Rivers of Living Water

The Festival of Pentecost
May 24, 2026
John 7:37-39

“Rivers of Living Water”

So, did you get your Pentecost tree up and decorated? Got all your Pentecost cards sent out and gifts ready? Nope – that’s Christmas. Well, did you get your Pentecost eggs dyed and that special meal all prepared? Nope – that’s Easter. We’ve got all these traditions that we associate with Christmas and Easter, but what about Pentecost? These are the “big three” festivals of the Christian year as each celebrates one of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. Christmas rejoices in the gift of the God the Father in sending his only begotten Son born in human flesh. Easter celebrates the resurrection of God the Son in rising from death to life. And Pentecost observes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon those first disciples and upon the whole Church. But Pentecost does not have all of the external trimmings that we associate with Christmas and Easter, and so this festival may sometimes feel like the forgotten festival. In worship today, we are striving to lift up the wonder, mystery and joy of the Holy Spirit. The theme for today’s message is based on Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel lesson and is entitled, “Rivers of Living Water.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

On this Festival of Pentecost, there are competing images for this day in the Scripture lessons. First, there are the tongues of fire and the mighty rushing wind that we associate with the sending of the Holy Spirit in the Epistle lesson (Acts 2:1-21), enabling the first disciples to speak in other tongues and languages so that everyone from everywhere in Jerusalem exclaimed, “We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God” (Acts 2:11). Second, there is the image of rivers of living water that Jesus talks about in the Gospel lesson. Wind fans fire, but water extinguishes fire, so do these cancel each other out? In our own experience, water is used to extinguish fire, but from a Pentecost perspective, it is the fire of the Spirit that leads to rivers of living water in the lives of those on whom the fire and power of the Spirit rest. Let’s see how we can connect all of these together.

Today’s Gospel lesson is set in the Feast of Tabernacles. Known as Sukkoth, meaning “booths,” this is the last of the seven great feasts of Judaism commanded by God in the Law of Moses (Leviticus 23:33-44; Numbers 29:12-40; Deuteronomy 16:13-17), and still observed today. Each year, this festival commemorated God’s gracious provision for his people in their wilderness wanderings. For seven days, they would live in booths, or temporary shelters, beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month (September-October). At the time of Jesus, this annual festival included an elaborate water pouring ceremony, commemorating God’s providing water from the rock for his people to drink (Numbers 20:2-13). For seven days, water was carried in a golden pitcher from the Pool of Siloam to the temple in Jerusalem. On the eighth and final day of this festival, the “great day,” this water ceremony was done for the last time. This is where today’s Gospel lesson begins. In the solemnity of this great day, in the hushed silence of the water pouring ceremony, Jesus does something very radical: “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’” (John 7:37-38). Wow! If we were to read on in John 7, we would find out that there was a very mixed reaction to what Jesus said. Some believed while others wanted to arrest him, “but no one laid hands on him” (John 7:44).

As with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-42), so again here, Jesus directs anyone and everyone who is thirsty to come to him and be satisfied. So often in life, we are chasing after things that really do not satisfy. We think they will bring us satisfaction – that’s why we chase after them – but they don’t. And so we continue our chase after the next new and shiny thing. Jesus himself is the fulfillment of this Feast of Tabernacles since he, as the Son of God, came to tabernacle, or dwell, among us, full of grace and truth (John 1:14ff.). Jesus turns the symbol into reality. The water poured out at the temple ceremony pointed ahead to a greater pouring out, not of water, but of the fire and power of the promised Holy Spirit, fulfilling the Word of the Lord from the prophet Isaiah: “For 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” (Isaiah 44:3).

That final verse from today’s Gospel lesson reminds us that Jesus spoke these words before he was “glorified,” that is, before his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension into heaven. Only with Jesus’ glorification is the Spirit then given, drawing hearts and minds to all that God in Christ has done for us. It is the Spirit himself who calls us and keeps us in this one true faith, always pointing us to the sacrificial love of Christ who shed his blood on the cross as payment for all our sin; who rose in triumph over death and the grave; who ascended into heaven where he rules and reigns at the Father’s right hand. The Holy Spirit, poured out upon us at our Baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection, now makes our heart his home. The words of Moses at the close of today’s Old Testament lesson (Numbers 11:24-30) have been fulfilled through Pentecost: “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” Through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, our hearts become what Jesus said: rivers of living water that flow out from us to those around us. Our very lives become channels and conduits of this life-giving water of God’s grace. As believers in Christ, we now have a new thirst: a thirst for the Spirit and what is pleasing to God. The words we speak, the decisions we make, the values we hold, the actions we take – all are under the influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is at work in us through Word and Sacrament to produce fruits that are seen in the life of God’s people – in your life and in mine: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Being filled with the Spirit, like those first disciples, we also are to tell the mighty works of God. May the fire and power of the Spirit bring forth rivers of living water in our hearts and lives. Come, Holy Spirit, come, and fill the hearts of your faithful people with the fire of your love. Amen.