Jesus Watered

What Did Jesus Do?

…whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever.
John 4.14

Human beings can live for a surprisingly long time without food, but cut us off from water and we’ll soon die. Thirst is a serious matter. So, when someone tells you that they can open within you a spring of living water so that you will never thirst again, well, that is going to get your attention.

It was not at all coincidence when a woman from the village of Sychar fetching water at the well of Jacob encountered Jesus. (John 4.3-7) She is one of the most thirsty characters in the Bible. Socially she was of the despised Samaritans, whom the Jews would have cut off from God if it had been in their power; instead they avoided all contact with the Samaritans. A pious Jew would take the long way from Jerusalem to Galilee, rather than the direct route through Samaria. There was Jesus, in the heart of Samaria. That fact in itself must have startled the woman. For Jesus to talk to her directly would have been unthinkable.

For she was not only cut-off as a Samaritan, but dismissed because she was female; Jewish men were not in the habit of striking up conversations with strange women, it was beneath them. Better to speak to a slave than a woman. There was Jesus, talking with her as if it were the most natural thing to do. (John 4.9)

And it would appear that this woman had quite a few issues when it came to her relationships with men. She had already gone through five “husbands” and was living with number six, though she admitted she wasn’t married. (John 4.16-18) A promiscuous Samaritan woman, a life just about as dry and barren as we could imagine, no wonder she was at the well!

The promise of living water captured her interest, yes, but it also refreshed and reclaimed her soul, so much so that she left her jar beside the well empty, as she went away to summon others to come and meet the man who revealed Himself to be the Messiah. (John 4.25-26) Like a spring in the middle of a dry and thirsty land God set his Son in the midst of people spiritually parched and dying. There is no less need today for the living water Jesus brings us.

Everyone we meet has a definite physical need for water, and it is unlikely that we would turn away anyone who asked us for a simple drink. Far greater than the need of water is the absolute necessity of our knowing Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, and God the Father, who sent Him, and the Holy Spirit who is the very spring of living water in all who believe. We’d share a drink with family or friends who are thirsty, would we share the living water with strangers and those we might normally seek to avoid? That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4