Outrageous

We’re again looking at Jesus’ offer of living water. This time I want to look at the larger picture of what was going on around Jesus when He spoke. That will help you to see more clearly what Jesus was doing. And what you’ll see is that Jesus’ actions fit into a pattern found in others in the Scriptures. Listen to it again.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

Let’s start by considering John’s first words in our text. ‘On the last day of the feast, the great day...’ What’s this all about? What feast is this? At the beginning of the chapter John tells us. It was the Feast of Booths. In the Law of Moses God had established certain feasts. They were to be times of celebration to remember God’s goodness through the years. For three of those feasts all the men were to travel to Jerusalem for the celebration. The Feast of Booths was one of those three, and it lasted a week. As you can imagine, there were many things that were included in that week. But there is one part of the celebration I want to mention. Included in the feast was a procession to an altar in the Temple. The point of this procession was to fill a container with water from a spring, carry it into the Temple and then pour it out on the altar. This water ceremony was a big part of the celebration, and it happened every day of that week. This water ceremony, along with other parts of the celebration, came to a climax on the last day of the feast, ‘the great day’. It was on this day of celebration, this day of the water ceremony, that Jesus makes His offer. That gives you a little historical context.

Next, it’s important to note how John reports what happened. He does not write, ‘And Jesus said...’ No, instead John writes, ‘Jesus stood up and cried out...’ Jesus stands so all can see Him and then He shouts. Everyone is thinking about water, and Jesus thinks that’s great. He then hijacks the moment. He stands and shouts, ‘Hey, look at Me. Are you interested in water? I provide real water, abundant water. Come to Me for real water!’

Try to imagine what that must have been like. Put yourself in the situation. How would you have reacted? Look at it this way. In a little bit we’re going to be celebrating the Lord’s Supper. What if as I go to break the bread some visitor stands up and shouts something like, ‘I am the real bread! Come to me if you want real nourishment.’ I’m guessing that you’d be stunned. ‘What? What’s he doing? What in the world is going on? Who is that guy?!’ I think that if someone did something like that during one of our services most of you would be upset or even angry. But isn’t that exactly what Jesus did? I think that you can see that Jesus wasn’t always a nice person. Sometimes He did things that were outrageous.

The question to ask now is obvious. Why? Why did Jesus do something so outrageous? What was the point? Well, this is where knowing some Old Testament helps. God commanded some of His prophets to do some pretty outrageous things. He had Isaiah walk around naked and barefoot. He told Ezekiel to pack up his things then dig a hole through the wall of the city and leave through the hole. God also killed Ezekiel’s wife then told his prophet not to mourn her death. The prophets did some strange things. Why? Well, there are times when words no longer work. Those are the times for some outrageous actions. These strange acts by the prophets were a kind of last gasp to a rebellious people. They spoke and preached and appealed to the people. But too many times that just wasn’t working. So, God told them to do something outrageous. The hope was that these outrageous things would shake the people up and get their attention. The hope was that they would stop and consider the prophets’ words. The hope was that they would repent. Failure to repent would be fatal.

Jesus is one of the prophets. In our text He did something outrageous. And that fits in with this Old Testament pattern. It was a last gasp to a rebellious people. It was a call to repent. And just like in the Old Testament, failure to repent would be fatal. Failure to repent leaves God with only one option. He must condemn. He must destroy His rebellious people.

I hope that you can see that behind this outrageous act is love. Jesus does not want to see the people of God condemned. But for that to be avoided they must repent. And isn’t that how Jesus began His ministry? ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel.’ Jesus has come to call the people of God to repentance. That was a key feature of His ministry to Israel. Failure to repent would be fatal. So, out of love He acts outrageously.

Now, bear in mind the details of this situation. When does Jesus act so outrageously? Who is His audience? Jesus acts during one of the important feasts of Israel. He acts on the great day of the feast. His audience is not a group of Gentile pagans. His audience was not a bunch of nominal Jews. The people at the Feast were the motivated ones, the religious Jews. The nominal ones were back home doing whatever. His audience was good church folk. It is these that He calls to repentance.

