Him the living water

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14

That verse is an excerpt from John 4:1-26 where the Son talks with a Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob.  Most of us have heard this story and can quote the above scripture, but the part that always gets me is:

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” ¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” ¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.   Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

To begin with the Jews didn't like the Samaritans.  We all know the Story of the Good Samaritan, where the Son uses the hated Samaritans to prove that all even hated people have good hearts, but in the story of the Woman at the Well the Son asked a Samaritan woman to get him some water.  Knowing of their status the Samaritan woman even says:

⁹ You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?”

The Son replies:

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

and a few verses later we are back to where the Son asks the women to go and bring back her husband.

Women in the Son's day couldn't divorce, they were divorced and when their husbands left them they had nothing, they were destitute.  This poor woman was desperate to find someone to support her, so she probably married again very quickly.  Again and again and again and again, until that moment in time when she was now living with a man that she wasn't even married to but that didn't matter to the Son.  He offered her what He offers everyone else, living water.

I'm sure we have all felt like the Samaritan Woman at least one time in our life.  So desperate for something that we jump in to quickly and end up being hurt all over again.  We look to satisfy our worldly desires instead of the desires of our souls.  We go from place to place looking to fill a need when we really need to only up heavenward., but just like the Samaritan women we often feel unworthy.

She came to the well in the middle of the day to avoid the stares and the mumblings, so when a Jewish man starts to talk to her she is shocked on several levels. This poor woman had been disrespected by men so many times, I imagine when the Son spoke to her with dignity her eyes lit up. She's intrigued by His gentle nature.  She's sucked in by His kind words.  She's fascinated by His unconditional acceptance.  She all but begs for the living water He is offering her and in return He says:

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”  ²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” ²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

 The man she's been looking for all this time is seated in front of her.  The Man that can satisfy all her desires is within reach.  Her response is to go back to her people and tell them about Him.

²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ³⁰ They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

A few verses later it says this:

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ And because of his words many more became believers. ⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

Your testimony is powerful, whether your a Samaritan or a Jew we all have a story that needs to be told.  Your testimony just might be what someone needs to hear to release their faith.