LIVING WATER

John 7:38

 “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

                It was a relatively warm day yesterday, so I decided to go for a run. Actually, I have been aching to get out and go for a run all winter. I could tell that it had been a long time, as my legs and lungs began to protest, but it felt good to be stretching my muscles again.

                As I was running, I crossed a foot bridge over the Tongue River. I have crossed that bridge multiple times during the winter. Each time, I would look down at a frozen sheet of ice covering the water underneath. Obvious on the surface of the river were the tracks of animals seeking out the life-giving water. It was different yesterday. I looked down on a freely flowing stream. There were still pockets of ice here and there, but the river was flowing freely again. Now the animals can come freely and drink to quench their thirst.

                In ancient Israel, running water was referred to as living water. Running water was viewed as purer than a pool or pond. Running water was seen as life giving. Running water was always being refreshed.

                One day, while Jesus was traveling through Samaria, he encountered a woman at Jacob’s well. A well was the center of life for any town or village. The women of the village would gather in the early morning and in the evening at the well to draw water and to interact with one another. In a sense, the well was the social hub of the community. On this occasion, it was midday, not a normal time for a woman to be drawing water from the well. We can speculate why this woman arrived at the well when she did, but I have the suspicion that she was trying to avoid the other women. For her, the well was not a live-giving place, but a life-draining one. So, she was most likely startled when she arrived to find Jesus sitting there.

                Jesus engaged this woman in conversation, which also took the woman by surprise. Jesus was violating several cultural norms of the day. Jesus asked this woman to provide him with a drink of water. This led to an exchange that confused and unsettled the woman.

    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." (John 4:9-10)

                This woman came seeking water from the well. Jesus offered her living water. This confused the woman even more. There was no stream nearby, no place to get “living water”. So, she challenged Jesus. His response completely changed the dynamics of the conversation.

    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." John 4:13-14

                In her eagerness to avoid the conflict in her life that the well represented, she asked Jesus to give her this living water. 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." John 4:15

                Much later, in another setting, Jesus promised to give living water to all who would come to Him in faith. On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. John 7:37-39

                We live in a thirsty world that is seeking to quench its thirst from stagnant pools and dry wells. People’s souls are parched and dry. They are looking for something that will satisfy them. Yet, like the woman at the well, they keep going back to the same, unsatisfying places. Speaking for God, Jeremiah expressed what is so common in our world today. "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. Jeremiah 2:13

                Jesus came to meet our deepest spiritual thirst, a thirst for a sense of purpose, meaning, and hope. He is the source of living water that leads to eternal life. Jesus promised to give us the Holy Spirit who becomes that living water within us. He is constantly giving us new life. He is constantly refreshing us. He flows in us and through us. Jesus is the life-giving water that quenches our spiritual thirst.

                All winter long the Tongue River has been encased in ice. Now that spring has arrived, the ice is melting and the water is freely flowing again. Many people live their entire lives as if their soul is encased in ice. Jesus has come to melt aware the ice that traps our soul and to replace it with the free-flowing, life-giving water of His love, His grace, and His presence.