Bible Study Notes - John 7:37-52

Bible Study  Notes John 7:37-52

Rudimentary knowledge of life science reveals the impossibility of living without water.  Human bodies are two-thirds water.  This essential element of life covers two thirds of the Earth.   Centuries before I learned these foundational aspects of science, residents of Ancient Near Eastern countries were more dependent upon water than we are today.  King Hezekiah’s popularity partially centered upon his effective administrative abilities with the wide distribution of cisterns through the kingdoms of Israel.  These large open containers collected rain which became a critical source of water for cooking, bathing and other daily needs.  His government solved a major problem for the nation as droughts and famines constantly threatened the people’s livelihood and existence.  In the midst of a populated religious festival which must have drained the city’s water supply considering the large number of tourists and pilgrims entering Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus utilizes their dependency upon water for physical wellness to instruct them about the need of the Holy Spirit as an enduring source of spiritual well-being.

Earth, air, fire and water are the four primary elements of human life.  Removal of any one would make life on Earth nearly impossible.  The evangelist, through the words of Jesus, in this passage draws a spiritual analogy to the Holy Spirit about whom the Gospel of John offers substantial teaching.  The discoverers, Lewis and Clark, who undertook the exploration of the continental United States at the behest of President Thomas Jefferson, marveled at God’s perfect planning and majesty in the placement of bodies of water throughout the land.  Ponds, lakes, and rivers are distributed exquisitely in states that are land-locked.  Major cities throughout the country and world are adjacent to rivers or large bodies of water.  Classical Egyptian civilization depended mostly upon the Nile River.  In the United States, the great Mississippi River gives life inclusive of commerce, culture, education and social identity to major urban areas from New Orleans, Louisiana to the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.  Quite simply, we cannot live without water.  Maturing disciples equally cannot flourish in abundant and eternal life with the life sustaining and regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.  John utilizes this natural necessity as a literary device to instruct his audience on the importance of establishing a relationship with the Holy Spirit who leads and guides disciples toward the truth of Jesus’ teachings.

Water factors significantly in contemporary American commerce.  The bottled water section of grocery stores is an extensive as the soda, beer and wine selections.  Easily, most people can recite seven to ten name brand bottlers of spring, mineral, purified and natural water: Perrier, Evian, Poland Spring, Aqua Fina, Dasani, Deer Park, Crystal Clear, etc.  Each grocery chain sells its own brand of bottled water which consumers label as generic.  Acadia is the store brand bottled water for Stop and Shop Stores.  Despite the proliferation of Brita filters and other devices manufactured to remove impurities from faucet water, most families weekly purchase considerable quantities of bottled water.  It is as if an underlying fear that they will not have access to purified water determines their shopping patterns.  You may recall the countless amount of water that citizens purchased during the last week of 1999 in anticipation of the Y2K scare.  Threatening forecasts of imminent natural disasters immediately result in a run on water and other essential staples.  In fact, Americans annually purchase so much bottled water that the single containers, were they lined up like dominoes, would fit around the world twice.  These spending patterns reveal the centrality of water in daily American life.  The need for assurance to an unlimited supply of this natural resource redefines weekly grocery shopping and American commerce. 

Imagine living in an area where direct access to water was not a given daily reality.  A very limited water supply exists for the essential activities of preparing meals, bathing and necessity hydration.  Carrying bottles of water and sipping incessantly throughout the day.  Envision living in a region of the world with very limited water.  In such a place, every drop of water is important.  The absence of containers to collect rain necessitated rationing and high prices in Jerusalem for it was such a place where water was a gift and privilege and not something to be taken for granted.

The scarcity of water in Jerusalem occurred mostly from May to October as the city had very little rain fall during biblical times.  From November to April, the city could only expect twenty-five inches of rain.  These persistent drought conditions could easily trigger a famine as the land produced just enough food for the population.  Jerusalem as a city was waterless by nature.  Thus, its population became heavily dependent upon cisterns catching rain and thereby providing consistent storage of water.  Common possession of a cistern made a fundamental difference in a family’s life.  It yielded peace of mind.  Lack of a cistern conversely meant a dire hardship as a family struggled to attend to daily needs of cooking and bathing.  Cisterns were helpful particularly in collecting rain water for use during perennial summer droughts.  Hezekiah (715 BCE to 687 BCE) became a beloved king if Israel because he met a critical need of his people in building an aqueduct to bring water to Jerusalem.  Whether poor and lacking a cistern or prosperous and owning one, average people had access to much needed water.

