Ezekiel 47:1-12 Revelation 22:1-5 John 7:25-52
The Person and Purpose of Jesus
On my father’s farm in Namibia, we had two large reservoirs close to our home that contained water pumped up out of the ground by a windmill. One reservoir was shallower and consequently safe for us to swim in as children. The other was very deep, and we were constantly warned not to clamber up the side of that reservoir because if we fell in, we would surely drown.
Now, in trying to preach from John 7, I feel like I have fallen into that deeper reservoir. The depth and breadth of John 7 are so phenomenal that to do the passage justice would demand an in-depth intertestamental comparative study.
You see, in this chapter, John looks back at numerous passages in the Old Testament and also rehearses several themes already covered in his own Gospel. For instance, think of the question of Jesus’ identity in the opening chapter of this Gospel, the multifaceted theme of living water in Cana, with Nicodemus, and the Samaritan woman, his heavenly origin, his goal and eventual destination, his relationship with his Father, and the authority of Scripture, to mention only a few…all these themes are repeated in John 7.
The Exodus and the provision of water in the desert looms large on the horizon as does the Feast of Tabernacles and the harvest festival, but also the prophetic statements from Ezekiel and other pre- and post-exilic prophets are crucial to understanding what Jesus was teaching here. As such, the person and the purpose of Jesus are both tightly interwoven with the history of the Jewish people: the drama of the Exodus with all its festivals, the miraculous provision of water and bread, the promise of rest, and the presence of God in the Tabernacle and the Temple. Deep and wide…
However, not only does John look back, but he also looks forward to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the subsequent healing flow of the Gospel into the world. In Acts 2, the immediate after-effect of the coming of the promised Holy Spirit was the spiritual rebirth of about three thousand souls who subsequently feasted on the teaching of the apostles. But from that point on, believers in Jesus became canals (to use an image well known to us living in the Netherlands) of this life-giving river, the source of which is the throne of God and of the Lamb. (This is one of the reasons why we say in the Nicene Creed that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son). And through us, this life-giving river of the Holy Spirit that flows from the threshold of the heavenly Temple (which the New Testament tells us is Jesus) is brought into a spiritually dead world, bringing life wherever we may go. Or in the words of Isaac Watts’ hymn, “Joy to the World”, Jesus came to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. Deep and wide…
Be that as it may, this complex interlaced teaching of Jesus in this passage encouraged the people to ask questions. We see them wrestling with and arguing over what they had been taught about the Messiah regarding his person and his purpose…where he came from and what he had come to do. But their thoughts seem to have been frustrated by material matters…they could not envision life beyond the national boundaries of Israel and the religious connection to the physical Temple building…and so they stumbled over the spiritual origin and spiritual objective of Jesus. Many continue to stumble even today over the question of who Jesus is and what he has done and is doing for the same reason…he simply does not fit into their preconceived ideas or beliefs.
As we have seen before, one of the rituals performed during the seven-day festival of Tabernacles was the daily collection of water from the Pool of Siloam, the solemn procession of the priests carrying the water up to the Temple, culminating in the pouring of the water as an offering and a prayer at the altar while reciting Isaiah 12:3, “With joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” On the eighth and final day of the Feast, water would once again be drawn from the Pool and carried up to the altar amidst a wild, singing, palm-waving gathering and the noisy blasts of trumpets. At some point during this final ritual, Jesus cried out, “Those who are thirsty, ought to come to me and drink, for if you believe in me, know this: I AM the one out of whom rivers of living waters will flow!” John immediately informs us that Jesus was speaking about the Holy Spirit whom those who believed in Jesus would receive.
What is important to note here is that Jesus claimed to be quoting from Scripture when he said this, but there is no exact match to be found in the Old Testament. Scholars have debated the possibility of this statement being a composite of several passages such as the water flowing from the rock in Exodus 17:6 and Nehemiah 9:15 and 20 and Psalms 78 and 114, the text from Isaiah 12:3 (quoted during the water pouring ceremony), the provision of streams of water in the desert in Isaiah 43:20, the pouring out of the Spirit like water in 44:3, or of God’s people being like an inexhaustible spring of water in 58:11, or the promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Joel 2:28 and 3:18, or the reference to living water flowing out from Jerusalem in Zechariah 14:8-9, or the reference to living water flowing out from Temple in Ezekiel 47:1-2.
