Living Water

The third personal conversation John records Jesus having is found in the fourth chapter of John. It was with the Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well. At noon, by the well, Jesus was waiting for this woman to arrive. Noon is not the time for drawing water.  But for this woman it was so that she could avoid the insults from the other women who would draw water early and late in the day. This woman had been married five times and was living with the sixth man. Sychar was a small town. Some would probably call this woman a home-breaker; an adulterer for sure. No one had personal conversations with her.

But Jesus was waiting for her and asked her for a drink. The woman was surprised that Jesus spoke to her, first because men did not speak directly to women in public, but most of all because He was a Jew, and she was a Samaritan. These two did not associate with each other, although they shared a common heritage with Jacob. They were related, but had no relationship with each other. But Jesus continued His conversation, which focused upon the thirst in her life, no personal relationship.

Jesus said to this woman, “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.” 4:10. Like Nicodemus, she was not getting it. Jesus continued, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

At this point in the conversation, the woman asked for this living water and Jesus told her to call her husband. She said that she did not have a husband, which Jesus affirmed. He said that she had been married five times and was not married to the sixth. She quickly changed the subject to something less personal, which was at the heart of her thirst, personal relationship. She had been viewed and treated as an object for so long, she had come to believe it about herself. But Jesus was changing the picture by His personal conversation with her.

This conversation is the occasion for the theme of this book, learning to worship the Father in spirit and truth. This is the most personal, the most intimate, the most important relationship of all, knowing God and His great love for each person He has created through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As Jesus reveals to her the desire of the Father to find true worshipers, she discovers that He has found her and she ran into town to share the good news of her personal relationship with Christ. What she was looking for, thirsting for, found her. The seventh Man in her life, the one she had been waiting for, was waiting for her!

Conversation and relationship are inseparable. Without conversation there is no relationship. God desires for you to hear the conversation He wants to have with you, each day in His word. Like the woman, if you only knew the gift of God and the One who speaks to you from the God’s word, you would ask Him for that gift. Learning to worship the Father in spirit and truth is to ask for that gift and to stay with Christ as He moves you closer and closer to it.

Today, ask Him for the gift of knowing Him more and more from His word. Desire to learn of Him more than about Him. In doing so, you will find that you have been found, and will never thirst again! The One you have been waiting for, is waiting for you. Hallelujah!!!