Obey Your Thirst
by Ptr. Roger Inso, Senior Pastor of Jesus Christ Ministries International
Scriptural Reference: John 4:3:14

Thirst is for everyone

As I pondered what it means to meet her needs and quench her thirst, my thoughts led to my own thirst for God.
I must admit that I have come to view the “woman at the well” differently than I once did. I have also come to feel compassion toward her, as our Lord did.

The “woman at the well” is a woman whose sins are apparent, but she has not sinned alone. In those days, husbands divorced their wives, but wives did not divorce their husbands. If this woman was married and divorced five times, then five men divorced her. This woman was “put away” five times. Think of how she must feel about herself. And the man she is now living with is not her husband. She isn’t even married this time, but just living with (or sleeping with) a man, perhaps another woman’s husband. This woman has been passed around by some of the male population of Sychar. Jesus’ words not only call the woman’s attention to her sins; they call our attention to the sins of the men of that city.

The third thing which puts the “woman at the well” at a disadvantage is the fact that she is a woman. John does not tell us the disciples are shocked to find Jesus talking to this Samaritan woman because she is a Samaritan, or because she is sinful (they don’t know this). They are surprised to see Him talking with her because she is a woman. There may be a race issue here, but there is also a gender issue. The Jews were inclined to hold a very demeaning view of women. The disciples seem to embrace this view. They cannot fathom why Jesus would be “wasting His time” talking to a woman.

The conversation with the Samaritan woman is quite different. Each interchange brings her closer to faith. The conversation moves from literal drinking water to the spiritual “water” of salvation. Her grasp of who Jesus is continues to grow, until she eventually trusts in Him.
7- A Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water to drink.”
8- For his disciples had gone off into the town to buy supplies.
9- So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you—a Jew—ask me, a Samaritan woman, for water to drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.)

In contemporary terms, our Lord already has two strikes against Him so far as being able to share the truth of salvation with the woman at the well. He is a Jew; she is a Samaritan. He is a man; she is a woman. There seems to be no common ground, no reason to talk.
10 Jesus answered her, “If you had known the gift of God and who it is who said to you ‘Give me some water to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said to him, “you have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do you get this living water? 12 Surely you’re not greater than our father Jacob, are you? For he gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock.”
13 Jesus replied, “Everyone who drinks some of this water will be thirsty again.
14 But whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.”
Our Lord’s answer is far from what this woman expects to hear. Jesus does not explain how He can ask to drink water from her cup. Instead, He immediately seeks to show her that she is the one in need of “water,” and that the “water” He gives is vastly superior to the water she can give.

Notice the elements of this revelation. First, our Lord moves from literal water (a drink of water) to a “spiritual” water—the salvation which our Lord offers this woman. Second, Jesus indicates to this woman that there is something of which she is ignorant. She knows neither the “gift of God” nor the identity of the One speaking to her. If she knew these things, Jesus tells her, she would be asking Him for a drink, and He would have given her “living water” to drink. The woman does not understand what Jesus is saying, but she does understand that He is claiming to be someone important, and to have something she would want if she knew who He was and what He could give her.

Jesus does not answer the question about being greater than Jacob quite yet. He momentarily sets aside this question and answers it indirectly by showing that His “water” is better “water” than that provided by Jacob’s well. Jacob’s well “water” temporarily quenches thirst, but only for a time, and then more water is required. This woman recognizes the “inferiority” of this “water” because day after day she must return to the well for more. The “water” of which our Lord speaks is vastly better. This “water” permanently quenches one’s thirst. The one who drinks His “water” will never thirst again—and this “living water” produces eternal life.
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16 He said to her, “Go call your husband and come back here.”
17 The woman replied, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “Right you are when you said, ‘I have no husband,’
18 for you have had five husbands and the man you have now is not your husband. This you said truthfully!”

Dear Heavenly Father, I need Living Water in my life. I have searched in all the wrong places to quench this thirst while You have been right there waiting for me the whole time. Thank You Lord, for loving a sinner like me enough to offer Yourself to me like You do. I realize now that You are all I need. In Jesus' Name, Amen.