Here, we need to ask an important question. Much turns on this. So, what did Jesus want these church folk to repent of? Or to put that positively, what did He want them to do instead of what they were doing? There are lots of good answers to that question. But there’s one answer that I want to focus on, and I’m going to get at it in a round about way.

Let’s start with this. This is something from one of my readings this week. It comes from Psalm 119.

I hate a divided heart, but I love your Law.

Hate is a strong word, but there it is. And what is it that the psalmist hates? What’s a divided heart? I think some words from the prophet Elijah fit here. This is from his contest on Mt. Carmel with the prophets of the false god, Baal.

And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” 

What the psalmist calls a divided heart, Elijah calls limping between two different opinions: a little bit of the Lord and a little bit of Baal. But what was the goal of Old Testament religion? The goal was a heart focused on one thing, a heart that was completely given to the one, true God. Moses said it first.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

The goal of Old Testament religion was whole-hearted devotion. And according to the psalmist and Elijah that wasn’t always happening.

Consider this. What was the state of religion in Israel when Jesus walked the earth? The impression that I had as I grew up in the Church was that if you weren’t a Pharisee locked into your awful traditions and opposition to Jesus, then you were just a rank unbeliever. So, Jesus’ ministry was all about converting unbelievers who were pretty much strangers to God. But that’s not accurate. To be sure the Pharisees were stuck with their deadly traditions, but Jerusalem was filled with worshipers for the feasts, worshipers of the one, true God. They were followers of the only true religion, but did they have undivided hearts focused on their God? I don’t think so. Read through the Gospels. How often does Jesus commend someone by saying something like, ‘Your faith has saved you’? It’s really rather rare. I think most people back then were going through the motions of their religion. They showed up in Jerusalem for the feasts or at the synagogue for the weekly session. They were really interested when Jesus, the miracle worker, came to town. ‘Hey, let’s go and get Uncle Zebulun healed.’ But was there a warm faith, a whole-hearted devotion to the one, true God, to go along with that? Not in most. If there had been, more people would have responded like Simeon and Anna or blind Bartimaeus and Zaccheus. There weren’t many like these. Religion in Israel was at a low ebb.

Now, we’re ready for the answer to that question. What did Jesus want these church folk to repent of? Or to put that positively, what did He want them to do instead of what they were doing? When Jesus called those people on the great day of the Feast, when He called those people to come to Him in repentance and faith, He called them to give up their limping in two opinions. He called them to pursue a life root in an undivided heart, a heart focused on one thing. The goal of New Testament religion is no different than the goal of Old Testament religion. It’s about whole-hearted devotion to the one, true God. Along with appealing to those Pharisees who had no remnants of any true belief, Jesus was also calling people who were half-hearted in their religion, people with a divided heart. The way He did that was by an outrageous act. And that He had to do something outrageous tells us much about the situation. He was calling to a rebellious people, a rebellious people who were rather religious. But it was a last gasp. It was met, in large degree, with a continuing refusal to repent. And failure did, in fact, become fatal for the unrepentant.

That’s another angle on what was going on during that last, great day of the feast. Jesus did something outrageous to call rebels to repent of their half-heartedness. Jesus did something outrageous so that these people would repent and come to Him wholeheartedly.

Jesus still calls to the people of God to follow Him with an undivided heart. And He does that because none of us has an undivided heart. We all still have our distractions from whole-hearted devotion. We all still have our idols. We all have divided hearts. That doesn’t mean that we do not have a true faith or that we are being insincere in our expressions of love to our Savior. Not at all. But it would not be honest to claim that our faith and our love are pure. They are not. That is the situation that every Christian finds himself in. We have not been completely renewed yet. But that does not mean that we should be content with that situation. Jesus has come to bring change. So, the deep desire of the Christian is to hear Jesus’ ongoing call and, as a result, to work at gaining an undivided heart. Remember, the goal of our religion is a heart focused on one thing, a heart that is completely given to the one, true God. ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart...’ We will one day, in the age to come, be able to say that we do love Him with all the heart, with an undivided heart. And what we do now gets us closer to that goal. Jesus is still calling for that kind of devotion.

