The Living Water

Jesus 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.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but 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.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” (John 4:10-15 ESV). Last week was Vacation Bible School at our church in Santa Fe, Tennessee. We had a marvelous week with great attendance and even greater Bible teaching. Our adults did an incredible job again this year! The theme this year was “Running the Race.” Each evening as we met together we studied some of the “I am” statements of Jesus. One of the passages for the week was our reading for today. There are so many wonderful truths in this passage. Just the fact that Jesus offers life to this outcast woman is an incredible encouragement to us. However, there is an interesting truth revealed at the end of the conversation that we should not overlook. The woman answered Jesus with this request to give her the water “so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” Matthew Henry has an interesting observation of this response by the Samaritan woman: The woman (whether in jest or earnest is hard to say) begs of him to give her some of this water. Some think that she speaks tauntingly, and ridicules what Christ had said as mere stuff and, in derision of it, not desires, but challenges him to give her some of this water. Others think that it was a well-meant but weak and ignorant desire. She apprehended that he meant something very good and useful, and therefore saith Amen, at a venture. Whatever it be, let me have it who will show me any good? Ease, or saving of labor, is a valuable good to poor laboring people. Even those that are weak and ignorant may yet have some faint and fluctuating desires towards Christ and his gifts, and some good wishes of grace and glory. Carnal hearts, in their best wishes, look no higher than carnal ends. "Give it to me," saith she, "not that I may have everlasting life" (which Christ proposed), "but that I come not hither to draw." I find it altogether too true that many people only need Jesus when the need Him. If he will make our lives easier or more convenient then we are amenable to the exchange. If what Jesus gives us really makes life better, then certainly we want that life. This is a good place to remind us that Jesus’ promise to us is not an easier life, it is an eternal life. In fact, it is often true the life of a believer is harder, not easier. Yet, it is always better! We’ll explore that a bit over the next few days. Trust him because he loves you not because of what he gives you!