When Jesus Crashed the Party

In John 7, we find the people celebrating the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles (or booths). This feast was their equivalent of our Thanksgiving Day, when they came together and thanked God for providing for them and being their shelter. All Jewish males were commanded to go up to Jerusalem for the feast, but Jesus didn't show up until the last day.

Just picture the scene: thousands of people gathered around the temple. They would wave palm branches and walk around the temple. A priest would take a golden pitcher and get water from the Pool of Siloam. Every year, he'd carry it into the temple and pour that water out on the altar. The water poured out represented God providing water for the Israelites when they were in the wilderness.

With all the people gathered, at the climax of the feast, Jesus finally appears and shouts out: "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! I'll give him a never-ending supply of water from within!" Verse 39 tells us that Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit, but they didn't understand it then.

Wow! Imagine the crowd's reaction. When He encountered the woman at the well, He told her He could give her water that would satisfy her thirst forever. He told the crowd He was the Source of the water.

What water is to physical life, Jesus is to spiritual life. He is essential. There's no substitute or satisfaction for spiritual thirst apart from Him. He's the unending supply, no matter what wilderness or dry season we walk through. His Holy Spirit, when we're born again, gives us the Living Water.

The rest of the chapter describes people having mixed reactions to Jesus' bold claim. Some thought He was a prophet. Some doubted He was anything because He came from Galilee (the "country”). Still some recognized Jesus as Christ - the Messiah, the Anointed One sent from God. How will you respond to the Living Water today?