Tag Archives: John’s Gospel

Arts, Christianity, Culture

Free drink for life

NEW TESTAMENT

– A narrative on John’s Gospel 4:1-26; cf. 7:37-39

WATER is a precious commodity throughout the Near East, and today some Arab countries survive only because of desalination plants which pour life into the parched desert. Bible readers in temperate climates take water for granted and may miss the impact of the biblical imagery.

The “water of life” is used in both testaments as an image of God’s renewing, life-giving presence. It is like a stream in the desert, transforming barren terrain into lush forest where animals can play, and people can find food (Isaiah 35:1-7). Therefore, the spiritually “dry” can find satisfying refreshment from God’s bottomless spring of life (Isaiah 55:1-3).

John uses the wordplay between Jesus and the woman at Sychar to show what is this new life that God offers. For the woman, “living water” was a running stream which never stopped flowing, unlike many of the wadis near her home which flowed only in the rainy season.

To Jesus, it was the life of the Spirit (cf. 7:37-39), always present, always flowing on (just as the wind of the Spirit is always blowing, 3:8). The thirst it quenches is the human desire for “something more” than material life and what relationships can bring – the innate thirst for God himself.

However, it is not true to say the thirst ceases when a person becomes a Christian. There is always more of God to discover and so the “stream” keeps flowing and never stops to become a stagnant pool.

John is complementing the other Gospels. The lifestyle of the Sermon on the Mount, when practised spontaneously, is the visible emergence of the bubbling stream from God’s people.

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

John’s Gospel: Chapter 6

NO ROOM FOR DOUBT

A narrative on John 6:32-40

THERE are two kinds of doubt. One is related to more basic beliefs: Is God really as they say he is? The other is more concerned with our standing before God: I’m not sure if he’ll have me.

The former was the kind which Thomas experienced (20:24-29), the latter is dealt with in this passage. There is nothing equivocal about Jesus’ assurances: Spiritual hunger and thirst are satisfied (v 35); all who trust God are never rejected by him (v 37); and, he will hold firmly those who trust him and include them in the final resurrection (vv 39,40).

Jesus does not say that eternal life is assured so long as we keep the rules. He says that it is assured come what may. This may seem to encourage “easy believism”, which treats faith in Christ’s death and resurrection as an insurance policy that has little bearing on daily life.

However, true believing (trusting, “feeding”) is a whole-person activity which results in personal growth and transformation. It cannot be undertaken without a commitment to the lifestyle which is the outworking of salvation in daily life. Someone who has truly encountered God can never be the same again – although they may be far from perfect.

The assurance here is especially for those who have grown weary in well-doing, or who are conscious of having failed (yet again) in the Christian life. Doubt added to tiredness or guilt is a recipe for spiritual depression, and Jesus offers an alternative: keep feeding on him, because he is always there to sustain us.

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