St. John 7:33-39
Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?” On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
This morning we celebrate the great blessing of our Christ Lutheran School that the LORD has given in part, through the efforts of one of us through whom He has worked for the past ten years, our principal.
The question might occur to us (as we now see the walls being constructed on yet another school building): why has our church decided to operate a school on its campus? The answer can be discussed very efficiently through the use of our lessons for this morning—the ones we’ve read earlier (the Old Testament, Epistle, and Gospel lessons), and our sermon text we’ve just read, that focuses on some things Jesus said when He appeared at the Jewish Feast of Booths in Jerusalem.
This was at a time in Jesus’ three-year ministry in this world, in which people were divided on what to think about Him. They’d seen Him do amazing things like feed five thousand with a small amount bread and fish and heal a paralyzed man at Jerusalem’s pool of Bethesda; and they’d heard Him preach with great authority (He really seemed to know things about God and His kingdom that others didn’t). Everyone had been waiting for an individual the prophets had said God would be sending to save them—the Messiah, or Christ (who they would be able to recognize by Him doing things like this; like Jesus was doing). Could this be Him? Some were thinking so.
Most of the Jewish leaders weren’t convinced though, and thought Jesus was just some guy who was misleading the people (and taking their place for the peoples’ attention). Even Jesus’ own brothers had expressed earlier in this same chapter, that they didn’t really believe in Him. Just before our text, St. John tells us that the Pharisees have heard the muttering about Jesus possibly being the Christ, and therefore have sent officers to arrest Him (the officers end up going back to the Chief Priests empty-handed, saying, “No one ever spoke like this man!”).
We were thinking about the question: why has our church decided to operate a school on its campus? In discussing that question, I want to fine-tune our focus even more, on something Jesus says in this text: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
This is Jesus’ own contribution to the conversation about whether or not He’s the Christ. He refers to the Scriptures, indicating they speak of Him (they speak of Him providing living water for those who will come to Him). Isn’t it clear, that He’s referring to words like we read earlier from our Old Testament lesson: I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. Of course, the water, and the being cleansed, and the new heart, and mention of the Spirit—all of it reminds us of the water of Baptism through which the Holy Spirit gives a new spirit, connecting us to Christ for faith and salvation.
Another of the lessons we read from earlier—the Gospel lesson talks about the Spirit bearing witness about Christ. He bears witness, as we said, by working powerfully in Baptism; but also in the Word about Christ that’s preached and read and taught.
He makes people believers in Christ through it. He enables them through faith, to come to Him in their spiritual thirst, and to drink (as He says in our text). He enables them to have this new heart that receives Him as God’s gift of grace.
Jesus talks in our text, about people thirsting. We should consider this to be similar to when He said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; for they shall be filled (Matthew 5:6), and when He said, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).
In all of these cases, He’s talking about the burden of peoples’ sins. He’s talking about guilt. Every person has it. In fact, the Bible talks about us having it even from our conception. It’s inherited from our first parents. No one doesn’t have guilt. No one isn’t heavy laden. No one doesn’t thirst.
We see it in our own lives. One of things the students are taught in our school, is that God’s Commandments are to be looked at in one sense, as a mirror that shows them their sins. They learn, we don’t look at the commandments as the way to save ourselves (we can’t keep them perfectly as God requires; so that would never work). One of the most important purposes of them, then, is to demonstrate to us that we’re sinners who are guilty before God. We need Him to intervene in our situation. We need Him to remove our sins (of being unkind to each other, for instance, and of thinking and saying disrespectful things to our parents and others who are in authority). We need Him to forgive us for being ungrateful for what He has given us, and for doubting Him and being disinterested in hearing from Him. And these are just a sampling of some of the things for which each one of us is guilty before God, and according to our nature, unfit for His heavenly kingdom. So, the students are taught to acknowledge their sinfulness.
They need to know this because if this guilt were to remain with them as they stood before God on the Last Day, they would have to be punished for it; and the punishment is hell (being separated from God’s love, His protection, His comfort, forever). So, it certainly isn’t what anyone would ever want. Those who are thirsting, as Jesus talks about in our text are looking at this situation, and saying to themselves, I don’t want that! How do I escape this? Is there any alternative for me, rather than this everlasting punishment? And there’s an urgency to it. St. Peter says in our epistle lesson: the end of all things is at hand. Another way of saying that is, now’s the time. Now’s when it needs to be prepared for.
Again, we were thinking about the question: why has our church decided to operate a school on its campus? Well, a very big part of the reason is that we recognize this urgency. We hear of Christ saying, as He does in our text: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water,’” and we recognize that among other things, operating a school gives us the opportunity to lead more people to the living water that quenches their thirst for all eternity, to lead them to Jesus.
One of the ways to look at the uniqueness of a school like ours is to consider what St. Peter says in our epistle lesson. Isn’t he really discussing there, what godliness looks like in this world. He’s discussing what it looks like when believers reflect toward the world what God has done for them. People who’ve been brought to the understanding of their sin and of God’s grace to forgive the sin, can be encouraged like Peter does in that lesson: to keep loving one another earnestly. He talks about willingly showing hospitality to one another. He speaks of serving one another—making use of the specific gifts that God has given to each individual. As sort of a catchall, he says that everything should be done so that God is glorified through Jesus Christ.
It’s from that motivation that our school encourages godly behavior among the students (recognizing at the same time that sometimes students and staff fall short of godliness, and need in their penitence, to hear God’s absolution, the declaration that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake.
By God’s grace, our little church has gathered an incredible faculty and staff, who have pursued excellence as individuals, and are able to work together to provide an outstanding educational experience to our students, that prepares them to pursue their own excellence in this world. But even more important to us as a church, is having this opportunity to lead the thirsty to where their thirst is quenched, to lead the weary and burdened to their Savior, Jesus.
The students hear daily about what we refer to as Jesus’ active and passive obedience. He obeyed actively, by doing everything that’s required under the Law. You and I have failed at it because we have a nature that opposes God; but Jesus has done it perfectly, and done it perfectly in our place. And Jesus has obeyed passively by allowing Himself to be crucified as the payment for all peoples’ sins. So His perfection is considered by God to be your perfection. His payment has been accepted as the payment for your guilt. His punishment is accepted as the punishment you deserved. And what has happened to the sins that separated you from God, that dictated that you must be punished? They have been forgiven entirely. Jesus was punished for them in your place.
What a joy it is to preach and teach that message to the students in our school, so that their burden is carried now by the one Who took it from them, their Savior, Jesus. Believing in Him, out of their hearts too, flows rivers of living water.
God has blessed our school greatly through the work of one of its servants, Christopher Dale, over the past ten years. We give thanks for this great blessing in Christ’s Name. Amen.
Other Lessons for Today:
Ezekiel 36:25–27
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
1 Peter 4:7-11
The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
St. John 15:26-16:4
“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.