So, what do you do so that you would turn away from life based on a divided heart and work toward a life of whole-hearted devotion? Here are some thoughts that you can sort out and ponder.

First, you need to acknowledge that your heart is, in fact, divided. You aren’t doing nearly as well as Satan wants you to think. You still have your little idols. Don’t be discouraged by that. It’s just a fact. It’s the nature of how things are in this broken world. And Jesus knows all about the nature of things here. The first step is acknowledging reality. There will be no change, no hope, with out this first step. This acknowledgement shows in your prayers.

Second, you need a lively hope that change is possible. And by that I’m talking about deep change. You need a lively hope that deep change is possible. Jesus has come to remake you into a new creation. That’s lots more than some superficial alterations that can fool others. That’s about changing the inner you, changing your heart. Developing a heart that is undivided, a heart that is increasingly focused on one thing, can happen to you. You will most certainly have that in the age to come. You can begin to enjoy some of what that means now, in this age. But you will never see it happen without hope. And hope is just the fruit of a lively faith in Jesus’ promises, promises like the one in our text.

If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’

Third, you need to believe that Jesus will do you good. Or to use church words, He will bless you. You need to believe that He will help you to develop this undivided heart. You’re not on your own in this. That would be impossible. He will do you good and lead you to an undivided heart. But note how this works. He acts in response to your choices. And what He is looking for is not some dramatic effort. He’s not even looking for success. All He wants to see is a little desire, that you would like to have a heart that is undividedly His. Your puny, stumbling but sincere attempts in the right direction are enough to get His attention. That’s enough to move Him to bless you, to do you good. And believing that is so encouraging. So, you don’t have to actually do anything. You just have to want to.

You’ll note that I have not described what an undivided heart looks like. I usually try to be concrete and clear by describing what pious traits look like. I haven’t done that. There’s a reason why. It doesn’t matter what it looks like. You don’t need to know what the target actually looks like. You don’t need to know specifics. All you need to know is that you don’t have an undivided heart now, that you can have an undivided heart now. And because those statements are both true, all you need to do is want an undivided heart now. The Spirit will guide you to the specifics along the way. All you need to do is listen to Him. It really is a Gospel of grace.

There is one more thing that you need to know. Pursuing this kind of devotion, whole-hearted devotion, will cost you. You will have hard decisions to make. And what makes these decisions so hard is that they are not usually choices between good and bad. There are lots of things that, generally speaking, are fine. They are not inherently evil. They are good things. It’s just that they are not good for you in your situation. They will not help you gain an undivided heart. They actually will get in the way.  And what’s helpful and not will be different for each of you. The route to an undivided heart goes through choices that set aside what is good because it is not good for you. And that’s hard. What will make this more difficult is that there will be pushback. People are going to think you have lost your mind because you aren’t choosing things that are obviously good. Just remember that Jesus’ family also thought that He had lost His mind.

Along with all of this I want to remind you of that basic dynamic of repentance and faith. You’re going to get it wrong at times. Don’t be surprised. You will choose the right fork and then the Spirit will tell you that the left fork was route that He was pointing at. The left fork was the better route to an undivided heart. When that happens, repent and come again to Jesus for forgiveness and for change. When you do that He will forgive you and continue to change you.

                                                

Let me close with this question. Will Jesus ever again do something outrageous? I don’t see why not. It will be of a different sort than what we see in our text, but I can very easily see Him doing something as a last gasp appeal for repentance. He may do it to a group as He did then, or He may intend it just for one person. So, for example, I have no problem thinking that there were some Christians caught up in the recent hurricane because Jesus intended it as a last appeal for them to repent. Something outrageous happened to them. And just as with many in Jerusalem on that last great day of the feast, failure to repent is fatal. So, don’t wait for something outrageous to happen. Be quick to repent when the Spirit points out sin so that you can make progress toward an undivided heart that enjoys Jesus and makes Him look really good.