It was a
balmy sunny afternoon. The disciples who
followed Jesus into Samaria took off for the marketplace to go buy food, while
Jesus was left behind at the local well.
He sent his disciples to purchase food without him because he had a
predetermined meeting that was to take place with an unsuspected woman coming
out to draw her daily portion of water.
Just as
Jesus predestined, the woman came to draw her water. Jesus had a mission with this woman, and it
was to reveal to her, her need for a Savior, that everything she was turning to
in life for satisfaction would always leave her longing for more. So Jesus had planned a terrific segue into
this evangelistic moment, “excuse me, ma’am” he said, “could you draw me some
water?” He knew very well the ethnic
tension that was going to be stirred by this question, as Jews and Samaritans
did not talk to each other. Instead of
fearing this tension, he used it as leverage.
She answered the question just as
he assumed she would. “Sir, why
do you, a Jew, ask from me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink. Don’t you know that Jews do not talk to
Samaritans, let alone a man to a woman?”
“Ma’am if you knew who was
asking you for water, you would ask him for a drink of the living water he can
offer.” “I don’t follow”, she
replied. “How can you, without anything
to draw water with, offer me this living water?” “Actually ma’am, the water that I will give
you will well up in your heart and be eternally refreshing and you will never
be thirsty again.” “Not understanding
Jesus, but hopeful of his words she replied, “Give it to me, I am tired of
being thirsty and coming out to this well to draw water.”
That wasn’t the end of the conversation for her, but this is where
many of us stop. Jesus Christ offers you
spiritual blessings that will satisfy the deep longings that are stirred in
your soul such as your desire for true peace, joy, happiness and contentment.
But unfortunately, many of us see Jesus, as this Samaritan woman
did in John 4 as a wishing well. We turn
to Jesus only to get our fleshly desires fulfilled and we miss the essence of
what he is offering us which is an all satisfying relationship with himself.
Instead, we ask Jesus, or make wishes at the wishing well to alleviate
the amount of hours we work, to make more money, to win the lottery, to have
good health. We know Jesus has the power to do these things for us, so we
constantly bombard him with these requests, “Lord give me…I want…”. Yet, Jesus did not come to fulfill your earthly
needs of luxury and comfort, he came to offer life and offer it abundantly.
Jesus is not your personal wishing well. He did not die upon that cross so that you
could live these 70 years in ease and comfort, rather he died to pay the
eternal punishment for your sins, so that you can dwell with him in the midst
of the Father forever.
Sure, Jesus could have given this woman the blue pill that would
have solved all of her H2O needs. But he
didn’t. He chose to let her continue to
work for her physical need for water quite possibly as a daily reminder to her
of that conversation at the well, when that stranger came up to her and offered
her living water that would well up in her soul and satisfy a thirst she could
never satisfy on her own.
As you pray, as you turn to God and ask him to fix your needs for
more comfort, think about this, maybe He will allow those comforts to evade you
in order to remind you of your thirst for something much deeper, the need for
this living water that is found in Jesus Christ alone.
