Thoughts on the Text
Despite the sense that these verses carry us along on a nearly chaotic rush to the end of the book, John is in fact bringing the book to a careful, deliberate, and theologically precise end. These verses are filled with echoes of the whole story John has told: “alpha & omega” (22:13; see 1:8), the washed robes (22:14a; see 7:14), the tree of life (22:14b; see 2:7 and 22:2), the gates of the city (22:14b; see 21:21, 25), the interpreting angel (22:16; see 1:1), the root of David and the morning star (22:16; see 5:5 and 2:28), the bride (22:17a; see 21:9), the water of life (22:17b; see 7:17 and 22:1). The overwhelming promises of God’s salvation made throughout the book are reaffirmed here at the end with this cascade of images.
Verse 17 begins with a repeated exhortation/invitation to “come,” but to whom is that invitation being made? It would be possible to read the first two phrases of verse 17 as the evangelical outreach of the church, the word directed to all those outside the church, all those who may still find themselves outside the New Jerusalem described by John. However, it is probably better to take the first part of verse 17, the words of the Spirit and the bride and all who hear, as the church’s prayer for the coming of Jesus.
The appeal to “come” echoes Jesus’ own promise in verse 12, and it becomes more explicit as the prayer of the church in verse 20b. All that John has shown is testimony to the faithfulness of God and the Lamb, a revelation of the divine intention to redeem all creation from the grasp of sin, death, and the devil; to this, the church joyously responds with prayer and longing for that coming. The church can make this prayer because what John has shown in this book is not just a bunch of end-time events, but the One who is Lord of both beginning and end. We have not been shown a timetable, but a person, the Ruler of church and cosmos.
The last sentence in verse 17, however, changes the address. No longer is this a prayer to the Lord Jesus, but it is now directed to all those who thirst for the life and deliverance that this book has promised. It is an invitation both to those already inside the community of the Lamb, and to all those still outside: to all who thirst for this gift of life.