J-F 2002 Zornes

I lean against the poles of a footbridge as Silver Falls thunders over the cliff above me, its misty veil wafting over my weary body. Coming to this site in Washington's Cascade foothills is an annual tradition for my son's birthday. The half-hour hike challenges my 50-plus body with its lung-busting switchbacks and steep rock stairs. So getting to the top where it's cool and moist is a refreshing treat.

The setting reminds me of Jesus' proclamation in John 4 and 7 that He is the Living Water. Jesus does refresh the weary pilgrim with His comfort and strength. But as I have studied those passages, I have discovered deeper truths about how His Living Water will cleanse, quench and seek others who thirst.

Cleansing Agent
As the universal solvent, water cleanses our bodies inside and out. We thirst physically whenever a part of the brain called the hypothalamus senses the percentage of body fluids falling below normal levels. Serious dehydration impairs the kidneys, allowing waste to accumulate. Skin loses its elasticity. Fatigue sets in, blood pressure drops, the heart works harder. There may be dizziness, confusion and even coma. The eyes become sunken, and mucous membranes become sticky in a dry mouth. Immediate rehydration is necessary to prevent death.

Similarly, we die spiritually without the purifying power of Living Water. Jesus knew this was the Samaritan woman's problem. She'd come to the town well, anticipating a sweaty struggle in hauling up a bucket from a depth of nearly 100 feet. She was definitely interested when Jesus offered her living water. "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again," He said, "but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst" (John 4:13-14).

She realized He was talking about more than physical water when He revealed that He knew the details of her sinful lifestyle. Her adultery was like drinking from a bucket of muddy water. Jesus' Living Water would both cleanse and renew her inner being and cause her craving for her old life to end.

Like the woman at the well, Meg (not her real name) came to Christ from a life of sin. She'd spent her teens in the drug culture and was around 20 when she accepted Christ. I set up a Bible study with her, and she came twice, then complained her brain was too damaged by drugs to continue. "Meg," I pleaded, "you still need to read the Bible. Let it pour into your mind to help clean out all the other junk that's been in there." It took a few years and the counsel of other believers, but Meg did let God's Word purge out the old cravings and thought patterns. She matured as a believer and eventually went into Christian service.

Quenching Thirst
Jesus also said His Living Water would quench spiritual thirst, becoming like "a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:14). His audience knew the welcome presence of springs. Located in desert highlands 40 miles from the Jordan River, Jerusalem depended on the Gihon Spring, a natural spring located just outside the city walls whose waters gushed forth from an underground basin. As a precaution against enemy attack, King Hezekiah had the spring covered over and diverted under the city walls through a conduit hewn out of one-third mile of rock. It collected at what became known as the Pool of Siloam.

The civic importance of this pool lent greater meaning to Jesus' second statement about Living Water in John 7. Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, a sacred holiday during which the Jews camped out in makeshift shelters. The feast commemorated both the end of harvest and the Jews' temporary housing after the Exodus. Each day of the feast week, priests processioned to the pool with a golden pitcher for water they would later pour out on the altar, to recall how Moses struck a rock to provide water for the parched Israelites (Exodus 17). Strict traditions prescribed the practice of this ritual, which always drew a crowd. On the last day of this feast, Jesus alluded to this empty religiosity over water when He stood and shouted, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him" (John 7:37-38).
What Jesus offered wasn't stale water scooped up from a rock-lined pool. He was anticipating a spiritual artesian, full and powerful and without end. He may have been referring to Isaiah 58:11, which says that those whose lives are right before God will be like "a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." John 7:39 describes this welling up as "the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive."
Some people, in describing their salvation experience, still use that metaphor. One man told of seeking fulfillment in drugs, alcohol, homosexuality, prostitution and an Eastern guru. Finally he tried praying to the God who created the universe. His prayer of faith, he said, resulted in what felt like a raging waterfall of liquid love.

