Now on the Last Day

John 7:37-39

"Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."

An initial reading of this text, if not keenly done, can miss a tremendous amount of scriptural content that I believe John (the author) intended for readers to understand. It is easy to overlook the layers of intricacy contained within this short excerpt of John's Gospel because the details are foreign to modern readers. I will attempt in brief, to unveil these layers in these three verses to help our modern minds understand the tremendous wealth found not only within this text, but also in the entire breadth of scripture.

The Feast of Booths

The context is short and simple, it is the last and final day of the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles. Jews refer to this celebration as Sukkot and it is widely considered to be the most prominent celebration on the Jewish calendar. It is one of the three pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot) in which Israelites or Jews would traditionally make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for various purposes. The reason it is celebrated is that it commemorates the Israelite's journeying in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land and it is instituted in the Old Testament in Nehemiah 8:13–18, Zechariah 14:16–19 and Leviticus 23:34–44. During the Feast of Booths, as the name suggests, Jews would make their way to Jerusalem which would typically result in the largest annual gathering of the Jewish diaspora, and each household would construct a booth to reside in. Consider it much like a massive camping ground. This "camp out" would last the duration of the festival, typically 7 days of feast and a last day of rest (one Friday to the next). This is where we find ourselves in this duration, on the 8th and final day. This would be the time of the festival when participants are packing up and readying themselves for the journey back home. It is a day marked by leisure and rest before departure. So John's suggestion that this last day is in fact the great day, and in fact the "greatest" by suggestion, is quite peculiar. Furthermore, the 8th day was typically not counted as technically part of the days of the feast. Most of the celebratory rituals and practices would have already taken place and the last day, is usually if anything, unspectacular. Those of you who have attended church retreats, conferences or Christian events, know that the last day is usually just a day of wrapping up and going home. What exactly John meant, in calling this day great, is something theologians have debated back and forth. These are moments in scripture where it is helpful to look to the Jewish perspective and insight, to gain a better understanding of what the author might have intended. Looking to Jewish scholars on their understanding of this "last day" there are some Jewish thinkers who denote this final day as a "great day" indeed. Great in the sense that; it marks the successful completion of another Sukkot, its distinction from the other seven days as a "special sabbath," marked with special sacrifices, the jubilant deconstruction of booths, and the continuous singing of the Hallel (Psalms 113-118).1 Although unusual, John's remark of this day as great does not seem so far-fetched as it may initially appear. In a sense, this final day summed up the prior seven.

Old Testament References

In verses 37-38 Jesus proclaims, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'" (John 7:37b-38) These words draw close resemblance to God's prophetic words in Isaiah 55 where it reads, "Everyone who thirst come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance." (Isaiah 55:1-2) In John 4 Jesus met a Samaritan Woman at the well during which he said of himself, "...whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." (John 4:14) To the untrained Bible reader, one could read these words, and like the Samaritan Woman, interpret Jesus' words to mean literal water. But just like the well of literal water was simply a backdrop to Jesus' statement of having living water the water-drawing rite during the Feast of Booths is simply a backdrop to Jesus' words in verses 37-38 in John 7. He again mentions living water here, thus, he cannot possibly be speaking of literal water, for water in and of itself is not "living." Jesus, it appears, is making a connection to the prophetic words of Isaiah 55, the usage of sustenance as a metaphor for eternal satisfaction, based on the listening and obeying of God's word. If we make that connection and apply it to John 7, then what we are hearing from Jesus is an invitation to come to him and drink, or listen and obey, so that satisfaction and sustenance (or provision) will be eternally abundant from within them. Simply put, where earthly provision lacks in its ability to eternally satisfy, Christ will not lack. This is a powerful reference to Old Testament prophecy and theology that gives us a proper understanding of Jesus' words in the New Testament. It also helps us to see that God's word is consistent with Jesus' suggesting to us the true identity of Christ.

