One On One: 100 Days With Jesus--Ministry YearsSample

Thirsty: The One who satisfies    

You have to wonder if He just couldn’t keep quiet any longer. 

There He was, smack dab in the middle of Temple Mount, crowded with thousands of people—including soldiers and lawyers and angry priests scheming to trap and kill Him—and Jesus stands up and shouts. 

“Here, over here!,” it’s like He said. “It’s Me you’re looking for!” 

It was September 17, A.D. 32. Rarely do we know the specific day of any event from Jesus’ life, but history tells us this was the date for the Feast of Tabernacles that year. Israel’s popular celebration, Sukkoth as it’s known today, remembers how God provided for the children of Israel as they wandered the wilderness. It’s a week-long Thanksgiving holiday with all the family and feasting like we enjoy. 

Israel has two seasons, wet and dry. A big part of Sukkoth was asking God for rain for the next year. In Jesus’ day, if they didn’t get rain in the spring and fall, they didn’t eat the next year. On this last day of the feast, crowds packed the temple to chant prayers, pleading for rain. (“As You provided water in the wilderness, send us rain or else we’ll die!”)

But behind all the ceremony, Jesus heard the people cry, asking God for more than just rain. He was a Savior, after all—come to seek and rescue those who needed saving. He likely sat there in the court where everyone gathered, hidden in plain sight from His enemies, and just couldn’t stay quiet. He stood up and shouted,   “Hey, everyone! Are you thirsty? Come to Me! Believe in Me, and out of your heart will flow rivers of living water!”

You can imagine the stir. Some whispered, “That sounds like the Messiah!” Others shook their heads, “No, I knew him as a boy in Galilee.” And later when the officers were asked by the aggravated chief priests and Pharisees, “Why didn’t you bring him in?,” the officers shrugged their shoulders, “No one ever spoke like this man!”

It’s true. No one else ever said, “I am everything you’re looking for.” “I am your rain in the wilderness.” “I am your Sukkoth.” No one else ever invited the thirsty to, “Come to Me and I will satisfy you with Living Water.” No one else ever qualified to be their   Savior. 

But He did. And on that September afternoon, Jesus invited to Himself everyone who would come. Many listened then. More believe and follow Him today all the way Home. 

Will you come, too?  

Tomorrow: One on one with Jesus on a mountainside