Water on the Right Side
We've finished John Chapter 7 in our weekly bible study, and after 5 days, I still can't shake this text and theme from my head:
"And on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and criedout , saying: If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture says: Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.
Now this he said of the Spirit which they who believed in him would receive: for at that time the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." (John 7:37-39)
The trick was to sort out that punctuation error.
"He who believes in me, as the scripture says: Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water." Problem is, there is no Old Testament Scripture that says living water will flow from the heart of the believer.
So we fix the punctuation (and I owe this insight to Dr. Scott Hahn):
Incorrect:
1) "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink."
2) "He who believes in me, as the scripture says"
3) "Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water."
Correct:
1) "If any man thirst, let him come to me."
2) "And [let him] drink, he who believes in me."
3) "As the scripture says: out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water."
Make more sense? It's a chiasmus - "A grammatical figure by which the order of words in one of two of parallel clauses is inverted in the other." (Oxford Dictionary)
A: If any man thirst
B: let him come to me.
B: And [let him] drink
A: he who believes in me.
Thus, "If any man thirst" = "he who believes in me," and likewise, "let him come to me" = "And [let him] drink."
This makes more sense of the statement about what the Scriptures say - because the thirsty, believing one has come to Someone who can supply "drink" - and this Someone can supply the drink precisely because "out of His heart shall flow rivers of living water."
Aha! Now, where do the Scriptures say this about Christ? I can already hear the chant wafting through my head... we sing it at the beginning of the High Masses during Eastertime:
Vidi aquam egredientem de templo, a latere dextro ...
"I saw water flowing from the right side of the temple ... "
That is the text taken from Ezekiel 47. Ezekiel is shown a vision of a new temple, and he sees water flowing out from under the temple on the right side
"... the waters came down to the right side of the temple to the south part of the altar." (Ez. 47:1)
"... and behold there ran out waters on the right side." (Ez. 47:2)
He goes on, at the prompting of the angel, to wade out into the water. He wades out 1,000 cubits and the water is up to his ankles; another 1,000 cubits, and the water is up to his knees; another 1,000, and the water is up to his waist; another 1,000, and the water is a "torrent" too high to cross over.
The angel tells him, "These waters that flow forth toward the hills of sand to the east, and go down to the plains of the desert, shall go into the sea, and shall go out, and the waters shall be healed. 9 And every living creature that creeps wherever the torrent flows, shall live: and there shall be fishes in abundance ... they shall be healed, and all things shall live to which the torrent comes." (Ez. 47:8-9)
And on it goes.
These waters which flow from the right side of the temple are healing waters which make dry lands fruitful, which make dead waters to live again.
So what are the waters, and what is the temple, and how does this relate back to John 7?
Remember Jesus' words? "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will rebuild it?" He said this of His own body! And this "temple" hung upon the cross, and was pierced with a lance, and out of the right side of this "temple" flowed blood and water.
Get it now?
St. John connects this water of John 7 with the Spirit: "Now this he said of the Spirit which they who believed in him would receive."
And lest anyone should say that the water is the Spirit, or that the water is only a metaphor, we should remember that the water and the Spirit were the very two things which issued forth from Our Lord on the cross - two things, both distinct, yet related.
He breathed His last, and gave up His Spirit; then He was pierced, and the water flowed - water and Spirit flow from the heart of Our Lord.
It's difficult to miss the baptismal imagery here, the "water" and "Spirit" that Our Lord spoke of in John 3:5 - the baptismal water that Ezekiel sees flowing into desert lands and dead waters, making the land fruitful and restoring life to the waters.
Yes, I am falling in love with St. John's Gospel again.
(Side note: it was suggested to me by a very perceptive woman that maybe this information might correspond to the Mass, where the servers pour out the wine and water at the right side of the altar - "right side" according to our perspective, anyway. There may indeed be something to this observation.)
"And on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and criedout , saying: If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture says: Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.
Now this he said of the Spirit which they who believed in him would receive: for at that time the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." (John 7:37-39)
The trick was to sort out that punctuation error.
"He who believes in me, as the scripture says: Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water." Problem is, there is no Old Testament Scripture that says living water will flow from the heart of the believer.
So we fix the punctuation (and I owe this insight to Dr. Scott Hahn):
Incorrect:
1) "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink."
2) "He who believes in me, as the scripture says"
3) "Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water."
Correct:
1) "If any man thirst, let him come to me."
2) "And [let him] drink, he who believes in me."
3) "As the scripture says: out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water."
Make more sense? It's a chiasmus - "A grammatical figure by which the order of words in one of two of parallel clauses is inverted in the other." (Oxford Dictionary)
A: If any man thirst
B: let him come to me.
B: And [let him] drink
A: he who believes in me.
Thus, "If any man thirst" = "he who believes in me," and likewise, "let him come to me" = "And [let him] drink."
This makes more sense of the statement about what the Scriptures say - because the thirsty, believing one has come to Someone who can supply "drink" - and this Someone can supply the drink precisely because "out of His heart shall flow rivers of living water."
Aha! Now, where do the Scriptures say this about Christ? I can already hear the chant wafting through my head... we sing it at the beginning of the High Masses during Eastertime:
Vidi aquam egredientem de templo, a latere dextro ...
"I saw water flowing from the right side of the temple ... "
That is the text taken from Ezekiel 47. Ezekiel is shown a vision of a new temple, and he sees water flowing out from under the temple on the right side
"... the waters came down to the right side of the temple to the south part of the altar." (Ez. 47:1)
"... and behold there ran out waters on the right side." (Ez. 47:2)
He goes on, at the prompting of the angel, to wade out into the water. He wades out 1,000 cubits and the water is up to his ankles; another 1,000 cubits, and the water is up to his knees; another 1,000, and the water is up to his waist; another 1,000, and the water is a "torrent" too high to cross over.
The angel tells him, "These waters that flow forth toward the hills of sand to the east, and go down to the plains of the desert, shall go into the sea, and shall go out, and the waters shall be healed. 9 And every living creature that creeps wherever the torrent flows, shall live: and there shall be fishes in abundance ... they shall be healed, and all things shall live to which the torrent comes." (Ez. 47:8-9)
And on it goes.
These waters which flow from the right side of the temple are healing waters which make dry lands fruitful, which make dead waters to live again.
So what are the waters, and what is the temple, and how does this relate back to John 7?
Remember Jesus' words? "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will rebuild it?" He said this of His own body! And this "temple" hung upon the cross, and was pierced with a lance, and out of the right side of this "temple" flowed blood and water.
Get it now?
St. John connects this water of John 7 with the Spirit: "Now this he said of the Spirit which they who believed in him would receive."
And lest anyone should say that the water is the Spirit, or that the water is only a metaphor, we should remember that the water and the Spirit were the very two things which issued forth from Our Lord on the cross - two things, both distinct, yet related.
He breathed His last, and gave up His Spirit; then He was pierced, and the water flowed - water and Spirit flow from the heart of Our Lord.
It's difficult to miss the baptismal imagery here, the "water" and "Spirit" that Our Lord spoke of in John 3:5 - the baptismal water that Ezekiel sees flowing into desert lands and dead waters, making the land fruitful and restoring life to the waters.
Yes, I am falling in love with St. John's Gospel again.
(Side note: it was suggested to me by a very perceptive woman that maybe this information might correspond to the Mass, where the servers pour out the wine and water at the right side of the altar - "right side" according to our perspective, anyway. There may indeed be something to this observation.)
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