A refreshing drink

So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

"I have no husband," she replied.

Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"

Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.
They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world." (John 4:5-52)

Jesus here talks about Living Water, the Water of Life. It is water that only Jesus can give, and the person who receives it never goes thirsty again. As a matter of fact, this Living Water becomes active in the recipient, welling up to the blessed reality of everlasting life. But the Gospel writer John never tells us exactly what Jesus was talking about when He told the Samaritan woman of the water He was willing to give her. Just what is Living Water?

The Samaritan woman thought she knew what living water was. Living water was water that moved, water that was continually refreshed. Water that didn’t move, water that didn’t get refreshed, she would call stagnant water. Living water would be found in springs, rivers and lakes. Stagnant water would be found in ponds and at the bottom of most wells. Living water was the best water one could find; because it was constantly moving, impurities were continually being washed away. Stagnant water was considered inferior water, because it was more likely to become contaminated. The Samaritan woman got interested when Jesus told her that He could give her living water that would forever end her thirst. She had a mental picture of the best water of all, living water, being constantly available right in her home—indoor running water! No more going to the well to carry heavy jars of water home in the heat of the day.

But this type of living water wasn’t what Jesus was talking about. Jesus was talking about a Living Water that could take up residency inside of a person. Jesus was talking about a Living Water that kept filling a person every day, so that he never went thirsty. Jesus was talking about a Living Water that was free but for the asking, a Water that would guarantee its drinker eternal life. No earthly water could do these things.

We can figure out the nature of this Living Water if we consider everything Jesus said about it. First of all, how does one get Living Water? Jesus said "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." He is saying that a person has to know who Jesus really is—the Son of God—before he can ask for this Living Water. The person must trust that Jesus can and will give Living Water to those who ask for it. In other words, the person must have faith in Jesus Christ.

What does the person who believes in Christ hope to gain from the gift of Living Water? Two things: that he shall never thirst again, and that by living on the Water of Life he will receive eternal life. The Living Water of Christ removes thirst forever. Obviously, this is not in reference to physical thirst. We are thinking about the kind of thirst that Jesus spoke about in the Beatitudes: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" (Matthew 5:6). The thirst Jesus speaks of is a strong desire to be in a loving, nourishing relationship with our Creator God. Jesus says that His Living Water will once and for all time satisfy this thirst in us. Further, this Living water will "become…a spring of water welling up to eternal life." With Christ’s Living Water within us, we are found to be acceptable for entry into heaven. We had been cast out of God’s presence, because our corrupted sinful nature led us to turn from Him and drink instead from the death of dried up wells; through the prophet Jeremiah, God said: "My people…have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water" (Jeremiah 2:13). Miraculously, Jesus’ Living Water brings new life where there was nothing in us but a parched desert of death. And the new life brought by Jesus’ Waters of Life is pleasing in God’s sight.

Let’s review the evidence. The Living Waters are only available to those who trust in Christ. These waters put us into a right relationship with God, and they guarantee us everlasting life. The Living Water that Jesus speaks of to the Samaritan woman is nothing else but God’s promise of salvation through the merits of Jesus’ suffering and death in place of sinful man. This promise belongs eternally to everyone who repents of his sins, because he trusts that Jesus has earned both the right to forgive them and the authority to escort forgiven believers into the eternal joy of heaven.

What a tremendous gift that Jesus offered the woman at the well! He told her that if she just had a trusting relationship with Him, her needs would be met—her need for God’s love in her life now, and her need for the assurance of God’s mercy on the day of her death. Yet the woman doesn’t understand what Jesus is offering her. She still thinks—or at least pretends to think—that Jesus is only speaking of natural water. So Jesus ups the ante—He asks her about her husband, knowing that in her response she will admit to the greatest sin troubling her soul. She is no longer married to her first husband. She has married and divorced five times, and is now living with a man outside of marriage. She has casually disregarded God’s expectations regarding marriage: "man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate" (Matthew 19:5). Jesus goes on to tell us: "anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery" (Mathew 5:32). The Samaritan woman was leading a life buried under the weight of the sin of adultery—the proof of the burden is in her drawing water from the well in the heat of noontime, to avoid the disapproving glares of the other women of the town (who would gather in the morning to draw water before the day became hot).

When Jesus shows miraculous knowledge about the sordid details of her life, the Samaritan woman realizes that she is speaking with a representative of God. Ashamed of her sins, she tries to change the subject by asking Jesus’ opinion about where one ought to worship. But Jesus brings things right back to her when He says: "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." Jesus tells her that if she wants to be in a right relationship with God, she must begin with the attitude in her heart. To worship God in spirit is to be devoted in one’s heart; just going to church to say the right words is not enough. To worship God in truth is to admit that the ways of the human heart are sinful, selfish and abhorrent to God. To worship God in spirit and in truth is to be aware of your sins and God’s expectations everywhere in your life—at church, at work, at home, at play—and to realize that you need God’s help to turn away from sinful thoughts, words and actions. To worship God in spirit and in truth is to repent of your sins and humbly ask God to help you live a life pleasing to Him. Jesus has just told the Samaritan woman that if she is to worship God rightly, it is time to see her sins for what they are—and repent.

The Samaritan woman has been made ready for Jesus’ Living Waters. She has admitted to her sins, and has heard of the gifts that salvation can bring to her. When she mentions the coming Messiah, Jesus tells her: "I who speak to you am he." She knows that she has met the Savior, and heard the words that can give her freedom from her fear of God and her fear of everlasting death. By listening to Jesus’ words of promise, faith has been kindled in her heart--a faith which will start to fill her soul with waters that will quell her thirst forever and well up to everlasting life. She had been thirsty, but didn’t realize her thirst until Jesus held out the offer of Living Water to her. Now that she had the water, it welled up and began to overflow—she went immediately into town to share her wonderful experience, in the hope that others would come to share in the Messiah’s Living Waters.

The woman at Jacob’s Well was thirsty in a way that she didn’t recognize until she met Jesus. What about you? Are you thirsty? Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness, for a right relationship with God? Do you ever worry that God doesn’t love you anymore? Do you lay awake at night sometimes, wondering what will happen to you when you eventually die? If you are thirsty, you shouldn’t be surprised—indeed, you should be glad. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." If you are aware of your thirst, aware of your need for Jesus’ Living Water of salvation, Jesus stands ready to fill you to the brim and beyond. All He asks of you is to bring your sins before Him in humility and ask for His forgiveness. King David reassures us that "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Psalm 51:17). When we bring all our mistakes before Jesus and ask Him for another chance, we do so in confidence since Saint John also writes: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). When we meet Jesus in His Word, whether heard in church or read in an online devotion, He gives us faith in His promise of salvation, and this Living Water brings forth new life in us. Filled with the Water of Life, we are enabled to worship God in spirit and in truth, because Jesus’ Living Water continues to well up in us wherever we are: at work, at home and on vacation. The Living Water within us constantly reminds that however many times we fail to live up to God’s expectations, we can come to Jesus and receive forgiveness. And with Jesus’ salvation welling up in our hearts, we can face death with calmness, knowing that Jesus is waiting to take us by the hand and escort us into heaven.

The Samaritan woman was filled with hope by Jesus’ words, and she spread that hope to everyone she knew. May Christ’s Living Waters well up in you, that you might worship God in spirit and in truth--and may the Living Waters that Christ has given you overflow into the lives of everyone you know, so they too might meet Jesus in His Word and see Him as the Savior of the world.