Tuesday • 3/9/2021
Week of 3 Lent

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 78:1–39; Jeremiah 7:21–34; Romans 4:13–25; John 7:37–52

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 13 (“A Song of Praise,” BCP, p. 90); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (“A Song to the Lamb,” Revelation 4:11; 5:9–10, 13, BCP, p. 93)

Of all the writing in the New Testament, John’s grammar and vocabulary are the simplest. Generally, he is the easiest writer to translate. Despite his overall clarity, however, he leaves some tantalizing puzzles. Two of those puzzles occur in the first two verses of today’s reading in John. 

The last half of verse 37 and the first part of verse 38 can legitimately be read one of two ways. Either: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said,….” Or: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture says,…” It’s a matter of punctuation. And, alas, Greek at the time of writing used no punctuation. Editors supplied it long after the fact. 

That grammatical puzzle would be easily resolved were it not for the fact that as verse 38 proceeds, it includes a pronoun (autou, “him”) that has an ambiguous antecedent. The quote from Jesus could have used a noun to clarify that it is from from Christ himself, to whom the thirsty believer has come, that the living waters would flow (that’s the way the NET takes it), or that it is from the once-thirsty believer that the living waters would flow (that’s the way the NRSV takes it).  

As it is, the “him” is simply ambiguous. The “him” may refer to the one who drinks or to Christ. It may be indicating that when the thirsty person comes to Christ, that person will find that living waters flow to them from Christ. Or it may be indicating that it is from the believer who drinks that living waters will subsequently pour. The Greek itself could go either way, and scholars are divided. 

I’m pretty sure that if I had written these verses, my editor would have demanded that I clarify. My editor would insist on an “either/or”—either it is Christ who is the source of living waters, or it’s the believer who becomes the source of living waters after they have come to Christ. But then, John is a master of double entendre. Sometimes he purposely communicates double meanings: a person must be born anōthen, that is, “again” and “from above” (John 3:3,7); Jesus will be “lifted up”, that is, lifted up on the cross and lifted up in exaltation (John 3:14; 12:32–33). 

Sometimes, with John, it’s a “both/and.” 

For John, Christ is the source of living waters. That is the subject of discussion with the woman at the well in John 4. Moreover, it is from the pierced side of Jesus on the cross that blood and water flow (John 19:34), thus fulfilling, I think, Zechariah’s foreseeing a fountain being opened for the house of David for the cleansing of sin and iniquity (Zechariah 13:1). And Jesus himself breathes the Holy Spirit upon his apostles. He is the source of all that “living water” offers: cleansing and life. 

At the same time, it is through Jesus’s followers that living waters will flow to others. After all, Zechariah had envisioned that the fountain of cleansing for the house of David would also include “living waters flowing out from Jerusalem” (Zechariah 14:8), and Yahweh becoming “king over all the earth” (Zechariah 14:9). When the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the church at Pentecost by the risen and ascended Christ, life begins to stream into the world through the apostles’ proclamation. 

Paul writes in the wake of the wonder of Christ, the source of living water, as he ministers living water to the world through those who believe in him. That is why Abraham, father of all who believe, is such a pivotal figure for Paul. Abraham’s faith (and implicitly Sarah’s too) is an example for us of the awe that God infuses in us, and of the power that he works through us. Father to Jews who trust in Christ, Abraham shows that God can restore people who come from a rich tradition of faith that they have more or less abandoned: “…[who] gives life to the dead…” (Romans 4:17). Father to Gentiles who trust in Christ, Abraham shows that God can create faith where there was spiritual nothingness: “…and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Romans 4:17). 

I find this to be of great comfort ministering in a society that is simultaneously marked with a fading Christian memory (people who need “life from the dead”) and increasingly filled with people who know nothing about the faith and who could care less (people who, as far as the things of God go, “do not exist”—Romans 4:17). Some need to be called back to life from death, while some need to be called into being from non-being (kalountos ta mē onta hōs onta—Romans 4:17). 

May we drink deeply of the “living water” that Jesus offers. May we find “living water” flowing from our life and testimony. May we see, in our day, many return to a faith that they have lost, and many come to a faith that has always eluded them. 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Image: "Plitvice Waterfalls" by jidanchaomian is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0