Perhaps it is best to think that Jesus meant for his hearers to recall all these references, but seeing as this statement was made during the water-pouring ceremony at the Temple, and that the river of living water that brings healing to the nations flows from the Temple and from the Throne of God and the Lamb, I think it is fairly safe to say that Ezekiel’s prophecy of water flowing from under the south side of the Temple, south of the altar, is the primary one. It is even possible that Jesus was standing on the southern steps leading up to the Temple when he made this declaration and that this was the same location where Peter preached his sermon on the day of Pentecost, given the proximity of the baptismal pools in the area.
Nevertheless, wherever this quotation came from, it seems clear that some in the crowd understood it to be a messianic reference. “Surely,” some said, “this man is the Prophet,” referring to a statement made by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15-19 about a future prophetic figure who must be obeyed. Others said, “He is the Christ,”, in other words, the Messiah. Even those who made contrary statements understood his declaration to be a Messianic claim.
But understanding the claims of Jesus and believing the claims of Jesus are not the same things. Indeed, sometimes those who clearly reject him do so because they do understand not because they don’t understand. They know that to acknowledge that Jesus is who he claimed to be, means that they must submit to him and obey him as Lord…they know that everything about them will have to change, and so they actively resist him and reject him.
The temple guards sent by the chief priests and Pharisees to arrest Jesus were clearly impressed by what Jesus said and chose to risk the anger of their superiors by admitting that they had never heard such teaching…a bit of a slap in the face when you think that they were addressing the teachers of the law! It may even be that there is a contrast here between the boldness of the guards and the timidity of Nicodemus, as they were not afraid to stand up to these men whereas Nicodemus seemed to have been intimidated by his peers.
Also, it is humorous to note that while the Pharisees accused the crowd of not knowing the law, they incorrectly asserted that no prophet ever came out of Galilee. Jonah was a Galilean native and perhaps even some other prophets. In my experience, those who reject Jesus are often not consistent nor are they as knowledgeable as they think they are.
Be that as it may, the compelling message of Jesus to those in Jerusalem in the 1st Century is still applicable today. The effects of the curse that were so obvious in the First Century can still be seen all around us today…anger, bitterness, resentment, and ethnic hatred that spills over into riotous violence and killing and war. No amount of political diplomacy or allied intervention can put an end to this madness because it is the heart of humanity that needs to change. And only God can redirect a wayward heart.
But it is here that we must be wary of making the same mistakes as some folks in the crowd and the leaders in our Gospel passage for today. They kept stumbling over a materialistic literalism that centred on a geographical and national Israel with a physical and earthly Temple. That’s why they misunderstood Jesus and that’s why the leaders sought to kill him. In John 11:48 the leaders callously stated: “If we let him (Jesus) go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
What Ezekiel and John were describing were spiritual and heavenly realities, not earthly realities. They used physical images to explain what is in many ways unexplainable. So, we should not be distracted by an apparent lack of material fulfilment of these descriptions. As the author of the book of Hebrews said to those discouraged by failed expectations: “…at present, we do not see everything subject to him…but what we do see is Jesus…now crowned with glory and honour…” And because Jesus is crowned with glory and honour, the life-giving water of the Spirit is flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, into us and through us, bringing healing to the nations…reconciliation, rebirth, renewal, and recreation to a spiritually dry and dying world.
What Ezekiel and other Old Testament authors described prophetically…what Jesus declared anticipatingly…what John and other New Testament authors announced reassuringly…is a present reality for all who come to Jesus and drink from that fountain flowing deep and wide. Like the reservoir on our farm in Africa, this body of water is deep and wide, but unlike that reservoir, this is a body of water we are encouraged to enter and be overwhelmed by its cleansing and spiritually invigorating power.
However, it was never the purpose of Jesus for this body of water to be a reservoir. In every biblical passage that references this life-giving water, we are told that it was never intended to be stationary…rather this water that flows from the throne of God and the Lamb…this water that flows from the Temple…this water that flows from the Lord Jesus is a river that flows into the dry and dead places of the world. That is the very reason Jesus came into the world. To bring life. To bring healing. To reconcile the world to God the Father.
Jesus did not come to restore the geo-political, national, ethnocentric kingdom of Israel (Acts 1:6-7; Matthew 28:19-20). He came to establish a global kingdom…every tongue, every tribe, and every nation will be blessed by and through him (Genesis 12:1-3; Psalm 89:9; Daniel 7:14; Revelation 5:9; 7:9; 14:6, et al).
The Holy Spirit of God has been poured out on us and he lives in us so that wherever we may go in this world he may go too. In many ways, our presence is his presence. Whoever rejects us, rejects him. But the takeaway for us today is that we who believe in Jesus are canals of this life-giving water. We are the means by which Jesus fulfils his purpose. His river flows through us even to the ends of the world…through us he makes his blessings flow far as the curse is found.
Shall we pray?
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2023
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