I think I'm dealing with a bout of the flu again. Congested, sore throat, headache, chills. I know the best thing to do is to get in plenty of fluids, but I'm having a hard time making myself drink any water. I just want to huddle in bed and sleep. I know fluids are the best thing for me though, so I'll make myself drink as much as I can to keep my body hydrated. Maybe if I pretend it's mid-summer, a hot day, I'm outside and the sun is beating down on me. Maybe I'll think how Jesus felt enduring the heat as He was passing through Samaria on His way to Galilee. It's hot, He is tired from His travels and He stops by Jacob's well. He wants a drink of water but He has no vessel to lower into the well to get any. He sees a woman approach and asks her for a drink. Thank goodness there were no Pharisees around...not that He would have cared. But the Samaritans were considered basically scum of the earth. And to speak to a Samaritan woman would have been even worse, they were considered continually unclean. But we know and love Jesus for His flouting the rules...well, man-made rules.
She asks Jesus why He would even ask her for a drink, as she is who she is; a Samaritan woman. But little does she know that He really knows who she is. They banter back and forth and He says if only she knew the free gift of God and who it is that is speaking to her. He can give her living water. Now back then that would have most likely meant flowing water as opposed to well water, but we know that He means so much more. The story in John 4 goes on to say that He can give her water that if she drinks it she will thirst no more. Now this interests her. She says, give me this water. Now comes the interesting part. He tells her to go and get her husband. She answers, "I have none." Jesus, as we would say reads her mail and says "you speak truly. You have had five husbands and the man you are with now is not your husband." What is amazing to me is that she is not offended, she is not cowering in shame. She knows that this Man is different. He has treated her with respect, He knows all there is to know about her and He has not humiliated her, He has just stated fact. Just as He stated fact when He said He could give her living water.
Oh how I love Him for this. She had five previous husbands, and now was living with a man and was not married. In today's culture this wouldn't even rate a blurb on TMZ or a headline in the National Enquirer. But then it was considered immoral, she must have done something very wrong to have gone through so many husbands. And the fact that she was at the well during the hottest part of the day meant she was avoiding seeing other women, as they would have gone to the well when it was cooler. I so relate to this woman. Before I met Jesus I too had many husbands. I'm not speaking literally here, but I had many things in my life that came before any thought of Him. One husband was promiscuity. I felt I had no worth so I gave myself away. Another husband was drugs and alcohol. I used chemicals to try to bury the fact that I had a gaping hole in me that I couldn't fill with any amount of Jack Daniels. I too was shunned by others. In fact one young lady told my then future husband Jim that I was more trouble than he could imagine. Thank goodness he ignored that bit of advice; I was blessed to meet my Saviour because of him.
Here I was, this disgraced slattern of a woman offered a drink of living water. Unlike today when I am having trouble getting enough water in, I gulped Him in. I could not get enough of that free gift from God. I took no delicate sip like a proper Englishwoman at high tea; I quaffed that living water like a dock worker drinking a pint after a long day toiling away. I could not get enough of Him. Of His love, His compassion, His delight in me. No one had ever delighted in me. I was worthless, a piece of trash to be used and then tossed aside. To Him I was treasure. Oh how my soul, my heart absorbed that in! How my spirit swelled with the knowledge that I was someone. Not only someone, but Someone's! I was His and He loved me!
I know I always seem to go back to this idea. But for those who have never felt it, or for those who struggle with believing that He can love like that, this is so important. It is vital! He LOVES YOU! Not only does He love you, it is with an everlasting love. Not a here today, gone tomorrow, if you meet my needs emotion. Truly, deeply, madly does He love you. He does not just love you to the moon, He loved you to the cross. He loved you before you knew who He was and He died so that you could taste of that living water. And this is living water that never runs out, it is an eternal wellspring. I ask you today, if you have never tasted of Him, do as the bible says, and taste and see that the Lord is good. If you are wrestling with the thought that you are not good enough, you have wandered too far, that He cannot love you...oh, my friend take a drink. This is not that mythological ambrosia, the drink of man-made gods that was thought to give you immortality. This is not Ponce de Leon's fabled fountain of youth. This isn't smartwater or VitaminWater that gives you momentary benefits... this is dynamic vitality free for the asking. This isn't gatorade, for that deep down body thirst; this is libation for that spiritual thirst that nothing else can slake. Take a drink and have your every need satisfied...in Him.
