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A DRINK OF WATER
"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 giving 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 this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock?'" John 4:10-12 (NIV).
What an intriguing response!
The woman had asked Jesus a simple question, 'How can you, a Jewish man, be asking me, a Samaritan woman for a drink?' but it revealed a whole lot about what she thought about herself. In His reply Jesus used the imagery of water to introduce her to something much better than well water.
He asked her for water because He was thirsty but her visit to the well in the middle of the day opened up a pathway to her thirst which could not be quenched by what she could get from the well. Why did she come out in the heat? All the other women of the village drew water in the early morning or late in the afternoon. Was she avoiding them because she was an outcast? Why was she an outcast?
As the story unfolds, we learn of her unsavoury lifestyle. Did she want to be a promiscuous woman? I don't think so. She was desperately thirsty for love. Her story can be retold today. Many millions of women and young girls sell themselves, their chastity, dignity and self-respect for empty promises to men who use them and throw them away.
One wonders why she continued this conversation with Jesus. Did she see in Him another prospect? And yet she instinctively knew that He was different from other men. He was open, friendly and polite, and didn't look at her with lust or undress her with His eyes. Instead, His eyes were full of understanding and compassion.
Jesus saw beyond her brassy facade, her emptiness, her loneliness and her tear-stained heart and reached out to offer her what no human being could give her -- living water. To a person in Jesus' day, "living" water was the clean, fresh water from a flowing stream, not stagnant water from a well, but what He offered was far better than that!
Her thoughts didn't connect with Jesus' thoughts. She was so imprisoned in her way of thinking and in her lifestyle that it did not occur to her that it could be different. To her, Jacob's well was a very important water source. In fact, it was a bit of a miracle. Jacob and his family and animals had used this well centuries before and it was still providing water for the village now. What could Jesus offer her that was greater than that?
"Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them 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.'" John 4:13-15 (NIV).
There you have it! Jesus was not talking about the stuff you need to drink; He was taking about another kind of "water" which satisfies the thirst that water cannot reach. Every human being is thirsty for the kind of love that does not use and abuse but that unconditionally loves us for who we are. No human love can quench that thirst, not even the best love a human can offer. There is the element of selfishness in human love, even at its best.
This woman had been the object of lust, but she had never been loved. Jesus looked past her sordid life and saw an empty, thirsty heart and offered her the love that only God can give.
But imagine her confusion! What a relief it would be if this man, by some miraculous means could save her from having to face the burning sun every day to come out here for water. She snatched at the opportunity to get some of this "magic" water, having no clue as to where and what it was.
Jesus still sees the empty, weeping heart today. He is the source of a love that never gives up, never runs dry and never betrays the one who trusts Him. He proved it by laying down His life for you.
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