Living Water and the Woman at the Well
During Lent we hear powerful stories about
people encountering Jesus such as Nicodemus, the blind man, Lazarus, and the
woman at the well. Like Nicodemus, the woman’s
encounter with Jesus changed her life.
In Samaria there is a town called Sychar,
where Jacob’s well is located. On a journey from Judea to Galilee, Jesus came
across the well and rested, tired from his journey, when a woman of the village
walked up. Jesus addressed her, “Woman, give me a drink of water.”
She was taken aback that Jesus spoke to her
for two reasons. First, men did not
publicly speak to women. Secondly, she was a Samaritan and Jews had no dealings
with Samaritans. Jesus had crossed both
a gender and a racial line by speaking to this person. She replied, “How is it that you, a Jew would
ask a drink of water from me, a woman of Samaria?” Then in a sudden change of direction, Jesus
startles the woman and asks her to go get her husband. “Go and call your
husband,” Jesus told her, “and come back.”
She is uncomfortable when Jesus brings it
up because she had been married five times. But Jesus doesn’t judge her, he
offers her what she needs the most, Living Water. “Whoever
drinks this water will get thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I
will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will
become in him a spring which will provide him with life-giving water and give
him eternal life.”
There is so much to this encounter at the
well. First, Jesus loved this woman at the well and Jesus wants us to love her
as well. Jesus had compassion for her and Jesus wants us to have compassion for
her as well. It would have been so easy
for Jesus to condemn her, but he didn’t. From the first moment Jesus was with
her, you sense the tenderness towards her.
Secondly, Jesus gets personal, asking about
her husband. She is embarrassed and tries to change the subject and talks about
religion. She didn’t want Jesus to get personal;
but, Jesus wanted to talk about her personal life because he wanted to free
her, forgive her, and shape her life into a new direction. Jesus wants to offer this woman the living
water.
Finally, in this encounter, Jesus reveals himself. For the first time the great messianic secret has been
revealed. This is one of the most
dramatic moments in Biblical history. Jesus
lets his true identity be known. The woman said to him, “I know that one day
the Messiah, the one who is called Christ, will come and He will tell us all
things.” Jesus answered, “I am he, I who
am talking with you.” (John 4:25-26)
Why does Jesus choose to reveal himself to
her, a gentile, and an outcast among a people of outcasts. I don’t know. The woman
at the well wasn’t looking for Jesus.
She wasn’t out searching for the Messiah like Nicodemus was. She was just out living life. She was just
out getting her bucket of water from the well.
She wasn’t especially looking for Go. While she was not even looking for it, Jesus
said, “I would like to give you some living water.” She didn’t even ask for it, and Jesus offered
her the very best gift in the whole world, at a time in life when she really
needed it.
Jesus does the same for you and me. We may not be looking for God. We may just be living our lives, day by day,
and Jesus says to us, “Whoever believes in me, I will pour into him, into her, the
living water, and out from his or her heart shall flow rivers of living water...” Christ makes the same offer to you and me,
whether we are looking for it or not.
So where do you get the living water? There are four river channels. The first channel is through the Word, the
Bible. Immerse yourself in the Word of God.
The second channel is through worship, Baptism, and Holy Communion. Third, we find the living water through prayer. Fourth, we find Jesus and his gift of the
living water through conversations and community with Christian friends. During
this season of Lent, remember the woman at well and what Jesus offered her.
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