The sense of "welling up" can come to worship times as well. One Sunday I went to church identifying with the deer who pants for streams of water (Psalm 42:1). Then our worship leaders led us through several choruses, ending with one with the words "Flow, river, flow." In the energy of corporate praise, I sensed that satisfying exchange rushing through my soul. I've also enjoyed quieter "overflowings" when a truth from a devotional time carries me through a tough day.

Refreshing Others
Finally, this Living Water will spread out to refresh others. I live in arid central Washington, where the precious water diverted from dams is carefully split off into concrete-lined canals and eventually siphoned into irrigation trenches to prevent waste. That's not the image of Living Water. It's more like a rice paddy or a cranberry bog, where flooding nurtures the crops.

"Come, all you who are thirsty," God said, "come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!" (Isaiah 55:1). Like a benefactor who goes through the streets giving away food and drink to the poor, God searches for the poor in spirit who would accept this gift to quench spiritual thirst. The prophecy in Ezekiel 47 tells of a stream of Living Water issuing from under the temple in the New Jerusalem, bringing life to everything in its path. Jesus promised that everyone who received His Living Water -- finding there complete satisfaction of all of one's deepest thirsts for love, joy and peace -- would spill over in offering that to others.

Jesus' urgency to share this abundant portion of Living Water is evident from the description of His gospel invitation by the Pool of Siloam. As the large crowds gathered for this last and greatest day of the feast, He stood and issued His invitation in "a loud voice" (John 7:37). Bible scholar Matthew Henry noted that this suggested that Jesus' earnestness for people to respond to Him nearly exploded from deep inside Him. After Pentecost, His disciples experienced something similar when they participated in a flood of eloquence and inspiration that resulted in thousands of conversions and the writing of the New Testament.

"Proclamation is made most freely," wrote Charles Spurgeon in his Morning and Evening Readings, "that every thirsty one is welcome. No other distinction is made but that of thirst. Whether it be the thirst of avarice, ambition, pleasure, knowledge, or rest, he who suffers from it is invited." A Christian doctor saw that happen when he invited a colleague to a Bible study. This colleague had always distanced himself from faith issues but came to the study revealing a deep thirst for answers to life.

Living Water is no respecter of persons. "We want no golden cup, no bejeweled chalice, in which to convey the water to the thirsty," wrote Spurgeon. "Blistered, leprous, filthy lips may touch the stream of divine love; they cannot pollute it, but shall themselves be purified." Jesus' invitation to all is extended again in the closing portions of the Bible, where John has a vision of the New Jerusalem with "the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city." Rimming that river, drawing nourishment from it, are trees of perpetual fruitfulness, bearing leaves for healing of the nations (Revelation 22:1-2). They are images for us of peace, satisfaction, hope, refreshment and life.

Thirsting for Jesus is a universal condition. But our thirst need not go unquenched. Jesus wants to pour His cleansing Spirit in and through us. He wants us to respond with joyful anticipation and worship, and to bring others to quench their thirst in Him. The invitation Jesus repeated at the end of Revelation is also ours to share: "Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life" (Revelation 22:17).

Study Questions:

1. Just after Jesus fed 5,000 near the Sea of Galilee, the people misunderstood the symbolic lessons of that miraculous feeding. How does His statement in John 6:35 fit with His proclamations of being Living Water in John 4 and 7?

2. Several Psalms use the symbol of thirst for a yearning after God. Try writing a refrain to answer the psalmist's cry in Psalm 42:1, Psalm 63:1 or Psalm 143:6.

3. Psalm 46 is believed to have been written during the reign of Hezekiah when the Assyrians threatened to invade Jerusalem. Could Psalm 46:4 refer to the spring of Gihon being diverted into the city? Why would the city be glad? What spiritual lesson can come from that circumstance?

