Hydrated in Him

Reference: John 7:37-39

This passage deals with the very basic principle of being thirsty. It’s something we all can relate to, just craving some refreshing liquid to quench the parching thirst we’ve acquired after a period with no refreshment.

Stop and think about it for a second, if you hadn’t had anything to drink for hours and hours and were desperately thirsty, what drink would you hope was ready and available?

In this passage from John’s gospel, Jesus tells everybody that anyone who is thirsty should come to him to drink. If this were to happen today, I think we’d all wonder what type of sports drink or energy drink does he have. Is it filled with caffeine or alcohol or fruity deliciousness or what? Well, it’s filled with none of these things. Jesus isn’t talking about actual water or physical thirst, but rather spiritual thirst. And as we begin to understand that’s what Jesus is talking about, we realize how spiritually thirsty perhaps we truly are, right here, right now.

For an example of extreme thirst, I’m going to show you a short clip from one of the greatest comedies of the 1980s, Three Amigos.

Clip

Now I knew I wanted to use this clip for a while in relationship to this text, but I wasn’t sure how to interpret the three examples in this clip. This is what I’ve come up with, but I’m sure it could be taken a few other directions.

In one way, Steve Martin’s character Lucky Day seems to be where most people are often at, we are spiritually thirsty beyond all thirst, we reach for our canteen and find there are only a few drops to relieve are thirst. Most likely the canteen is dry because we have not returned to the well recently enough to fill our canteen, but we get just enough to make it back to the well.

In another way, Martin Short’s character, Ned Nederlander seems to be where many people are at. Those who go to the well even less frequently, and when they’re really in a bind, in total need of water, there is absolutely none there, just sand. Nothing to quench our thirst, nothing to give relief, just dry, painful, coarse sand.

Then there’s Chevy Chase’s character, Dusty Bottoms, who when he reaches for his canteen, finds it as full as it’s ever been, so full that he can spit out water, dump it all over his face, and toss it aside because it is more than he needs. How often do we wish this is where we were in life. Able to be so spiritually filled that we don’t need to worry about filling up our jug, instead we just toss it to the side.

While the order of this sketch is perfect for comedic timing, it is the exact opposite of what is often true in our own lives.
In the waters of baptism we are filled to the brim with so much spiritual water that as Jesus says, Streams of Living Water are flowing within us, but we act like Dusty Bottoms, we cast aside the abundance, not sharing it with others, not even keeping our canteen when we’ll undoubtedly be thirsty again, we cast aside our spiritual water because we don’t think we need it. Then when we realize we do need it, we go back through the desert and search for it, and then find it and put it up to our mouth and discover that the water is gone and now sand remains.

And then we clear out the sand and find that miraculously there are still a few drops remaining to quench our thirst and we realize we need to return to the well to fill up on our spiritual water, so that living water can flow through us once more, maybe after tasting the bitterness of sand when we hope for a cool refreshing drink, we may realize just how important this water is, and we stop taking it for granted, and begin to show others where they can fill up their canteens.

Baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection provides us with this spiritual water that we so desperately need. Our well comes from hearing the words of Gospel truth that Christ died once for all, to save sinners from sin, death, and the devil. We are constantly being filled to the brim and our heavenly father is more than willing to pour out His Spirit with living water again and again to keep us hydrated, in Him.

Delivered May 13, 2008