. Amazingly the same water that was in creation is the same water here today. The same water in the story of Noah and the flood, the same water that came forth from a rock in the desert, the same water used to baptize Jesus, the same water that came from Jesus’ side at his crucifixion, is still here recycled time and time again. Indeed it is possible that one of the molecules of water perspired by Jesus, evaporated and became part of a cloud that rained down to be part of the aquifer that provides the water you will drink this morning in the beverage of your choice. Like water, God’s Spirit is everywhere. And yet, that Spirit isn’t accessible unless one believes. Jesus teaches us that only those who believe in Him will have this fountain of living water within them. And just like water, God’s Spirit has been given to us so that our thirst can be satisfied. In John 4:13-14, when Jesus talked with the woman at the well, He said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” In John 6:35 Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”  Walking in the desert out west reminds me just how thirsty one can get and the reality that if such were our thirst for God, for righteousness and for His will in our lives, how rich the fruit of the Spirit would we be in us. It is interesting that God would use water to symbolize His Spirit. Yet nowhere in scripture does Jesus say that he is the living water of life. Still for me it is a helpful image of God in the great mystery of life of learning to be the Body of Christ together.

Pray that we see Jesus glorified as the new Temple…the source of the water of life. Pray we experience in the Trinity the unity of the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of life. Pray we benefit from drinking the living water provided by Jesus. Pray we realize that there is no place we can go to get away from the Spirit of Christ. Pray the ministry of the Spirit, flowing out of our hearts brings life and light to the world as the Body of Christ.

Blessings,

John Lawson