JESUS, THE SOURCE OF LIVING WATER

⏰Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent (13 March 2018)

????Ezek 47:1-9, 12; Ps 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9 (R.v.8); John 5:1-16

????JESUS, THE SOURCE OF LIVING WATER

How do you feel reading through Ezek 47:1-12? Do you see a strong connection between the Temple, from which flows the water that brings life, and Jesus who is the source of living water? (See John 4:14). He had made that strong connection himself when he told the Jews, “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19).

So we can say that Jesus becomes the new Temple that replaced the significance of that old Temple. Note that through that vision, Ezekiel was just prophesying about the restoration of Jerusalem after the exile.

In the Gospel of St John also, there is a conscious comparison being made between Jesus and Jacob, indicating a formation of a new Israel through Jesus. Just as water flowed from the threshold of the Temple, making things to live, so will it flow from the side of Jesus when the soldier pierced it (John 19:34). This water is even more efficacious than the one flowing from the Temple.

Think of what happened to the man who had been beside the pool, Bethzatha. He had been waiting for 38 years for the water to be disturbed so that he can fall in and be healed. But he hadn’t the opportunity until the Water of life himself came forward.

Notice that this new Water of life does not obey geographical limitations in John’s Gospel and he is never tired of traveling. Just yesterday, he arrived home after a very long journey from Jerusalem. Today, he is up again and already in Jerusalem (see John 5:1). He will surely not get tired until he has finished the work of the one who sent him (see John 9:4). It is not in your time or in your own case that he would get tired.

So, I pray that Jesus may continue to flow into your life so that all that the enemy has deadened in you may live again. Amen.

Peace be with you.