4. How does Proverbs 10:11 suggest we are vessels for the Living Water?

5. Read the following prophecies and summarize their teaching: Amos 8:11, Jeremiah 17:13 and Revelation 7:17.




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I lean against the poles of a footbridge as Silver Falls thunders over the cliff above me, its misty veil wafting over my weary body. Coming to this site in Washington's Cascade foothills is an annual tradition for my son's birthday. The half-hour hike challenges my 50-plus body with its lung-busting switchbacks and steep rock stairs. So getting to the top where it's cool and moist is a refreshing treat. The setting reminds me of Jesus' proclamation in John 4 and 7 that He is the Living Water. Jesus does refresh the weary pilgrim with His comfort and strength. But as I have studied those passages, I have discovered deeper truths about how His Living Water will cleanse, quench and seek others who thirst. Cleansing Agent As the universal solvent, water cleanses our bodies inside and out. We thirst physically whenever a part of the brain called the hypothalamus senses the percentage of body fluids falling below normal levels. Serious dehydration impairs the kidneys, allowing waste to accumulate. Skin loses its elasticity. Fatigue sets in, blood pressure drops, the heart works harder. There may be dizziness, confusion and even coma. The eyes become sunken, and mucous membranes become sticky in a dry mouth. Immediate rehydration is necessary to prevent death. Similarly, we die spiritually without the purifying power of Living Water. Jesus knew this was the Samaritan woman's problem. She'd come to the town well, anticipating a sweaty struggle in hauling up a bucket from a depth of nearly 100 feet. She was definitely interested when Jesus offered her living water. "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again," He said, "but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst" (John 4:13-14). She realized He was talking about more than physical water when He revealed that He knew the details of her sinful lifestyle. Her adultery was like drinking from a bucket of muddy water. Jesus' Living Water would both cleanse and renew her inner being and cause her craving for her old life to end. Like the woman at the well, Meg (not her real name) came to Christ from a life of sin. She'd spent her teens in the drug culture and was around 20 when she accepted Christ. I set up a Bible study with her, and she came twice, then complained her brain was too damaged by drugs to continue. "Meg," I pleaded, "you still need to read the Bible. Let it pour into your mind to help clean out all the other junk that's been in there." It took a few years and the counsel of other believers, but Meg did let God's Word purge out the old cravings and thought patterns. She matured as a believer and eventually went into Christian service. Quenching Thirst Jesus also said His Living Water would quench spiritual thirst, becoming like "a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:14). His audience knew the welcome presence of springs. Located in desert highlands 40 miles from the Jordan River, Jerusalem depended on the Gihon Spring, a natural spring located just outside the city walls whose waters gushed forth from an underground basin. As a precaution against enemy attack, King Hezekiah had the spring covered over and diverted under the city walls through a conduit hewn out of one-third mile of rock. It collected at what became known as the Pool of Siloam. The civic importance of this pool lent greater meaning to Jesus' second statement about Living Water in John 7. Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, a sacred holiday during which the Jews camped out in makeshift shelters. The feast commemorated both the end of harvest and the Jews' temporary housing after the Exodus. Each day of the feast week, priests processioned to the pool with a golden pitcher for water they would later pour out on the altar, to recall how Moses struck a rock to provide water for the parched Israelites (Exodus 17). Strict traditions prescribed the practice of this ritual, which always drew a crowd. On the last day of this feast, Jesus alluded to this empty religiosity over water when He stood and shouted, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him" (John 7:37-38). What Jesus offered wasn't stale water scooped up from a rock-lined pool. He was anticipating a spiritual artesian, full and powerful and without end. He may have been referring to Isaiah 58:11, which says that those whose lives are right before God will be like "a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." John 7:39 describes this welling up as "the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive." Some people, in describing their salvation experience, still use that metaphor. One man told of