NOTES for Rev 22:17

For a desert dweller, the image of water has always been a symbol of life. In the biblical books this image received additional meaning: it became a symbol of the Kingdom of God, or the messianic Kingdom, as it was revealed to the prophets.

Ezekiel sees a river of living water flowing from beneath the Temple he saw in a vision. It was revealed to him that the Second Temple, which the repatriates returning from the Babylonian captivity would build in due time, would meet the Messiah and see the beginning of the Kingdom that the Messiah would bring into the world. The righteous person, as the author of the First Psalm testifies, will come to the blessed land where rivers of living water flow: the path of righteousness ends in the Kingdom.

John also speaks of this same water of life: he sees it flowing straight from the Kingdom, whose triumph was revealed to him in his apocalyptic vision. The apostle testifies that this water, the life of the Kingdom, is available to everyone. The very breath of the Kingdom testifies to this life and calls people to share in it, and the Church, called in the text "the bride," as the other apostles often called her as well, bears witness to it too.

Here, as in few other places in the New Testament books, what formed the basis of the early Christian Church's teaching about salvation is clearly reflected: the Kingdom has already entered the world, its history began on the day of Pentecost, it is no longer future but present, and one can share in its life right here and now.

At the same time, its history has only just begun. The Kingdom is taking only its first steps in the world; an entire age still lies ahead of it, and by the standards of this old world it will last a long time. But an individual person does not need to wait for its completion and for the triumph of the Kingdom, the day when it will be revealed in all its fullness.

The possibility of living its life is available to everyone who desires it, even now, when the history of the Kingdom has only just begun. For its fullness is always the same; it is only revealed to the world in different measure at different stages of its becoming and entering the world. Therefore a person seeking the Kingdom can always find it in all the fullness he can contain. The history of salvation has begun, and the apostle calls every seeker to join it so that the day of the Messiah's return and the triumph of the Kingdom will become his day too.