Thursday, November 1st, 2012click here for past entriesThe Water of Life
Recently I’ve been thinking about water and the Holy Land. Perhaps it has something to do with having just led a session on baptism. Perhaps it has something to do with just how important water is for our survival – not just in the Holy Land, but everywhere. Whatever the reasons, the phrase “the river of the water of life” is stuck in my head.
It is a phrase that comes from Revelation 22. In the presence of God, the river of the water of life is right there. There won’t be hunger or thirst or tears any more, for in the presence of God, all will be well. However, in this world, the water of life doesn’t always stay that way.
The most obvious illustration in the Holy Land comes when one compares the Sea of Galilee with the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is just that – dead – and also shrinking. The salt content is so high that neither plants nor other living creatures are in the water. Still, the mud apparently has healing qualities. In the case of the Sea of Galilee, it receives and also gives out, and thus remains alive. On the other hand, the Dead Sea receives but does not give, which leads to death.
Along the same lines, one can compare the water at Banias (where the Jordan River begins) with the water further down the river. At Banias, you can stick your bottle in the water right where the spring emerges and safely have a drink. However, to drink the water anywhere else along the river would most certainly be a health risk. By the time it has reached the place where John most likely was baptizing, the colour of the water is brown. Human activity has a tendency to muddy the waters.
Human beings, it seems, can also have a tendency to withhold the water of life from others. In a number of places in the Holy Land – especially in the occupied territories – those who have power control the water, and those who live there are at their mercy. In many places, Palestinians pay their water bills just as Israelis do. However, in Palestinian households, they often have running water only two or three days a week.
Unfortunately, I find it unlikely that this is the only place in the world where water is used as an expression of power over others. As something that is so essential to our survival, those who want to have the power also seek to control the water. In fact, some have even suggested that future wars will not be over oil, but over water.
A small expression of such disputes over water can be seen at the site of Jacob’s well, in Nablus. This well – which is where Jesus sat down with the Samaritan woman for a conversation about living water (Jn. 4) – is located in the basement of a Greek Orthodox Church. Both Jews and Muslims are not happy about this, and the church has been attacked on at least a couple of occasions.
In 1979, one of the priests there became a martyr, as he was shot inside the church by a Hebrew university professor. There was also an occasion where a nun was injured by an explosion in the church. Each one of these three religions wants Jacob’s well to be “theirs.”
Yet, from God’s perspective, the water of life is meant for all people. It is not to be hoarded. It is not to be withheld from others. It is not to be poisoned. May God’s living water well up in all of our hearts (Jn. 7), that we might be in life-giving relationships with God and with others!
In Christ,
Pastor Lynne Hutchison
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