Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chapters I to XIVMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chapters I to XIV
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. John -- Commentaries
In that lonely Traveller, worn, exhausted, thirsty, craving for a
draught of water from a stranger's hand, is set forth 'the glory of the
Father, full of grace and truth.' A strange manifestation of divine
glory this! But if we understand that the glory of God is the lustrous
light of His self-revealing love, perhaps we shall understand how, from
that faint, craving voice, 'Give Me to drink,' that glory sounds forth
more than in the thunders that rolled about the rocky peak of Sinai.
Strange to think, brethren, that the voice from those lips dry with
thirst, which was low and weak, was the voice that spoke to the sea,
'Peace! be still,' and there was a calm; that said to demons, 'Come out
of him!' and they evacuated their fortress; that cast its command into
the grave of Lazarus, and he came forth; and which one day all that are
in the grave shall hear, and hearing shall obey. 'Give Me to drink.' 'I
that speak unto thee am He.'
II. Secondly, we may note here the self-revealing Christ.
The process by which Jesus gradually unveils His full character to this
woman, so unspiritual and unsusceptible as she appeared at first sight
to be, is interesting and instructive. It would occupy too much of your
time for me to do more than set it before you in the barest outline.
Noting the singular divergence between the two sayings which I have
taken as our text, it is interesting to notice how the one gradually
merges into the other. First of all, Jesus Christ, as it were, opens a
finger of His hand to let the woman have a glimpse of the gift lying
there, that that may kindle desire, and hints at some occult depth in
His person and nature all undreamed of by her yet, and which would be
the occasion of greater wonder, and of a reversal of their parts, if
she knew it. Then, in answer to her, half understanding that He meant
more than met the ear, and yet opposing the plain physical difficulties
that were in the way, in that He had 'nothing to draw with, and the
well is deep,' and asking whether He were greater than our father
Jacob, who also had given, and given not only a draught, but the well,
our Lord enlarges her vision of the blessedness of the gift, though He
says but little more of its nature, except in so far as that may be
gathered from the fact that the water that He will give will be a
permanent source of satisfaction, forbidding the pangs of unquenched
desire ever again to be felt as pangs; and from the other fact that it
will be an inward possession, leaping up with a fountain's energy, and
a life within itself, towards, and into everlasting life. Next, he
strongly assails conscience and demands repentance, and reveals Himself
as the reader of the secrets of the heart. Then He discloses the great
truths of spiritual worship. And, finally, as a prince in disguise
might do, He flings aside the mantle of which He had let a fold or two
be blown back in the previous conversation, and stands confessed. 'I
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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