Reflection on Jn 7:38-39
“‘He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
On the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus came to Jerusalem despite the fact that the Jews sought to kill Him. They even sent Temple guards to arrest Jesus. But when the guards heard Him talk, they failed to carry out the order. And when the chief priests and Pharisees asked them: “Why have you not brought Him?”, the guards answered: “No man ever spoke like this Man.” (Jn 7:46) Jesus appears to be the Messiah (v.28-32), and the Church hierarchy refused to accept it. It was for this reason that He was crucified in the end. Jesus speaks here about the living water and about the Spirit. We are going to repeat these words for two weeks in our prayer stops.
Life-giving water, which symbolized the life-giving Spirit in Eden, was divided into four streams (cf. Gen 2:10-13). The Prophet Ezekiel commands that the Spirit of God should come from the four winds and breathe on the slain, that they may live (Ezek 37:1-12).
Rivers of living water will flow out of the hearts of those who have received the fullness of the Holy Spirit. But the first condition is to believe in Christ. It is said here that the Holy Spirit was not yet given in fullness because Jesus had not yet accomplished the work of salvation. He did so when He died for our sins on Calvary, rose from the dead on the third day and ascended into heaven on the fourtieth day. On the day of His ascension, He said: “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. … You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. And when He had said these things, as they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight.” (Acts 1:8) The Descent of the Holy Spirit was nine days after Christ’s Ascension into heaven.
Water is an essential condition for life. Lack of water causes death. Spiritual life is impossible without the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works either immediately or through the sacraments. If man drives out the Holy Spirit through heresies, he becomes spiritually dead. This tragedy of spiritual death, which God reveals through the Prophet Ezekiel, concerns the present New-Testament Israel, i.e. the Church. The Spirit of God has been expelled through heresies and syncretism, and replaced by the spirit of the world – the spirit of antichrist. The fruit of this apostasy is God’s anathema – spiritual death symbolized in Ezek 37 as a valley of dry bones. Especially in the Lenten period, the believers should become an instrument of spiritual resurrection through their obedience of faith, according to the example of the Prophet Ezekiel given in the Holy Scripture.
Download: Reflection on Jn 7:38-39
