We begin the 4th chapter of John’s gospel the same way that we began the 3rd, with a conversation between Jesus and another person. John 3 began with Jesus talking with Nicodemus: a man, a scholar, a Pharisee, and a member of the Sanhedrin. By all accounts, Nicodemus was the epitome of morality and honor at the time. Here, in John 4, we find a conversation with Nicodemus’ complete and total opposite. Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman while at Jacob’s well in Samaria. Now, normally Jesus would have gone around this area of Samaria when traveling because of the tension that existed between the Samaritans and the Jews. For some reason (we don’t know exactly why) Jesus had to go through this region at this point in his ministry. That’s when he comes across this particular woman, and she wasn’t just any woman. In addition to being a woman from Samaria, she was a woman of some immorality. We’re told later on in this chapter that she had already had 5 husbands and is currently living with a man who is not her husband. That’s three strikes: female (at least at this day-and-age), Samaritan, and questionable morality. I think that as we look closer at this conversation and exactly what Jesus has to say, we need to keep in mind that this woman has these three things against her. We need to be of the fact that she isn’t the most culturally accepted of persons during this time period. This fact will help us to understand the magnitude of Jesus’ words even better, because if they are true for this woman, then there is no person on this earth who they do not apply to. With that in mind let us look at this conversation at the water cooler.
You see, what we have here is a conversation at the “ole waterin’ hole” about water. I know, it sounds odd, but that’s what it is. It’s noontime (the sixth hour) and the sun is at its highest point. It’s as hot as it’s going to be that day and Jesus is thirsty from his travels. While he is sitting at this well, this Samaritan woman approaches. She can tell that he is a Jew by his appearance and so she takes great care to not get in his way or speak to him. Much to her surprise, this Jew looks at her and says, “Give me a drink.” She is absolutely flabbergasted. She can’t even process what has just happened. She even goes on to ask him why he would even be talking to her.
It’s at this point where Jesus begins to teach and explain who he is to this woman. He says, “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.” Much the same as we found with Nicodemus in John 3, the woman doesn’t understand Jesus’ words. About this verse, John Calvin writes, “Christ now, availing himself of the opportunity, begins to preach about the grace and power of his Spirit, and that to a woman who did not at all deserve that he should speak to her.” So, she begins to point out the reasons for her confusion. First, how could he give her anything to drink when he had nothing to draw water with from the well? Normally, a person would have had a bucket or a goatskin for fetching water, but Jesus had neither. Add to that that this well is estimated to be around 100 feet deep and he has no rope. Secondly, there is the problem of this phrase “living water.” During this time, living water was often understood to mean water that was in motion like you would find in a spring or a stream. Water in motion was considered to be better than stagnant water like you would find in a well. In our modern world we feel the same way since the motion helps to decrease the bacteria in the water supply. Well, this woman thinks Jesus is nuts for having this notion. After all, Jacob was the one who built this well. If there was any “living water” anywhere near there, he wouldn’t have worried with digging this massive hole. She thinks this guy is nuts. It’s almost as if he thinks he’s great than Jacob, and that’s crazy. There’s no way this guy is great than Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, at least in her mind.
Rarely, if ever, do many of us struggle with being truly thirsty in this country. There is water all around us, and pretty much all of it is safe for us to drink. Some folks are a little more peculiar than others, but there are those of us who wouldn’t give a second thought to picking up the water hose outside and drinking from it. Pretty much, unless we know that there is a problem, then we don’t think twice about it. When I was in Haiti last November, I experienced thirst. We would spend a minimum of 8 hours a day working in the sun with no shade anywhere around. If you were in the shade, it meant that you were working in an enclosed room, where the temperature was even higher than it was outside. Add to that, that none of the water that came up from the wells that were dug on the grounds was safe for us to drink for health reasons. The only source of water that we had were these little bags of water that were about the size of a bean bag that you would toss. Before we could even drink one of them, we had to wipe down a corner of the bag with some type of cleaning wipe, tear open the bag, and then get our few ounces of salvation from the heat. The problem was that there were a limited number of bags available per day, but there was almost no end to our thirst. You see, our physical bodies need water to survive. Our souls, they need living water to survive.
Jesus answers the woman’s questions and confusion with these words, “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.” Jesus is the living water. Jesus is who and what our souls need to survive. He is the source of such life-giving nourishment that there is no need to look elsewhere for sustenance. He continues his exposition, saying, “The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Have you ever tried to fill a hole, because that’s virtually all a well is is a hole. A well is a hole that is dug so deep and relatively narrow so that it holds water so that areas that are landlocked may have some water supply. A well is pretty easy to fill up and make the ground as if it never existed. A spring, however, is another story. A spring is naturally occurring, whereas a well is man-made. I have a good friend of mine who works in foundations and moving dirt prior to the building of a structure. He told me one time that there is nothing more difficult than dealing with springs because you never know what you’re getting into or if you’re even making any progress. You fill it, compact the dirt, fill it, compact it, fill, compact, fill, compact, and so on. The problem is that no matter how much you put on top of this spring, it continues to come through. The amount of dirt that you place on top of the spring really only affects how long it will take for the water to come back up and leave the ground a muddy mess. There must be something else done other than just throwing dirt on top of it.
When we think in terms of Jesus’ language here and his saying that he will be a spring in us, we have to ask what “dirt” we have tried throwing in this spring to fill it up. This particular woman from Samaria has tried love and relationships. She has been convinced that once she finds that one person that she will be complete and her life will be perfect. Well, she’s right in one sense, she is looking for one “person” so-to-speak. What dirt have you tried filling the spring of Christ with in your heart and in your life? Have you tried filling it with money, material possessions, friends, knowledge, or any other thing? It’s not that any of these things are inherently bad, but they cannot be what takes precedence in our lives.
After hearing what Jesus had to say, this woman expresses great joy. Her words are very similar to what our words ought to be after hearing the good news of the gospel, “Sir, give me this water.” Give me Jesus; give me Christ. After hearing all about the debt that was owed, the price that was paid, and the gifts that God freely gives to us out of his loving kindness, all we want is to be given this water. Friends, there are those out there who are hopelessly throwing dirt into the spring that exists within them. Their lives, while seemingly calm on the surface, are on a shaky and muddy foundation. We all need to pray for these people. We all need to reach out to these people. We need to long for God to make known to them and reveal to them that no amount of dirt, no earthly rewards, will fill in the spring of Christ. We, as children of God, will only be complete when we allow the spring of Christ to flow freely and unobstructed in our lives. Let’s stop shoveling dirt and let the living water flow within us and from us. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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