Living Life

John 4:1-15; Revelation 22:1-5

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” That is my topic this morning: having life. I am talking about God’s life, what we normally call eternal life. I am not just talking about afterlife. Going to heaven when we die is great, but it is important to experience God’s life now. There are different Greek words used for life in the New Testament. There is bios, which refers to biological,  physical life. There is psuche or psyche, which refers to psychological life; this is our mental and emotional lives consisting of the thoughts in our minds and emotions in our hearts. But the word used here is zoe, which means spiritual life, divine life or eternal life. It is the deeper dimension of life. God invites us to have his life. This is not just a theoretical hope of heaven. It is a present spiritual awareness. Jesus called this the Kingdom of God. I tend to call it the Presence of God or Awareness of God. Today I am calling it the Life of God, because that is the word used in our scripture passages this morning.

1. First the Life of God is described as the Water of Life. The Gospel of John includes a wonderful story of Jesus meeting a Samaritan woman at a well. It starts off by Jesus asking her for a drink from the well. She is surprised at his request for several reasons. First of all she is a woman. Men and women did not converse in public unless they were family.  Second, he is a Jew and she is a Samaritan, and these two ethnic religious groups did not relate to each other in that culture. Third, she was not a woman with a good reputation in the community. That is why she is drawing water at the sixth hour (which is noon – hours of the day were counted from dawn.) This was the heat of the day. Most women went to draw water at the town well in the cool of the day – early morning or late afternoon. Only the outcasts of society came at noon. Anyone in that culture would have known that. Jesus would have known that, and yet he speaks with her.  

He asks her for a drink of water. She replies by asking why he is asking her for water, considering who she is. Jesus replies in effect, “If you knew who I was, you would be asking me for water.” His actual words were these, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” (John 4:10) In this way Jesus introduces the idea of water as a symbol of divine life. He goes on to say, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:13-14)

Jesus is giving a marvelous description of divine life as living water. This was not the only time he used this metaphor. On another occasion in the temple at the Feast of Tabernacles Jesus says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37-38) In both of these passages he speaks of the life of God as a fountain of water inside of us “springing up into everlasting life. “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” This is very descriptive of the way we experience God. Eternal life is experienced as a spring within.

People look for fulfillment in life outside of themselves. They look for spiritual fulfillment in a worship service or in a religious leader or spiritual teacher. They look for it in a religion, a church, or a spiritual tradition - in a set of practices, rituals, and beliefs. In other words they look for spiritual life in physical, psychological, or social life. And we can find a certain degree of fulfillment in such things, but the abundant life that Jesus is talking about is found within. Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is within us. Therefore that is where we should look.

In Experiencing God Directly I tell the story of a police officer who saw a drunken man intently searching the ground under a lamppost. He asked him what he is looking for. The drunk replied that he is looking for his car keys. The officer helped him search for a few minutes without success. Then he asked whether the man is certain that he dropped the keys near the lamppost. “No,” was the reply, “I lost the keys somewhere across the street.” “Then why are you looking here?” asks the surprised and irritated officer. “The light is better here.” That is the way we look for meaning and fulfillment.

Most people are looking to get filled by something or someone from the outside because it is easier. They look for fulfillment in relationships, or achievements, or possessions, or activities, or power, or positions. If only they had more money, or won the lottery. If only they had the perfect spouse or the perfect career or the perfect church. (Good luck on that one!) They may even look to food or drugs or alcohol or some other type of physical outward substance. But nothing from the outside can fill us on the inside. To be filled on the inside, it must come from the inside. God fills us from the inside out. Jesus said, “out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Life comes not from the outside in but from the inside out. Living water comes from within us and flows out into the world. The Holy Spirit within fills us. How do we experience this?

By faith. Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Belief is not just acceptance of certain Christian ideas about Jesus; it is a spiritual trust. Faith should be defined as trust. I sit in a chair, and I trust it will hold me – if it is a sturdy chair. I am no lightweight. Therefore if it is one of these delicate chairs, I sit in it very carefully. I don’t put all my weight on it at first, because I don’t trust it. I remember sitting in an old antique wooden chair at a very wealthy and important person’s house. It was at a time in my life when at my heaviest weight. The chair collapsed under me. I was embarrassed, and so were the people. Ever since then I sit very gingerly into such chairs. I normally ask for a sturdier chair. Once I am in a chair and I know it is strong enough to hold me, then I relax into it. That is faith. Faith is relaxing into Christ, knowing that he will hold us. He is strong enough and we can trust him. When we relax our hearts into the heart of God and we relax our spirit into the Holy Spirit, then something happens. Life happens. We relax our life into God’s life, and it is like floating in living water.

