John's Gospel

The Way It Happened

John 2:19-21, Living Water, Part II of II

Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.

//Yesterday, I discussed a vision Ezekiel had of the new City of God. In the center of the City was a temple, and flowing from the temple was a river that spread life to everything it touched. When these living waters reached the Dead Sea, even this salty sea was transformed into an abundance of living fish.

Are we supposed to take this vision literally? Will this really happen as depicted? Perhaps it has already happened?

The book of Revelation appears to contradict Ezekiel when it says that in the new city there will be no temple. Revelation explains that Jesus himself is the temple. Does this dash the hope of living water?

Nope. Whatever it is that Ezekiel imagined, the Gospel of John explains how it came to be.  John’s Gospel, in today’s verse, tells how the new temple was raised in the new City of God. When Jesus spoke of a new temple being built, he was talking about his own resurrection. Just like Revelation promised, Jesus became the temple.

But what of Ezekiel’s promise of living water flowing from the temple … first a small stream, then rivers of life-giving water? Jesus explains this as well:

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. –John 7:38

Thus this living water continues to flow out from the “temple” today, bringing life to everything it touches in the world. Ezekiel was right.

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