What does this world desperately need? Is it true that all we need is love? Or some other moral ethic? Or maybe justice on evildoers? Or perhaps the right presidential candidate? These are all good things, but ultimately none of them will suffice on their own. What this world needs is the source itself of all good things. This world needs the presence of God. This world needs the Holy Spirit poured out—not just a trickle of him, but an abundant river covering the Earth.
As it turns out, this eighth and final day of the Feast of Tabernacles was the day when Israel focused its celebration on God’s gift of water. And of all days, Jesus chose this day to announce to all of Jerusalem that he himself was the source of living water! Jesus has always had the particular talent of nailing the present context with his preaching. In fact, he’s just as talented at being divisive; after such a bold claim, people’s opinions about him were all over the place. Everyone there seemed to rightly understand that there really can be no indifference about Jesus.
But pay attention to Jesus’ words here. The living water is not something we’re supposed to keep for ourselves. Not only does the believer have water to quench his own thirst, but he also has a river of living water flowing from him in order to quench the world’s thirst. The Spirit both satisfies our soul and sends us out in the world. The world desperately needs the Spirit; billions of souls thirst for the fulfillment the Spirit brings. And so the Spirit equips the saints to spread the living water across the parched planet. While the Spirit is God’s gift to the church, the church is God’s gift to the world.
In Isaiah 44:3, God tells his people: “I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.” As Scripture has been telling us since the beginning, our souls need the Holy Spirit even more than our bodies need water. So come to Jesus for the drink that refreshes souls! Drink and be satisfied, and better yet, be a vessel of that same living water, from which the blessings of the Spirit may flow abundantly like a river across all the thirsty world.
