BLOOD AND WATER FROM THE TEMPLE

Thursday 14 November

Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. John 19:34 (NIV)

After He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. John 20:20 (Berean)

John the Baptist declared at Passover ‘Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29). Lambs here referred to 1 year old sheep or goats When John said this to a Jewish audience, they were all familiar with the sacrifice of lambs at Passover and so they understood what he meant except for the last part. The Jews thought that the Messiah was for Israel only.

They knew that the blood from the multiplied thousands of Passover lambs would flow down from the channel in the temple, down into the Kidron valley and into the Kidron brook. When John called Jesus the Lamb of God, he was making sure that the hearers knew that Jesus was the one they had been waiting for.

In John 18:1 we see an amazing scene unfolding. Jesus is crossing that same Kidron brook with His disciples on the way to the garden of Gethsemane. The brook would have been red from the slaughtered lambs during Passover while the real Lamb of God, crosses the brook with His own impending sacrifice vividly in His mind. This powerful symbolism would soon be made manifest.

Finally, we see Jesus at His crucifixion. The Roman soldier was about to break His legs to incur suffocation. Isaiah the prophet said however ‘not one of His bones would be broken’. Just before the soldier does it he thrusts a spear into His side piercing His heart. The blood and water seperated and flowed out which meant Jesus had gone into hypovolemic shock. His heart had already ruptured. He died of a broken heart.

So what does the blood and water actually represent? The blood represents redemption. The cleansing flow of the blood of Jesus washes and takes away all sins as John the Baptist prophesied it would. But what about the significance of the water? In other cases the water represents cleansing or the Word itself. In this case, the water represents the Spirit. Jesus confirmed this in John 7:39a ‘but this He spoke of the Spirit’ The water that flowed from the temple was a type and shadow of the redemption and Spirit that would flow out of Jesus physically on the cross.

Remember Apostle Peter said almost mirroring the prophecy in the book of Joel, ‘in the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh’ (Acts 2:17). This outpouring of the Spirit was symbolised by the water pouring out of Jesus side and was consummated when the Holy Spirit was given after Jesus was glorified.

In actuality, the water is the Spirit that is salvation and that salvation is eternal life in Christ. This shows us also that the life of the believer is the life of the Spirit.

‘For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the law of sin and death’. The Holy Spirit is the spiritual lifeblood of the believer. John tells us we are not ‘born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man but of God.’ The child of God therefore is energised by the life flow Holy Spirit.

Indeed the blood and water flowed from the true temple, the body of Jesus Christ, the sacrificial Lamb of God. By His grace, redemption and salvation has freely flowed out for all mankind.

APPLICATION

Thank the Lord Jesus for saying yes to the Father’s plan of salvation, bringing you into His kingdom and sanctifying you by His Holy Spirit.