In this passage, John puts Jesus in Hezekiah’s place.  Jesus stands in the temple courts in Jerusalem and offers living water to anyone who receives His teachings.  Divine knowledge and wisdom are as essential to maintaining a disciple’s spiritual life as water is to sustaining physical existence.  The Holy Spirit functions as an internal cistern out which everlasting streams of living waters flow.  As rivers ultimately connect to the seemingly infinite expanse of the ocean, the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Triune Infinite God whose superabundance He graciously and generously shares with His children.  John encourages the crowd who listen to Jesus’ teachings to accept them as inexhaustible and eternal living water. 

Consider the following ideas and questions as you study the passage.

·         The Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths occurs during harvest time.  It reminds the Jewish people of God’s faithful provision as they traveled during the wilderness years and even after they entered and settled the Promised Land.  Though they dwelled in temporary houses and tents, they always had security in God’s covenantal provision.  Yet, as they traveled in the wilderness, they could not assume they would have direct access to water as they were wandering in desert regions.  Ironically, the time of harvest equated with the season of drought.

·         Within that context, Jesus stands on the last and greatest day of the feast and says, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.”  The evangelist uses these words to depict the inadequacy of religion and formulaic rituals.  His portrait of the religious leaders who seek to kill Jesus without any justification reveals the moral bankruptcy of persons who simply study the Law but never internalize it.  Knowing facts and commandments of the Law does not necessarily establish a relationship with God whom the Law reveals.  John, in contrast to this stale and lifeless religion and tradition, encourages the crowd to establish a relationship with Jesus who is the Law giver of love.  This relationship daily renews its participants with the regenerating wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit.

·         This verse in the Gospel reminds me of Isaiah 55:1-3.  Please read that brief passage and compare it with this passage in the Gospel.

·         Essentially, John wants his audience to realize that rote religion equates with drought, dehydration and desert.  Jesus personifies a fountain containing an infinite supply of water.

·         As always with the evangelist, belief is necessary to access Christ’s abundant and eternal life.  Mental assent is not sufficient.  Belief encompasses head and heart.  It further necessitates practice in daily living as disciples commit time, treasure, temperament and talent to the Lord Jesus Christ for His service.

·         Belief provides access to the infinite resources of the Holy Spirit.

·         John’s analogy of water as the ever flowing guidance of the Holy Spirit by default equates thirst, drought, dehydration and other similar states of existing in a desert with life without Jesus Christ.  Righteous religious commitment leaves disciples with an existential thirst which only a relationship with Jesus Christ satisfies.  Jesus personifies a fountain containing an infinite supply of water.  Naturally, the rushing waters of Niagara Falls in the Buffalo, New York region or the Victoria Falls bordering the African nations of Zambia and Zimbabwe depict limitless supply of wisdom, knowledge, discernment and other spiritual characteristics a disciple receives when he rightly relates himself to the Lord Jesus Christ.  As Jesus is Infinite and Eternal, then He offers an boundless supply of living water to anyone who comes to Him.  “You will never thirst again.”

·         Again, a genuine belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of the Living God activates the “streams of living water” flowing from within each disciple.

·         Through the “still, small voice” within each of us, God speaks and reveals His “good, pleasing and perfect” will and the desires of our hearts.  Contrary to popular teachings and the proliferation of countless formulas for discerning, verifying and actualizing the will of God, He speaks to each disciple within his heart.  God relates directly with each of us in a confidential manner.  The practice of spiritual disciplines connects disciples to the infinite source of divine wisdom, the Holy Spirit.

·         John’s discourse alludes to the image of rivers connecting to the ocean.  Periodically, rivers overflow as a means of cleansing.  Likewise, disciples deal with emotions that well up within them as a means of cleaning their minds, hearts and characters.  Heightened egos often overflow leaving toxic residue within us.  As the Holy Spirit then overflows, He cleanses us of character defects.

·         As we cannot satisfy our spiritual thirst outside of ourselves, we drink freely and bountifully from the river of life that flows within us.  What we need to live purposefully lies within us.  The major battles of life are fought within the mind, heart and soul.  We cannot expect other people and external circumstances to give to us what we can only find within us as we rightly relate to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Life’s true riches are fundamentally internal gifts.

·         John explicitly states the Holy Spirit is the streams of living and eternal water that flow within each disciple.  The Holy Spirit is a gift to each person who truly believes in Jesus.  At the time of this feast, the Spirit had not yet been given to as Jesus had not yet been glorified through His crucifixion, death and resurrection.

