On the last day of the festival, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink!” (John 7:37)
On Thursday we celebrated the Ascension of Our Lord. In modern language, one might perhaps say that this day marked Jesus’ move to working from his home office. For indeed, his work is far from finished. Even today he intercedes for us before the Father and remains with us to the end of the age.
One more week and we can celebrate again—this time Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the birthday of the Church. These events, the Ascension and Pentecost, are closely connected.
Today’s Gospel also takes us into a festive atmosphere. St John begins his account by saying that the event described took place “on the last day of the festival, the great day”.
Five months have passed since the feeding of the multitude, and the time has come to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. This was an autumn harvest festival that also recalled the ancient journey through the wilderness from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. Great crowds had therefore gathered in Jerusalem and pitched their tents around the city, commemorating Israel’s time in the wilderness and its dwelling in tents on the way to the Promised Land.
According to the ancient Church Fathers, the journey through the wilderness—like so many events of the Old Testament—was a symbolic prophecy pointing to the time when the Saviour would lead all the saints from throughout the world to their true inheritance, the heavenly Jerusalem. Along the way, the saints too must remember that their tents, that is, their earthly bodies, are only temporary dwellings until they finally receive the eternal ones in their true home. It is important to remember this: in this world we are strangers and pilgrims; our true home lies elsewhere.
The autumn Feast of Tabernacles lasted a whole week. As part of one of its rituals, each day at sunrise the high priest and his attendants went to the Pool of Siloam to draw water in a golden vessel. The water was then carried through the Water Gate to the sanctuary on the Temple Mount. There the choir sang psalms of thanksgiving and praise, including the words of the prophet Isaiah: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). The water was poured first into silver bowls and then onto the altar of burnt offering.
The water of the Pool of Siloam was very good—and rightly so, for only the best should be brought as an offering to the Temple. The pool was fed by a spring, and its water was clear and refreshing, far superior to that supplied by most other wells and channels in the area.
The water brought to the Temple pointed both to creation and the original blessedness of Paradise, and to the water that flowed from the rock in the wilderness and kept the people of Israel alive on their journey (Exodus 17:1–7; Numbers 20:1–13). It also pointed to the life-giving river that the prophet Ezekiel foretells will flow from the Temple in the last days (Ezekiel 47).
And now, in the midst of all this, Jesus of Nazareth stands up and proclaims that he gives drink to the thirsty and that rivers of living water will flow from him. St John then adds with the benefit of hindsight: “Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive.”
A person who lives in the desert rejoices at any water; living, flowing and fresh water is a true luxury. Jesus uses precisely this image to describe the effect of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer: he brings new freshness and life, greenness and hope to a world that is spiritually dead and parched without God.
Everyone who believes in Jesus is promised this Spirit—God’s refreshing personal presence, love and power, dwelling in that person and working through them. Everyone who believes in Jesus!
See you at church today at 10:00 (followed by coffee, Sunday school and confirmation class) and at 12:30 (Mass in Finnish)!
