Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
- John 4:13-15
This whole interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan Woman in the 4th Chapter of John is intriguing to me, but especially this first part in verses 1 through 15. One of the important aspects of it is that Jesus is engaging in conversation with a Samaritan woman when, as she points out, Jews do not share things or interact with Samaritans whom they did not consider to be authentic Jews. We can think of many examples in our world today of people looking down on other ethnic groups or races.
However, the whole discourse about the water is rather odd to me. They are not speaking on the same level. The entire time, the woman is obviously thinking of water to be drawn from the well. Jesus is referring to spiritual water that springs up from within. The water from the well is necessary to sustain physical life. She will never be able to stop coming to the well to draw more. The living water that Jesus speaks of provides eternal life. I’m not surprised at all that the woman doesn’t grasp what Jesus is referring to. I can’t imagine I would and I sympathize with her. This makes me wonder, however, how often Jesus may be trying to tell me something that I’m just not catching because I’m thinking on an earthly and material level and not on a spiritual level.
Verse 4 in our Psalm for today (Psalm 37) states, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Maybe if all my “delight” was focused on the Lord I could hear him speak to me on his level.
Musical Reflection - Drawn to You - Audrey Assad