seeking fulfillment in drugs, alcohol, homosexuality, prostitution and an Eastern guru. Finally he tried praying to the God who created the universe. His prayer of faith, he said, resulted in what felt like a raging waterfall of liquid love. The sense of "welling up" can come to worship times as well. One Sunday I went to church identifying with the deer who pants for streams of water (Psalm 42:1). Then our worship leaders led us through several choruses, ending with one with the words "Flow, river, flow." In the energy of corporate praise, I sensed that satisfying exchange rushing through my soul. I've also enjoyed quieter "overflowings" when a truth from a devotional time carries me through a tough day. Refreshing Others Finally, this Living Water will spread out to refresh others. I live in arid central Washington, where the precious water diverted from dams is carefully split off into concrete-lined canals and eventually siphoned into irrigation trenches to prevent waste. That's not the image of Living Water. It's more like a rice paddy or a cranberry bog, where flooding nurtures the crops. "Come, all you who are thirsty," God said, "come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!" (Isaiah 55:1). Like a benefactor who goes through the streets giving away food and drink to the poor, God searches for the poor in spirit who would accept this gift to quench spiritual thirst. The prophecy in Ezekiel 47 tells of a stream of Living Water issuing from under the temple in the New Jerusalem, bringing life to everything in its path. Jesus promised that everyone who received His Living Water -- finding there complete satisfaction of all of one's deepest thirsts for love, joy and peace -- would spill over in offering that to others. Jesus' urgency to share this abundant portion of Living Water is evident from the description of His gospel invitation by the Pool of Siloam. As the large crowds gathered for this last and greatest day of the feast, He stood and issued His invitation in "a loud voice" (John 7:37). Bible scholar Matthew Henry noted that this suggested that Jesus' earnestness for people to respond to Him nearly exploded from deep inside Him. After Pentecost, His disciples experienced something similar when they participated in a flood of eloquence and inspiration that resulted in thousands of conversions and the writing of the New Testament. "Proclamation is made most freely," wrote Charles Spurgeon in his Morning and Evening Readings, "that every thirsty one is welcome. No other distinction is made but that of thirst. Whether it be the thirst of avarice, ambition, pleasure, knowledge, or rest, he who suffers from it is invited." A Christian doctor saw that happen when he invited a colleague to a Bible study. This colleague had always distanced himself from faith issues but came to the study revealing a deep thirst for answers to life. Living Water is no respecter of persons. "We want no golden cup, no bejeweled chalice, in which to convey the water to the thirsty," wrote Spurgeon. "Blistered, leprous, filthy lips may touch the stream of divine love; they cannot pollute it, but shall themselves be purified." Jesus' invitation to all is extended again in the closing portions of the Bible, where John has a vision of the New Jerusalem with "the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city." Rimming that river, drawing nourishment from it, are trees of perpetual fruitfulness, bearing leaves for healing of the nations (Revelation 22:1-2). They are images for us of peace, satisfaction, hope, refreshment and life. Thirsting for Jesus is a universal condition. But our thirst need not go unquenched. Jesus wants to pour His cleansing Spirit in and through us. He wants us to respond with joyful anticipation and worship, and to bring others to quench their thirst in Him. The invitation Jesus repeated at the end of Revelation is also ours to share: "Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life" (Revelation 22:17). Study Questions: 1. Just after Jesus fed 5,000 near the Sea of Galilee, the people misunderstood the symbolic lessons of that miraculous feeding. How does His statement in John 6:35 fit with His proclamations of being Living Water in John 4 and 7? 2. Several Psalms use the symbol of thirst for a yearning after God. Try writing a refrain to answer the psalmist's cry in Psalm 42:1, Psalm 63:1 or Psalm 143:6. 3. Psalm 46 is believed to have been written during the reign of Hezekiah when the Assyrians threatened to invade Jerusalem. Could Psalm 46:4 refer to the spring of Gihon being diverted into the city? Why would the city be glad? What spiritual lesson can come from that circumstance? 4. How does Proverbs 10:11 suggest we are vessels for the Living Water? 5. Read the following prophecies and summarize their teaching: Amos 8:11, Jeremiah 17:13 and Revelation 7:17.