That Gospel-water
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…”
…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. John 4:7-18, 27-30
How refreshing that water drawn from Jacob’s well must’ve been. As I think of the Samaritan woman, gripping the rope and lifting the full jar from the dark, cool hole and into the afternoon’s heat, I am sure that well-water was better than I’ve ever tasted. The accomplishment of it, the work and the thirst for the drink is such that I’ve never known.
I’ve had water purified, bottled, and nearly frozen, but I just don’t think I’ve tasted what the Samaritan did. And yet, as good as that hard earned well-water was, it just wasn’t enough; she was tired of drawing and carrying and still thirsting.
And so I’ve thought about the Gospel-water offered to the thirsty Samaritan at Jacob’s well. John tells us she drank it and it must’ve drenched every bit of her brokenness because at first taste she ran right through town and gathered a redemption-ready crowd that returned to Jesus for some teaching.
I know I haven’t tasted that well-water, though I’ve had some from my Great-Grandma’s Starkville, Mississippi well. And when I read about the Samaritan, I begin to wonder whether I’ve really tasted the Gospel-water. I know I’ve sipped on that Gospel-water, but there are still lots of dry parts in me.
On most days, I don’t realize how thirsty I am. And so I pray. I pray for recognition of my deep need for living water and of my deep need to expose new parts of me to the Gospel each day. Lord, make me thirsty; so thirsty that I leap into your living springs and let the waters cascade right on over me.
