Living Water for the Despised (for paper) March 23
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, going through Samaria. A righteous Jew would travel around Samaria rather than travel through it. At about noon stops to rest at Jacob’s well. A woman comes to get some water. Now it is very unusual for a woman to get water at noon and by herself. Jesus asks her for a drink of water. The well is deep and you need some type of container to lower into the well to get water.
The woman questions Jesus’ request. He is a Jew and she is a Samaritan. John notes that Jews do not associate with Samaritans. In fact a righteous Jew would not drink from the same container as a Samaritan had used. Jesus does not address the problem the Samaritan woman inquiries about. Instead he tells 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
The woman is confused. Jesus has no container. How will he get this living water? Who does he think he is? Her built in resentment of Jews kicks in and she asks “Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”
Once again Jesus ignores the implications of the woman’s question and answers “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4: 13, 14
What is it that Jesus is offering to this woman? What is “living water? The prophet Jeremiah twice identifies the spring of living water as God himself. And later in the Gospel of John Jesus declares: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit”. John 7: 38. So John clarifies that this living water that Jesus is offering this Samaritan woman is God the Holy Spirit.
The woman accepts the offer of this living water. In the conversation that follows it is revealed why this woman is getting water in the heat of the day. She is a very sinful woman who has had five husbands and is now living with a man she is not married to. But Jesus does not shun her, and not because he needs a drink. He would have been aware of her life situation prior to initiating the conversation with her. Yet he still offers her living water. Then he points out a problem. Sin prevents him from giving her this living water. Jesus comes to this downtrodden reject of society and offers her eternal life, then points her need to have her sin dealt with first. Jesus did deal with her sin, our sin, and the sin of the whole world that first Good Friday. He accepted the penalty for all that sin there on the cross. Jesus also comes to all those who do not know him today and offers them the free gift of salvation, of eternal life, of the Holy Spirit, that is living water. But first sin has to be dealt with. Now; on the other side of Jesus’ death and resurrection this is accomplished by repentance. Just as Jesus reached out to this despised woman who was caught in sin, today God reaches out to all sinners, regardless of the depth of their sin with his offer of the free gift of salvation. The love of God for us sinners is unfathomable. It is difficult to comprehend how God can still love us and reach out to us with his free gift of the Holy Spirit no matter how deep in sin we have fallen. God’s love for mankind is unconditional.
What was the response of this sinful Samaritan woman to the love and acceptance Jesus showed toward her and his revealing to her that he was the promised Messiah? She leaves her jar at the well and goes back into town, witnesses the experience to those who had been despising her for her life of sin, invites them to come to Jesus and asks “could this be the Christ?” And the people of Sychar respond. Many believed because of her witness, and later even more believed because of what Jesus taught them over 2 days.
That love and acceptance the Samaritan woman felt is also the love and acceptance we should feel today as Christians. The love of God toward us today is still exactly the same love Jesus demonstrated in paying the price for our sins on the cross and atoning the wrath of God for that sin. Our response to that love and acceptance of God toward us should be the same as that of the Samaritan woman. We need to tell others about that love. We need to let others know that the love of God is unconditional, that the gift of salvation is free! God will look after the response. Jesus said our mandate is “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1: 7B