The coming of the kingdom

By David Torkington

Pentecost  by El Greco

Throughout his life on earth Jesus made it clear that the Kingdom he promised had not  yet come . The question is then, when would this kingdom come? St John gives us the answer, as an aside when Jesus was celebrating the feast of the Tabernacles. It was the final day called ‘The Day of Hosannas’. A priest had carried a large bowl of water from the temple precincts to the pool of Siloam followed by a long procession. Once there, the water from the bowl was poured out into the pool to ‘commemorate’ the rock that Moses had struck in the desert to save his people from dying from thirst. Whilst he was doing this a prophetic text was read out from Isaiah. It looked forward to the living waters that would be poured out when the Messiah would inaugurate the new world order promised by God through the Prophets. This was the moment that Jesus chose to speak out in a loud voice so that all could hear him, claiming to be the new and living rock prefigured by the rock struck by Moses in the desert. His words speak for themselves:-

“If any man is thirsty let him come to me! Let the man come and drink, who believes in me. As the scripture says: From his breast shall flow fountains of living water.”



Then, after describing the event and quoting what Jesus had said, John added, so that there would be no misunderstanding:-


“He was speaking of the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for there was no Spirit as yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”.( Jn. 7:37-39).


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