John 7:37-52, Are You Thirsty?

Jesus offered living water to all who believe in Him, by which He was speaking of the Holy Spirit.  What is interesting is that “many from the crowd” wondered if He was “the Prophet,” referring to one of the titles of the Messiah (from Deut. 18:15).  Others wondered if He was “the Christ” (the Greek term for Messiah).  In other words, they understood what Jesus was talking about with the “living water.”  The promise of the Holy Spirit being poured out on the people of Israel was to be fulfilled when Messiah arrived.  The OT prophets predicted this.

²⁵ Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. ²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. (Ezek. 36:25-27; cf. also Ezek. 37:14; 39:29; Joel 2:28; Zech. 12:10)

·       7:41-42: “Will the Christ come out of Galilee?  Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?”

Jesus had made a clear claim to be the Christ, the Messiah.  Many were positive about that idea.  And yet, there was still resistance or “unbelief.”  It presented itself in the form of the confusion over where He was from.  Jesus, of course, grew up in Nazareth and was headquartered in Capernaum, all in the Galilee.  Furthermore, several of the Twelve were from the Galilee.  James, John, Peter and Andrew were fishermen from Bethsaida.  Matthew was a tax collector in Capernaum.  Thomas and Nathaniel were from Cana of Galilee.  You may wonder why Jesus did not argue the point and tell them the story of His birth.  But it is actually possible this was known, and yet, He was still considered Galilean by the leadership.

The problem is that the leadership had something else at stake, other than the facts of Jesus’ birth.  Their position of power and prosperity was at stake.  You see this in the response of the Pharisees when the officers returned without arresting Jesus.  The officers were impressed by Jesus’ words.  The Pharisees respond with:

o   a charge that the officers were deceived.

o   the claim that none of the rulers (Sanhedrin) had believed in Him.

o   a charge that the crowd was accursed.

When one of the rulers, Nicodemus, raised a legal question, they justified their illegal treatment of Jesus by the “Galilee” charge.  Nicodemus was the one who came to Jesus privately (John 3:1-2) and who would eventually believe in Jesus (Jn. 19:39).  Nicodemus was judging with “righteous judgment” (Jn. 7:24).  Are we doing the same as we consider the Bible’s account of Jesus’ ministry?