She asks Jesus why He would even ask her for a drink, as she is who she is; a Samaritan woman. But little does she know that He really knows who she is. They banter back and forth and He says if only she knew the free gift of God and who it is that is speaking to her. He can give her living water. Now back then that would have most likely meant flowing water as opposed to well water, but we know that He means so much more. The story in John 4 goes on to say that He can give her water that if she drinks it she will thirst no more. Now this interests her. She says, give me this water. Now comes the interesting part. He tells her to go and get her husband. She answers, "I have none." Jesus, as we would say reads her mail and says "you speak truly. You have had five husbands and the man you are with now is not your husband." What is amazing to me is that she is not offended, she is not cowering in shame. She knows that this Man is different. He has treated her with respect, He knows all there is to know about her and He has not humiliated her, He has just stated fact. Just as He stated fact when He said He could give her living water.
Oh how I love Him for this. She had five previous husbands, and now was living with a man and was not married. In today's culture this wouldn't even rate a blurb on TMZ or a headline in the National Enquirer. But then it was considered immoral, she must have done something very wrong to have gone through so many husbands. And the fact that she was at the well during the hottest part of the day meant she was avoiding seeing other women, as they would have gone to the well when it was cooler. I so relate to this woman. Before I met Jesus I too had many husbands. I'm not speaking literally here, but I had many things in my life that came before any thought of Him. One husband was promiscuity. I felt I had no worth so I gave myself away. Another husband was drugs and alcohol. I used chemicals to try to bury the fact that I had a gaping hole in me that I couldn't fill with any amount of Jack Daniels. I too was shunned by others. In fact one young lady told my then future husband Jim that I was more trouble than he could imagine. Thank goodness he ignored that bit of advice; I was blessed to meet my Saviour because of him.
Here I was, this disgraced slattern of a woman offered a drink of living water. Unlike today when I am having trouble getting enough water in, I gulped Him in. I could not get enough of that free gift from God. I took no delicate sip like a proper Englishwoman at high tea; I quaffed that living water like a dock worker drinking a pint after a long day toiling away. I could not get enough of Him. Of His love, His compassion, His delight in me. No one had ever delighted in me. I was worthless, a piece of trash to be used and then tossed aside. To Him I was treasure. Oh how my soul, my heart absorbed that in! How my spirit swelled with the knowledge that I was someone. Not only someone, but Someone's! I was His and He loved me!
I know I always seem to go back to this idea. But for those who have never felt it, or for those who struggle with believing that He can love like that, this is so important. It is vital! He LOVES YOU! Not only does He love you, it is with an everlasting love. Not a here today, gone tomorrow, if you meet my needs emotion. Truly, deeply, madly does He love you. He does not just love you to the moon, He loved you to the cross. He loved you before you knew who He was and He died so that you could taste of that living water. And this is living water that never runs out, it is an eternal wellspring. I ask you today, if you have never tasted of Him, do as the bible says, and taste and see that the Lord is good. If you are wrestling with the thought that you are not good enough, you have wandered too far, that He cannot love you...oh, my friend take a drink. This is not that mythological ambrosia, the drink of man-made gods that was thought to give you immortality. This is not Ponce de Leon's fabled fountain of youth. This isn't smartwater or VitaminWater that gives you momentary benefits... this is dynamic vitality free for the asking. This isn't gatorade, for that deep down body thirst; this is libation for that spiritual thirst that nothing else can slake. Take a drink and have your every need satisfied...in Him.