SSE over REST-API

You mean something like this:

This filters only state events and parses the data (and puts it in a table). I think you indeed need to use the jsonparser

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style> table, td {border: 1px solid black;} </style>
</head>
<body>

<h1>Getting Openhab server updates</h1>

<div id="result"></div>
<table id="myTable">
  <tr>
    <th>Topic</th>
	<th>Value</th>
    <th>Type</th> 
    <th>Payload</th>
  </tr>
</table>
<br>

<script>
if(typeof(EventSource) !== "undefined") {
    var source = new EventSource("http://192.168.3.50:8080/rest/events?topics=smarthome/items/ReigerPowerAbsWd/state");
    source.onmessage = function(eventPayload) {
        <!--document.getElementById("result").innerHTML += eventPayload.data + "<br>"; -->
		var event = JSON.parse(eventPayload.data);
		if (event.type == "ItemStateEvent") {
			var stateData = JSON.parse(event.payload);
			var table = document.getElementById("myTable");
			var row = table.insertRow(1);
			var cell1 = row.insertCell(0);
			var cell2 = row.insertCell(1);
			var cell3 = row.insertCell(2);
			var cell4 = row.insertCell(3);
			cell1.innerHTML = event.topic;
			cell2.innerHTML = stateData.value;
			cell3.innerHTML = event.type;
			cell4.innerHTML = event.payload;
		};
	};
} else {
    document.getElementById("result").innerHTML = "Sorry, your browser does not support server-sent events...";
}
</script>
</body>
</html>