·         The Holy Spirit comes to disciples as a Friend, Counselor, Comforter and Helper as John explains later in the Gospel.  The Holy Spirit reminds disciples of the teachings of Jesus and He leads and guides them toward the Truth of Christ.  Essentially, the Holy Spirit sustains each disciple as he matures the new life of Christ and faces life’s daily challenges.

·         In Galatians 5:15-26, Paul details the fruit of the Holy Spirit: faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, joy, kindness, love, patience, peace and self-control.

·         In 1 Corinthians, 12:7-11 and 27-31, Paul delineates the gifts of the Holy Spirit: tongues, prophecy, interpretation, faith, healing, miracles, discernment, knowledge and wisdom. 

·         Paul lists additional gifts of Holy Spirit in Romans 12:3-7: service, encouragement, leadership, administration, giving and teaching.

·         However, it is very important to study thoroughly the Holy Spirit discourses in John 14, 15 and 16.

·         The crowd returns to its conflicting opinions about Jesus.  Some people declare, “Surely this man is the Prophet” as they marvel at the wisdom of His teachings.  Other people insist that Jesus cannot be the Messiah given His earthly origins.  This detail reminds us of the fallacy of self-reliance and sole dependence upon human reason as it relates to understanding spiritual matters.  John posits disciples will experience inevitable droughts of presumptions, expectations and ambiguity if they rely upon human reason.  The Holy Spirit is given to encourage and empower disciples with divine guidance and perseverance in such periods.

·         John concludes this passage with an illustration of the unbelief of the learned religious leaders who sought to seize and kill Jesus because His teachings threatened their economic, political and social power.  The temple guards return to the religious leaders without Jesus whom they were instructed explicitly to arrest.  When questioned about their failure to apprehend Jesus, the guards respond with sharing their amazement as they listened to Jesus’ teachings.  “No one ever spoke like this man.”  With deep chagrin, the Pharisees asked the guards had they too been deceived by Jesus.  Further, they ask if any of them had believes in Jesus.  As no of them had, it stands to reason that Jesus’ teachings were worthless as the most knowledgeable persons discarded them.

·         The Pharisees proceed to express their disdain for any person in the crowd who chooses to believe in Jesus.  What do they know!  They have not studied anything!  They are just a bunch of commoners! 

·         Conceivably, those persons in the crowd who believe in Jesus are tired finally of living in a desert of ignorance, ritualism, self-righteousness, tradition and unrewarding reliance upon the Law.  Interestingly, the Pharisees and Sadducees would leave the crowd in this wilderness in order to control and exploit them.  The religious leaders did not want the crowd to challenge them or anything they taught.  After all, they wanted to collect the lucrative fees for sacrifices and other religious observances they usually gained during major festivals.  Jesus’ teachings about the Holy Spirit and having a direct relationship with the Heavenly Father whom Jesus embodies contradict the previously unchallenged rule of the Sanhedrin.

·         Most interestingly, at a meeting of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus speaks on Jesus’ behalf to the dismay and exasperation of his fellow religious leaders.  Nicodemus who previously conversed with Jesus at night in an attempt to understand the source and purpose of His public ministry argues for due process.  Nicodemus advocates for Jesus’ right to be heard on the merits of His teachings.  The Law in fact grants Jesus that right.  In return, members of the Sanhedrin insult Nicodemus for insisting upon following proper protocol and procedure.  They attack Nicodemus’ reading of the Law.

·         Nicodemus’ willingness to speak on Jesus’ behalf is suggestive of a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “It is easy to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”

·         The Bible contains many passages utilizing water as an image of spirituality and personal growth.  The Psalter says his soul thirsts for the living God just as the deer pants for the refreshment of the water brooks (Psalm 42).  The prophet, Amos, demands that justice rolls down like rushing waters and righteousness like a might stream.  During Israel’s wilderness wandering years, the people complain about the lack of fresh drinking water; their physical thirst actually symbolized their desire to know Almighty God as the myriad pagan gods and idols left them unfulfilled.  Years before their ordeal, Isaac also wanders through rough terrain and exclaims, “We have found water,’ upon its discovery (Genesis 26:32).   

·         In this passage in which the Feast of Tabernacles provides the context for Jesus’ teaching about the Holy Spirit’s ability to sustain anyone who genuinely believes with abundant and eternal life, the evangelist instructs his audience that Jesus is the Good Shepherd who leads His sheep beside quiets waters and restores their souls.