There had been small signs of problems for weeks. The water flow would slow and upon close inspection the shower heads or faucets were filled with fine grains of sand. Finally we woke up to what looked like muddy water in water lines throughout the house. What a mess! Water was unusable, undrinkable. A specialist came out to check the situation. As we had suspected, rocks and mud had infiltrated the well. Three men and heavy equipment worked to purge the impurities from the source. Three year old Zoe and I watched from the protection of the covered porch as geysers of dirty water, rocks and mud spewed 120 feet into the air in an attempt to “blow the well” clean of debris. After three hours of geysers and loud clanging the decision was made. The well had collapsed and our hopes of clean fresh water were dashed.
Water is mentioned 463 times throughout my ESV Bible. Its main references are to thirst, digging wells, rain, and a necessary ingredient in making bread. John 4: 1-42 provides yet another reference, that of “living water.” Jesus had sent his followers into town to buy food as he sat outside of town by the well. When a Samaritan woman arrived he asked her for a drink. She reacted with astonishment because in her day, such a conversation was rare indeed. 1st, she was a Samaritan, a group who was culturally unaccepted by the Jews of the day. 2nd, she was a woman. At that time and in far Eastern culture a conversation between a man and a woman would not have typically taken place. 3rd, She was an adulteress, and women also treated her with contempt. Yet Jesus began the conversation. When she responded with surprise instead of physical water, Jesus then explained, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” Again no physical water was provided. The conversation then moved from the woman providing water to Jesus, to instead, him providing water for her. The conversation continued with the Samaritan woman asking questions (my paraphrases):
With what will you draw water?
Where do you get living water?
Is your well better than Jacob’s who dug this well years ago?
Jesus responds in vs 13, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Again questions pursue:
Are you a prophet?
Where do you believe we should worship?
Vs 24 “Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
Christ himself, the “living water,” the very one who spoke physical creation as we know it into existence (Genesis 1), took time to have a conversation with a woman that was rejected by her own people. It all started with a simple request, “Give me a drink.” (John 4:7) Yet, it ended with her meeting the Christ, and having the boldness to go back into the city and proclaim to the very people who despised her. “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.”
A woman rejected by everyone, was accepted by Christ.
A woman shunned from any polite conversation, proclaimed Christ to all who would hear.
A woman going to the well for physical water found living water through Jesus.
Are you thirsty today? Be thankful for the clear, pure physical water that comes from your faucet. Be evermore thankful for the living water that comes only from a personal relationship with Jesus. Drink deeply.
Dear Father, I come to you today thankful for physical water. Forgive me all of the times that I have taken for granted pure, clean water. Direct my soul to desire your living water in the same way that the deer pants for physical water (Psalm 42: 1) Lord, I thank you that your love is so great that you seek me (John 4: 23). Thank you for your son Jesus and how he comes to us through his Word, starting the conversations that allow me into a personal relationship with him. Thank you for your son who you sent from the very throne of heaven to come to earth and redeem me, revealing that he is the living water, the only source that will quench my spiritual thirst and provide eternal life to all who believe (John 7:38). Thank you Lord, for this precious, living water, your son Jesus.
In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen