Wednesday 19 July 2017

Psalm: Psalm37:30-40 

Background

Today's passage follows on from John'saccount of Jesus' time in Jerusalem during the Jewish Festival ofBooths, which begins at the start of chapter 7. Jesus has beenteaching openly in the temple, even though his life has beenthreatened by some of his opponents (John7:1). Jesus' assertions about himself and his intimaterelationship with God have provoked a wide range of emotions in thecrowd: belief, anger and confusion. This continues in today'spassage.

The verses where Jesus speaks aboutthe "rivers of living water" (vv. 37-38) are some of the hardestfor us to understand today in John's Gospel. There is disagreementabout how the sentence should be punctuated, which has asignificant impact on its exact meaning. It is also unclear as toexactly which part of the Bible Jesus is referring to when he says,"As the scripture has said" (v. 38). It would seem to be acomposite quotation, referring to a number of Old Testamentpassages. These include the water that sprang from the rock in thewilderness during the Exodus (Exodus17:1-7), God's promise to Isaiah that he would provide "riversin the desert" (Isaiah 43:20) and Zechariah's prophecy that"living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem" (Zechariah 14:8).John, as editor, suggests that indicating that the reference alsolooked forward to the "living water" of the Holy Spirit (verse 39),which came after Jesus had returned to heaven (Acts2:1-4).

Jesus' teaching again provokesdivision in the crowd (verses  40-44), with some arguing thathe is the long-awaited Messiah (or 'anointed one'), promised by Godto save God's own people. Their confusion in part springs from thewidely-different expectations about the Messiah at the time of theJesus. We can see this in today's passage: the fact that Jesusapparently came from Galilee, not Bethlehem, was a majorstumbling-block for some contemporaries but not all (verses 41,52).

Nicodemus, a leading citizen ofJerusalem who had previously come to Jesus by night (John3:1-21), seems to have been one of the few voices brave enoughto argue publicly for Jesus to treated fairly and lawfully (verses50-51). Later in John's Gospel, he will bravely make his supportfor Jesus public (John 19:39).

To Ponder

• How do you understand Jesus' promise that "out of thebeliever's heart shall flow rivers of living water" (v. 38)?

• Why do you think that some of Jesus' contemporaries became soangry about what he said that they wished to kill him?

• What assumptions do you make about people when you know wherethey come from?