John 4:10; 13-15. 10Jesus answered her, “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.”
13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks of 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 of water welling up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
Have you ever been really thirsty? For most of us, quenching our physical thirst is a pretty easy thing to do. We have running water in our homes and buildings and all kinds of drinks in the fridge.
But standing at the well that day, talking to the Samaritan woman (a big no-no), Jesus was not talking about physical thirst is he? He was talking about the greater thirst in all of us that dries the soul’s throat. The deep thirst to be okay. To be loved. To be able to love another. This is what Jesus is offering this shattered and isolated “woman at the well,” living water to satisfy her soul, and to become a spring of living water to satisfy the souls of others.
Aren’t these the two great thirsts of every soul? The human heart’s two greatest desires? To be loved and accepted and to have someone accept our love. So we pose and posture in order to make ourselves more and more lovable. We control and manipulate to make others desire us. We post our love ability online. We tell witty stories. We change the subject if it gets too personal. We let everyone know how busy we are, or how spiritual we are, or how authentic we are. We have “deep” conversations that are actually quite shallow. Mostly, we hide the truth, that if it were ever known, would make others stop loving us altogether.
But with Jesus, none of this is necessary. God loves us because he loves us. In spite of all that we have done and in spite of who we are, he has forgiven us for all our doing and for all our being. Jesus’ conversation with this woman is a living parable of this eternal life that God offers. The living water of unconditional love and acceptance. His love, his acceptance, and his “okayness” are all ours for the asking and the receiving.
“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.”
Ask and receive. This is the Christian life. Believing and receiving. Jesus will never ever deny us his love, his grace, his life. His Spirit is a well that never runs dry, a spring that never stops flowing. There is no earning here, no working, no doing – it’s the gift of God.
If only we knew. If only we could always remember that God’s love is this free, this simple, and this refreshing. Why would we not constantly drink, and never be thirsty again? Why would we ever go a minute without letting Jesus’ love, acceptance, and peace satisfy us? Why wouldn’t we want to spend each day talking with the one who knows everything we’ve ever done, but doesn’t walk away?
To live is Christ is to be full of Christ’s Spirit of living water. To be fully accepted, not for what we have done, but in spite of what we have done. It is to constantly ask for and receive so much of God’s love and grace that we naturally overflow Jesus, gushing out his eternal life to all around us. Finally, our soul’s thirst is fully satisfied in Christ.
You: What does your heart thirst for? What wells are you drawing water from?
You in Christ: In Christ you are loved and now you can love. Does this truth quench your soul thirst today?
Christ in you: How could your life be a spring of living water gushing out the life of Jesus?
To Live is Christ 