John 7:37-39: Jesus Disrupts "Christmas."

There are two things about this particular section of John that caught my eye. The first is how Jesus steps in and disrupts a religious festival being practiced as it had been for as long as anyone could remember. He "pops in," on the feast of weeks. This is a festival to remember God's provision in the dessert a thousand years earlier at the time of Moses. The people would basically have a camping party in the city of Jerusalem living in temporary structures. At the end of every day there was a water rite that was performed to remember that when they had no water in the dessert with Moses, God provided water from the rock. Of course I am giving a brief description and meaning here, there is centuries of meaning that had come to be embedded into the feast of weeks much like Christian Christmas.

Christmas started out as the feast day celebrating the birth of Christ. The church has added to that celebration over time, for example adding advent to the front end. Advent has candles and feasts. Believers in Jesus practice charity, and gift giving to remember that Jesus is the greatest gift God could give, the gift of himself. Over years I have found that these ceremonial obligations have become equal to the religious implications of the day and have even surpassed them. It is the Job of the Church to call attention back to what the ultimate most satisfying part of Christmas is, Jesus Christ who has come to dwell with his people.

In the same way Jesus interrupts the pageantry of the feast of weeks to call attention to the only truly satisfying water, himself. He is ruining their Christmas by reminding them of what is really at stake. I had known about this passage since writing a paper about it in seminary but I never considered this portion of it. In chapter four Jesus introduces living water to the woman at the well. In chapter six he puts himself up above Moses by reminding them that the food Moses directed the people to in the dessert parishes, and in this chapter the two messages collide. Living water is again discussed and it is while Jesus changes the meaning behind a festival celebrating the Mosaic era of Hebrew history.

The second point of significance here is that the rivers of living water refer to the as of yet absent spirit within people. Later in the book Jesus points our that the Spirit convicts the world of righteousness and judgment. This "pneuma," mentioned in chapter three as the one that makes us born again has not even begun that work yet. At least that is how verse 39 paints it. This has implications. As of yet I would not pretend to know what they are, but as soon as I have a theory you will know oh faithful few reader who would stick with me this far down the column. In the mean time be blessed today!