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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. (Amen.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
We thank God for the recent rain, and we know that God knows better than we know that we need more rain. The latest U-S Drought Monitor reports that nearly 99‑percent of the State of Texas is experiencing some kind of drought conditions. Some 16‑percent of the state reportedly is abnormally dry, the lowest condition; Gregg and Rusk Counties, where we are, reportedly are among those counties experiencing moderate to severe drought; Travis County, where my sister lives in Austin, reportedly is among those counties experiencing severe to extreme drought, and more than 3‑percent of the State reportedly is experiencing exceptional drought, the highest condition. Such shortages of water have wide-ranging impacts, especially on people, who need “Water for life”.
The need for water and the resulting gift of water are common to both today’s Old Testament Reading (Exodus 17:1-7) and today’s Gospel Reading. In fact, water flows through the Bible as a whole, from beginning to end. For example, think of Creation, with the Father’s creating by His Word, and the Spirit of God’s hovering over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2); think of the Flood (Genesis 6:9-9:17); the Parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:1-31); the Water of Cleansing made in part with the ashes of a red heifer (Numbers 19:1-22); the Baptism of Our Lord, with the Father’s voice from heaven, the Son’s coming up from the water, and the Spirit of God’s descending like a dove and coming to rest on Him (Matthew 3:13-17); think of the Institution of the Sacrament of Holy Baptism in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19); and think of the visions of the River of the Water of Life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb on the Last Day (for example, Revelation 22:1-2). The religious importance of water in the Bible has been broken down into water’s historical, ritual, metaphorical, and eschatological aspects (Kaiser, #1188, TWOT, pp.501-503), although those categories are hardly absolute and regularly overlap, as historical water flows into ritual water, ritual water flows into metaphorical water, and metaphorical water flows into eschatological water. Today’s Old Testament Reading and Gospel Reading are no exceptions, as “living”, or “flowing”, water gives physical life and is also used for a ritual with the water “of life” that gives physical and spiritual life for eternity. Thus, we have “Water for life”.
Today’s Old Testament Reading was not the first time that a water matter prompted the people of Israel to both quarrel with and grumble against Moses and test the Lord by asking if He was among them or not, and it would not be the last time, either. An earlier time was with bitter water at Marah (confer Exodus 15:22-25), and some 40 years later the next generation complained again at Meribah (Numbers 20:2‑13). Today’s Psalm draws on one or the other or maybe both of those incidents at Meribah (confer Hebrews 3:7-11, 15; 4:7), telling us not to harden our hearts and put God to the test, wanting to see some proof, even though we have already seen His work (Psalm 95:1-9; antiphon: v.6). By nature, we are no better than either the people in the Old Testament Reading or the woman from Samaria in the Gospel Reading. She was outside God’s people of the Jews and so did not worship as she should have, and she had some serious sins, specifically against the Sixth Commandment. But, we all fail to keep all of God’s Commandments, and so we all deserve both death here and now and torment in hell for eternity. On our own, as God says through Jeremiah, we have forsaken Him, the fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2:13), or water of life, or, we might say, “Water for life”.
We have forsaken God, but God does not forsake us. Jesus took the initiative with the woman from Samaria, crossing cultural and other boundaries by asking her for a drink when He was thirsty, and He helped her consider her sin by bringing to her mind her multiple men. God the Father similarly seeks out us to worship Him—to seek and to receive the forgiveness of sins—by the power of the Holy Spirit in His Son, Who is the Truth (John 14:6; confer John 1:14, 17). That Son of God took on human flesh and died on the cross for us and for our salvation. He is greater than the woman of Samaria’s ancestor Jacob; He is greater than any other prophet, for He is the Prophet like but even greater than Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15; confer John 8:53; Matthew 12:41-42). In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus’s human thirsting, at what we would consider noon, anticipates His thirsting on the cross (John 19:24, 28), where also Jesus’s side was pierced with a sword and at once there came out blood and water, witnessed by the Apostle and Evangelist St. John, as some of the elders of Israel had witnessed Moses’s striking the rock and providing water. St. John also reports Jesus Himself’s at another time calling out, “If one might be thirsty let him come to Me; and let the one believing in Me drink”; at that time, Jesus pointed to Scripture that said, “Rivers of living water from within Him will flow”, and St. John explained that Jesus was speaking about the Holy Spirit, which Jesus gave arguably also on the cross (John 7:37-39; 19:30). As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (Romans 5:1-8), God’s love has been poured into our hearts—like a lavish outpouring of water (Behm, TDNT 2:467-469)—through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us. The water of life, Jesus Himself, the Holy Spirit, eternal life—each leads to the next, and each is a free gift of God (confer Isaiah 55:1; Revelation 21:6; 22:17). The woman of Samaria and other people from nearby Sychar came to believe and know that Jesus is the Savior of the World. When we are sorry for our sins and trust God to forgive our sins for Jesus’s sake, then God forgives us: God forgives our sinful nature and all our sin—our sins against the Sixth Commandment, our putting God to the test, our hardening our hearts, or whatever our sin might be. God forgives us through His Word and Sacraments, especially His “Water for life”.
St. Paul writes to the Corinthians and to us that “in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” and that we “all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13), and he also writes that the Old Testament believers “all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:2-4). Our baptisms, spiritual food and spiritual drink may be slightly different than theirs—for example, their manna versus our Body and Blood of Christ!—but our spiritual food and drink are still real food and drink: bread from heaven, bread of God, bread of life or living bread, which Jesus said that we eat and live forever (John 6:22-69). As we will sing in the first Distribution Hymn (Lutheran Service Book 597), the Spirit, water, and blood all testify (1 John 5:6-8). With reference to Christ’s side being pierced, one pastor preaches, “His water and blood pour down from the cross through all the ages, and right into the font where you were baptized, right into the chalice where you are given [H]is blood to drink” (Dodgers, CPR 36:2, p.21).
Whether the drought or some other affliction, we do not have to wonder whether the Lord is among us or not. We know that Christ is present with us where He promises to be, that is, in His Word and Sacraments! We have His “Water for life”. Like the woman of Samaria, we can testify to others. As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading, we even can rejoice in our sufferings that, in turn, produce endurance, character, and hope. Ultimately, we are delivered from all such affliction, with God through Isaiah’s describing our eternal life as without hunger or thirst, as He guides us by springs of water (Isaiah 49:10).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +