Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
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.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 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?”
Jesus answered, “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.”
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.”
Yesterday I stopped by the local high school to watch a few minutes of a high school football practice in which one of my boys was a participant. It was a typical mid-August day – Midwest hot and humid. I couldn’t help but notice that the coaches provided the players with a couple of water breaks during the relatively brief time I was watching – which was very wise, given the heat, but which was nothing like when I played high school football over 35 years ago!
At the risk of sounding like an “old school” dinosaur (which my boys would argue that I most definitely am!), I have to say that conditions were much tougher when I played. I can remember times during two-a-day practices when our coaches actually denied us water breaks as punishment for poor play. Today a coach can be fired for a decision like that – but back then, it was a badge of manhood and a sign of toughness. I can remember being so thirsty at the end of practice that, once it was over, we ran straight into the shower room, turned on the cold water, and just stood there in full uniforms sucking down as much water as we could!
The truth is, everyone gets thirsty! This story starts with physical thirst – John tells us that Jesus is both tired and thirsty after a long journey on foot. The woman he meets at the well is coming to draw water to drink. But the story is ultimately about a different kind of thirst. The Samaritan woman who comes to the well is thirsty for more than water. She is thirsty for love – having been with now six different men. She is thirsty for forgiveness – for her sinful life has left her lonely and separated from her own community (which we will see later in the week). And she is thirsty for the God she does not know.
I think we all have known this deeper kind of thirst – even if we fail to understand it at different times in our lives. Science tells us we need water to live – that a human being can only survive a few days without water before dehydration takes its deadly course. But who can live without love? Is it not the thirst for love, acceptance, and approval that drive us at the very core of who we are? And so often we seek to slake our thirst from wells that do not satisfy – and sometimes even from wells that are toxic to our souls.
This story reminds us that there is only one love that meets our deepest thirst; only one love that is great enough to fill the emptiness we carry inside; only one love great enough to forgive our failures – and that is the love of God through Jesus Christ.
Will you take a few moments to simply sit down by the well and allow Jesus to pour out his love over you?
The truth is, everyone gets thirsty! This story starts with physical thirst – John tells us that Jesus is both tired and thirsty after a long journey on foot. The woman he meets at the well is coming to draw water to drink. But the story is ultimately about a different kind of thirst. The Samaritan woman who comes to the well is thirsty for more than water. She is thirsty for love – having been with now six different men. She is thirsty for forgiveness – for her sinful life has left her lonely and separated from her own community (which we will see later in the week). And she is thirsty for the God she does not know.
I think we all have known this deeper kind of thirst – even if we fail to understand it at different times in our lives. Science tells us we need water to live – that a human being can only survive a few days without water before dehydration takes its deadly course. But who can live without love? Is it not the thirst for love, acceptance, and approval that drive us at the very core of who we are? And so often we seek to slake our thirst from wells that do not satisfy – and sometimes even from wells that are toxic to our souls.
This story reminds us that there is only one love that meets our deepest thirst; only one love that is great enough to fill the emptiness we carry inside; only one love great enough to forgive our failures – and that is the love of God through Jesus Christ.
Will you take a few moments to simply sit down by the well and allow Jesus to pour out his love over you?
Pastor Brian Coffey
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