Monday 9th October
Read John 7:37-38
“On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’” (NIVUK)
Jesus stands up on the last day of the festival and proclaims one of the greatest invitations in history. Open, free and overflowingly generous. It draws upon a rich scriptural history, a history we will consider in the devotions this week. But today it is enough to simply reflect on the wonder of this invitation and the immense price of the free gift.
““If anyone is thirsty, let him come
To me and drink”- this drink that can’t be sold
Or bought, thirst-quenching nectar, spirit gold,
This fountain out of heaven, given, not won.
Beyond all praise, beyond all princely sum,
The heavenly draught bestows a wealth untold,
The life of God. The thirsty may be bold
To claim the gift held out by God’s own Son.
A drink so rich could not be wholly free:
Fulfilling Scripture, Jesus speaks again:
He gives the draught- transcendent irony-
Who whispers, “I am thirsty,” through his pain.
A human thing, this agony of thirst
By which the arid chains of death were burst” (Don Carson, Holy Sonnet:22)
