In the fourth chapter
of John, Jesus’ talk of water is linked to Jacob. The context of
everything following the feeding of the five thousand, in the sixth chapter, including
His talk of water, is the Moses-and-Deuteronomy-linked statement about “the
Prophet who is to come into the world” (6:14b). Here again, Jesus’ talk
of water, when offered to a people that lived in expectation of a messiah and
of their God’s working on their behalf to bring about another exodus, and who
had a constant consciousness of their history of exile and exodus (especially
their primary exodus story), is linked back to Moses. Upon Jesus’
declaration concerning water, “some of the crowd begin to say, ‘This really is
the Prophet!’” (7:40b) For the author’s purpose, this would almost have
to be directly connected to the similar words spoken in the sixth chapter,
following the feeding of the multitude.
Whereas in the sixth
chapter Jesus is linked to Moses by the provision of bread, here He is linked
to Moses by the provision of water. This, of course, is connected to the
remembrance of the flowing of water from a rock during Israel’s time in the
wilderness. For these people, the Creator God’s love is expressed in such
ways, and Jesus is to be seen as the embodiment of that expression of
love. It becomes more and more clear, as the story progresses along, that
love is expressed by means of bread and water, and that these things, being the
staples of human existence as well as the points of reference by which Jesus is
recognized as the Messiah, are far from being simply spiritual
terms.
In the eighth chapter
of John, the author offers a very brief reminder of Jesus’ dealings with the
Samaritan woman of chapter four. In verse forty-eight of this chapter, in
response to an extended monologue by Jesus, “The Judeans reply, ‘Aren’t we
correct in saying that you are a Samaritan and are possessed by a
demon?’” Naturally, this mention of “Samaritan,” within a continuous
narrative in which the listener or the reader will have learned about the
Samaritan woman and the response of a group of Samaritans that came to believe
in Jesus as Messiah, is thought-provoking. The response from Jesus is “I
am not possessed by a demon, but I honor my Father---and yet you dishonor Me”
(8:49).
With what is known at
this point, it is not surprising to find Jesus completely dismissing the
negative statement leveled against the Samaritans, and responding only to the
accusation that He is possessed by a demon. The Judeans are here shown to
be putting Samaritans and demons on the same level, but the hearer knows that
this is ridiculous. This seems to be yet another subtle indicator of the
nature of the love, modeled by Jesus through this Gospel presentation, that is
to be practiced by the Johannine community and of course the wider body of
believers.
From there, the story
moves to Jesus’ healing of a man that had been born blind. In that story,
Jesus declares Himself to be “the light of the world” (9:5b), which builds on a
concept introduced in the first chapter and built on in the eighth
chapter. With this, Jesus adds to declarations of Himself as both bread
and water (evidences of love). As it has been well-established that these
statements about bread and water are Moses and exodus related statements, and
acknowledging that taking a dogmatic stand in this area would not be warranted,
it stands to reason that Jesus’ speaking of Himself as the light of the world
might tie in to the same theme, calling to mind the pillar of fire that was
said to have accompanied Israel in the wilderness.
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