Living Water
As the sun nears the highest point in the sky, time has come to fetch water, one of my many daily tasks. I lift the large clay pot on my shoulder, then make my way out of town to the well. Even though sweat glides down my face, I choose this time of day so I can go alone. Many of the women in the village look down upon me as I have had a rough life.
In my attempt to put their opinions about me aside, I turn my thoughts to the well. Our forefather Jacob dug this well and it has served my people consistently for ages, providing water for our people and animals. We call it living water since it is spring fed.
As I approach the well, I see a man sitting nearby. I prefer to draw water alone, but since he is a man, it is obvious that he will not talk with me, a woman. I lower my pot down into the well.
“Give Me a drink,” the man says to me.
I jolt my neck to look at him, and see he is a Jew, so I ask, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink, as Jews have nothing to do with us Samaritans?”
He responds, “If you knew about God’s gift of eternal life, and who it is who says, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him instead, and He would have given you living water for eternal life.”
Confused, I ask, “Sir, you have no bucket and rope to draw with and this well is deep. Where then do you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and who used to drink from it himself, and his sons and his cattle also?”
He answers, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water satisfying his thirst for God. It will continually flow within him, and bubble up to eternal life.”
This water seems too good to be true, so I say, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not get thirsty, nor have to continually come all the way here to draw.”
The conversation takes a turn as he says, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
I admit, “I do not have a husband.”
He agrees saying, “You are correct, for you have had five husbands, and the man you are now living with is not your husband.”
Now I realize I am speaking with a man of God, so I respond, “Sir, I see you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where one ought to worship is in Jerusalem at the temple.”
He answers, “Woman, believe Me, a time is coming in God’s kingdom, when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans do not know what you worship; we Jews do know what we worship, for salvation is from the Jews. But a time is coming and is already here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit, from the inner heart and in truth. The Father seeks such people to be His worshipers. God is spirit and the Source of life, yet invisible to mankind. Those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth, with nothing hidden.”
Some of my religious teaching comes to me so I say, “I know that Messiah is coming. He is called Christ, the Anointed One. When He comes, He will tell us everything we need to know.”
In the next moment He reveals, “I who speak to you, am the Messiah.”
His words pierce my heart. He is our Messiah, the One we have been longing for through the generations. I drop my pot and run toward the village. “Come see a man who told me all the things that I have done! Can this be the Messiah?” I tell the wonderful news, over and over, to each and every person. It appears their hearts are ready, as many people believe in Him and trust Him as Savior, just from my testimony. The townspeople ask Him to stay for a few days, and He gladly continues to teach us.
Many more believe in Him with a deep abiding trust because of His personal message to them. Person after person come to me saying, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we hear Him for ourselves and know with confident assurance that this One is truly the Savior of all the world.”