Living Water
Jesus said to 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.” John 4:10
Jesus was masterful at weaving what was happening around Him into the conversation. He was sitting by Jacob’s Well in Sychar, Samaria, talking with a Samaritan woman about what else? Water.
Jesus loves every single person on earth. He loved this woman and was willing to overcome the conventions of etiquette and racial barriers to reach her.
When He spoke of the gift of God,Jesus was probably thinking of salvation, of being right with God. Then He says ‘… and who it is who asks you …’ She was not to know at this stage that He was the gift of God. He was the One who alone could offer her real salvation, the One who could make her life right with God.
Jesus was saying to her, “If you knew who I really was, I wouldn’t be asking you for something. You’d be asking me.”
When He spoke of living water, the woman would have thought of running water, water from a spring or a running creek or river. That’s what living water was.
But living water could also mean water associated with ‘life.’ Jesus was saying He could give her a kind of water that would give her ‘life.’
A little while after this episode in Samaria, at the great Feast of Pentecost, Jesus cried out ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink’ (John 7:37). God’s answer to the world’s brokenness is His Son, Jesus Christ. God has no answer outside of Him. There is no answer outside of Him. To the thirsty Jesus is the water of life. To the hungry Jesus is the bread of life.
In explaining how the Old Testament testified of Him, Jesus said ‘You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life (John 5:39,40).
We are not physical people trying to live in a spiritual world. We are spiritual people trying to live in a physical world. But without Christ, we will never know spiritual fulfilment; our spiritual core will remain empty.
You may have become a Christian some time back. I hope you’ve made that first step. What about now? Is Jesus Christ central to your life? Are you living a life surrendered to His will and leading?
God’s answer to the world is His eternal Son. Are you living in Christ now?
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