Water

One cannot read the Gospel of John intently and miss the obvious symbolism and thematic analogies that run rampant throughout John's narrative. Themes in John's gospel include: light, darkness, flesh, healing, time/God's ordaining, proper messianic expectation, Gentile missions and etc. But what may be most prominent and stark is the image of water that quite literally "flows" throughout the text. To read John and miss "water" would be a misreading altogether and a complete omission of John's most primary communication visual. The second most dominant image in John's gospel may very well be that of light and its contrast to darkness. There are multiple healing stories mentioned in the gospel, ones in which the blind are given sight for example. John begins his gospel in chapter 1 by stating that Jesus is the "light in the darkness." Or the light that came into the darkness of the world. Jesus himself later in the gospel makes one of his seven "I Am" statements of "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). It is no surprise then that John would focus so much of his narrative within the context of the Feast of Booths as the celebrations include, get this, both a nightly light ceremony (called the Illumination of the Temple in which four great lamps are lit in honour of the provision of the harvest season) and a water-drawing rite (called the Water Liberation Ceremony which is done to thank God for rainfall and his provision). Light and water. No wonder John would be drawn to mention Jesus' activity and pointed words during this exact festival. The dots and lines basically connect themselves. I can do no justice in describing the importance of water as an image in this ceremony so I will quote Don Carson in his commentary on John. But before I do, consider that the "first miracle" of Jesus in John was turning water into wine, purification water to be exact, and then Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well where he asks for water, and Jesus also heals a man in the pool of Bethsaida. All this to say, water is important in John. Here's Don Carson:

On the seven days of the Feast, a golden flagon was filled with water from the pool of Siloam and was carried in a procession led by the High Priest back to the temple. As the procession approached the watergate on the south side of the inner court three blasts from the "sopar" [trumpet] were sounded. While the pilgrims watched, the priests processed around the altar with the flagon, the temple choir singing the Hallel. When the choir reached Psalm 118, every male pilgrim shook a "lulab" (willow and myrtle twigs tied with palm) in his right hand, while his left raised a piece of citrus fruit, and all cried 'Give thanks to the Lord!' three times. The water was offered to God at the time of the morning sacrifice, along with the daily drink-offering (of wine). The wine and the water were poured into their respective silver bowls, and then poured out before the Lord. Moreover, these ceremonies of the Feast of Tabernacles [Booths] were related in Jewish thought both to the Lord's provision of water in the desert and to the Lord's pouring out of the Spirit in the last days. Pouring at the Feast of Tabernacles refers symbolically to the messianic age in which a stream from the sacred rock would flow over the whole earth (cf. J. Jeremias, TDNT, 4. 277f.).2

To say that water is but a minor element of John's gospel and a less than prominent image throughout his narrative, would be quite an understatement.

Water-Drawing Rite

The water-drawing rite that is held during the Feast of Booths has no roots in the Old Testament laws, however it is a developed traditional harvest celebration that began to take form centuries before Jesus' incarnation. Although the exact practice of this rite is not found in the Old Testament, we can find its roots in extra-biblical Jewish sources that document its origins. Some have stated that Isaiah 12:3 acts as a framework where it states, "...with joy will draw water from the wells of salvation." This is not a proven theory but the rite itself certainly includes immense theological undertones of God's provision, God's faithfulness and God's mercy and grace. Carson shares that, "...the water rite itself symbolized the fertility and fruitfulness that only rain could bring."3 An interesting thing to note here is that the "water pouring ceremony" contained within the water-drawing rite was and is seen as a foretaste of the "living water" in the new heaven and new earth as seen by the prophet Ezekiel (Ez. 47:1-19) and Zechariah (Ze. 13:1). And of course an image of the life giving river in the Garden of Eden in Genesis, which in turn of course is the same river found in Revelation 22 where a river flows from the throne of God. The reason this aspect of the ceremony represents this theological point, is because the Jews have an historical event which signaled exactly this provision and truth during their time wandering in the desert for 40 years. God, through Moses, provided water through a rock (Exodus 17). Therefore, the provision of water flowing from a rock to Israel's ancestors in the wilderness was a symbolic forerunner to this ceremony and the Feast of Booths.

Conclusion

In light of all this, Jesus' teaching in these verses become evidently clear. Carson puts it simply, "He [Jesus] is the fulfillment of all that the Feast of Tabernacles [Booths] anticipated."4 Jesus is the only one who can and does provide the living water that Isaiah calls God's people to drink. The final day of the Feast of Booths represents a day of remembering and honouring God's provision through the means of rain for the harvest to grow. It is also a day to reflect on and anticipate God's "rain" of His Spirit in the messianic age that is to come. It is a day to be in gratitude for temporary blessings and a day to be in gratitude for God's eternal blessings. And on that day Jesus spoke, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink."

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1. Don Carson, The Gospel According to John, 321.

2. Don Carson, The Gospel According to John, 321-322.

3. Don Carson, The Gospel According to John, 322.

4. Don Carson, The Gospel According to John, 322.