John 7:37-39 Pentecost
Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke Sunday, May 24, 2026
“The Holy Spirit Gives Water for Thirsty Souls”
Have you ever been extremely thirsty? I don’t mean thirsty as in I forgot to bring my water bottle and the church service is halfway done and it sure would be nice to have a sip of water, maybe I should sneak out to the drinking fountain. I mean thirsty as in I’m on the last mile of a long trail on a hot, dry, sunny summer day—you know the sort. At that point, I realize that my water supply has run out. I keep going, but I feel it first in the corners of my lips. Then it hits the back of my throat. I feel like a dry sponge just begging, desperate for anything cool and wet. But there is nothing.
I don’t recommend getting yourself in that situation. Be smart about hiking, and make sure you have plenty of water. But even if you haven’t quite been there, you might be able to appreciate the real, deep, aching thirst that you sometimes feel. Your body has a need. It requires hydration. You need water. And when it is not there, eventually your body, amazingly designed by God even for a world now ruined by sin, tells you about the need in a way that gets harder and harder to ignore.
In the verses in front of us today, Jesus uses thirst to picture and portray a spiritual reality. He wants thirsty souls to find in him what they lack and what they need. And the Holy Spirit brings it about that such a need is both recognized and filled. The Holy Spirit gives water for thirsty souls. That’s the message we take to heart today as we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
In our verses today, we hear Jesus speak “on the last and most important day of the festival.” Since we’re celebrating Pentecost today, it might be natural to assume that the festival mentioned here is Pentecost, but it’s not. This is another festival, one for which there have been several different translations used. It is the festival of shelters or of booths or of tabernacles. This celebration reminded the people of how God cared for them—cared for their ancestors—as they wandered in the wilderness. Just as at that time they lived in tents, temporary shelters, so in this celebration. For about a week, the people would camp in temporary shelters, booths, tabernacles.
By the time of this particular annual celebration, the people had definitely taken note of Jesus He had preached to large crowds. He had earned a reputation. They were also confused about him. What did his reputation mean? They argued about whether he could possibly be the Messiah or if he was a good person of a different sort. Or, perhaps, he was not such a good person but an imposter who was somehow misleading the people. In the midst of this sort of confusion and wondering, Jesus stood up and called out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!”
History tells us that one of the observations during this festival was that the priest would take some water from the Pool of Siloam and would pour it out near the altar along with wine from a drink offering. You can understand how the people would connect this action to the water that God provided miraculously as the people wandered in a dry wilderness. At the festival, the people would exclaim the words of Isaiah 12:3, “Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” God was connecting his physical provision of water with a spiritual truth. Jesus was placing himself right into the middle of that spiritual truth. He was, in fact the well of salvation. He was the one people ought to thirst for.
What does it mean to be thirsty in this sense? Spiritual thirst is about recognizing our need for forgiveness. It means recognizing we lack righteousness and holiness before God. We’re not good enough. We’re not worthy of God’s blessing or love or mercy—or really anything. Far too often, we dwell on someone else’s need for Jesus. We worry about the things that they are doing. We complain about how they make us feel. We find it hard to believe that they don’t think the way we do or understand things like we do. It’s kind of like saying, “It’s a hot day. I hope those people drink their water.”
Jesus wants us to be thirsty. He wants us to realize that the things we have done and the people we have been have made us into parched deserts, drying out and cracking. The only hope is Jesus. So Jesus stands up in the middle of a parched desert of people who have not connected all of their rituals and celebrations
with their own spiritual needs and he cries out, “Let thirsty souls come to me.” If we are to follow his instruction, we need to be thirsty souls. We need to see our spiritual condition apart from Jesus for what it is. And Jesus invites us to drink deeply from him.
There is only one way for spiritual thirst to be quenched, but people often look elsewhere. People like us, too. How often do we fixate on politics, whether national or more local? How often do we let our speaking suggest that if we just get the right people in the right offices, then everything will be good? And how often are we willing to fight and argue with someone who would take a different view? Politics don’t satisfy our spiritual thirst.
What else might we try to quench that thirst? Some people turn to money. If I make enough, then everything will be fine. Some people turn to pleasure. That’s what I really need in my life to satisfy me and make me happy. Or it could be power or prestige or many other things. The problem is that none of them satisfy our real thirst now, not with any certainty or longevity. And none of these things last into the life ahead of us.
It’s only Jesus. To drink from his is to believe in him. It is to trust what he has done and accomplished. We can have certainty that because he lived and died and rose for us, our spiritual needs are met in him. He is the only answer to our thirst right now and the only guarantee of eternal life. And this is what he wants for us, for everyone. Be thirsty. Drink from Jesus.
And here’s the blessed result as Jesus describes it: “As the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from deep within the person who believes in me” Drinking from Jesus means receiving water so abundant that we overflow with it to others. This changes us. This empowers us. This motivates us. This leads us to love others just as God loved us. That means I don’t have to wait for someone to earn my forgiveness or make themselves worthy of my kindness. It means that I can be kind and loving and caring to everyone I meet. I don’t need to argue politics or keep a miserly hold on my wealth or be terrified that someone will abuse my kindness. I can simply and genuinely and consistently honor God and love my neighbor.
The Gospel writer John adds one sentence of explanation to the words of Jesus on this occasion. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive. For the Holy Spirit had not yet come, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. This sentence is why this short section of John’s Gospel is part of our Pentecost celebration today. This is not the exciting account of the Pentecost miracles, flames of fire and speaking in tongues. This is a briefly stated reminder of what Jesus had predicted and promised that come to be on that special Pentecost. After Jesus died, rose, and ascended into heaven, he poured out his Holy Spirit in this incredible way.
As much as we celebrate and marvel at these amazing signs that accompanied the Holy Spirit’s work that day, this brief section reminds us of just how important the Holy Spirit’s work is every day, even if it is usually more subtle and quiet. This is the work of the Holy Spirit: to make souls thirsty for Jesus and to give them Jesus. And the Holy Spirit takes souls that have been filled with Jesus and uses them to show his love to others. And yes, the Holy Spirit gave special gifts to the Apostles and helped them oversee the explosion of the early Christian church. Yes, he changed them from timid and scared followers of Jesus to bold proclaimers and missionaries. But he also made them thirsty for Jesus and he made sure that they drank deeply. For every believer it remains true that “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3).
Maybe you’ve never felt a thirst like the hot dusty trail without water, but I’m pretty sure you’ve felt thirsty before. And I am pretty sure you have enjoyed a cool glass of water to quench your thirst. Jesus used a picture that we could understand and be reminded of. We have a thirst that is more significant than any merely physical one. We have a refreshing and life-giving water unlike any other. Let’s be spiritually thirsty, let’s drink deeply of Jesus through his Word and sacraments, and let’s have our love flow out to others. May God’s Holy Spirit answer our prayer.
The Text: John 7:37–39 (EHV)
37On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and called out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! 38As the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from deep within the person who believes in me.” 39By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive. For the Holy Spirit had not yet come, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.