2. Second, the Life of God is described as the Tree of Life. The idea of the Tree of life comes from Genesis and the story of the Garden of Eden. You may remember that in the Garden of Eden there were two trees. One was the infamous Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. That is the one that Adam and Eve ate from and caused all the trouble. There was another tree in the middle of the garden of Eden – the Tree of Life. If one ate of the Tree of Life one would live forever. This Tree of Life shows up again in the Book of Revelation. Interestingly it is pictured as growing on the banks of the River of Life in heaven. Revelation 22:1-2 says, “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

The divine life of God, which is available to us, is pictured as a River of Life. This is the same fountain of life or spring of life that Jesus spoke about.  But it is also pictured as a Tree of Life which bears fruit. There is nothing like fresh fruit:  fresh blueberries, fresh raspberries, fresh plums and peaches and strawberries. That is why it is so good to have the Farmer’s Market in town to give us fresh fruits and vegetables in season. There is a season for each fruit. We won’t find any fresh strawberries or blueberries around here anymore, except that terrible tasting stuff in the supermarkets. We might as well be eating Styrofoam. Now it is apple season and pumpkins and winter squash. This passage in Revelation says that the tree of life “bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.” This is describing a year-round continual harvest. Every tree produced fresh fruit every month of the year.

Revelation does not name what kind of fruit, but it is clear that this is speaking about spiritual fruit. The apostle Paul elsewhere lists nine “fruit of the Spirit.” In Galatians 5:22-23 he says, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Ephesians 5:9 says, “the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.”

Many preachers speak about the fruit of the Spirit in terms of Christians bearing fruit in their lives. There is biblical justification for this interpretation. Jesus uses the metaphor of himself as a vine and we are branches that bear fruit. But I like the idea of eating the fruit of the Tree of Life. Experiencing the Life of God is eating the fruit of the Tree of Life. Humans got into this mess by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and we get out of it by eating of the Tree of Life. Experiencing eternal life is like biting into a sweet delicious ripe peach or a crisp sweet juicy apple. The Bible uses physical metaphors to convey spiritual truths. We feast on the love of God, the joy of God, the peace of God, the goodness of God and all the other fruit that these verses speak about.

This is the banquet table of the Lord. There are many passages in the OT and NT that speak about eating in the Kingdom of God. Jesus told many parables about eating at a table in the Kingdom of Heaven. Revelation speaks about the wedding supper of the Lamb, when the Church is married to Christ perfectly. Psalm 23 says, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” That means, by the way, that enemies have been reconciled. One never ate with enemies or in the presence of enemies in biblical times. One ate only when the enmity had been resolved and the enemies had become allies. It is a picture of peace. That is what the Lord’s Supper is all about. We were enemies of God, but have been reconciled to God through the death of his Son. The 23rd psalm is a picture of peace and reconciliation. That is why Revelation says that “The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” This is healing peace. The nations now are in need of that healing.

Experiencing the abundant Life of God means eating from the Tree of Life, which grows on both banks of the River of Life, which flows from the throne of God. It means it comes from God. This is trying to describe the those spiritual qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and all the rest that flow into our lives and fill our lives when we live in God. Life becomes a feast of the Holy Spirit.

3. Third, the Life of God is described as the Light of Life. The rest of this portion of Revelation says, “And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 22:3-5)

My mom never liked that passage. She used to complain to me about it. She thought that if there were no night, then that meant that there would be no sunsets in heaven, and she loved sunsets. Likewise there would be no sunrises. Even though she was not an early riser, she liked a good sunrise also. I tried to tell her that these were symbols and not to be taken literally, but she wouldn’t buy it. This is talking about constant continual communion with God.

In our lives we tend to experience God intermittently.  We sense God more at some times than other times. We have good times and bad times in our spiritual lives. There are times when we feel especially close to God, and there are times when we feel far from God. We could say that we are all spiritually bipolar, swinging between the two poles. Saint John of the Cross writes about the Dark Night of the Soul, when he felt like God was absent. Revelation is describing just the opposite; we might call it the Eternal Sunshine of the Soul.  There is nothing like the warm sunshine on your face on a nice fall day. Better yet is the sunshine of the first real day of Spring after a long winter. Revelation is saying that this is what heaven is like. That is what it means when it says, “They shall see His face.” We can have that warm continual presence of God shining on our faces now. 

We can live in the light of God’s presence. Moses lived in the light of God’s presence. The OT says that he shone with the light of God when he came down from Mount Sinai after meeting with God, and also when he came out of the Tent of Meeting where he talked to God face to face. It says that the divine light that shone from his face was so bright that people made him put a veil over his face so that they could look at him. Today we would say that the Hebrews would have to put on sunglasses to look at Moses’ face because the light of God shining from him was so bright. Again this is talking spiritually, not physically. Those passages are trying to convey the intimate relationship that Moses had with God, which transformed his life and was evident to everyone who knew him. Moses’ life shone with the light of God. The light of God was within him and shone forth from him. We can have that same intimacy with God. The apostle John tells us to walk in the light as he is in the light. 

These two passages from the hand of the apostle John give us three images to describe the Life of God, which is available to us – the Water of Life, the Tree of Life, and the Light of Life. They all point us to the abundant eternal life of God, which is ours through Jesus Christ.