Living water

The story is a familiar one to many. It ground itself into my tired mind this morning. Studying for three Bible Studies and a meeting or two or three left me tired this morning over my coffee.

From John 4 comes this day in the life of the Lord.

"Jesus realized that the Pharisees were keeping count of the baptisms that he and John performed (although his disciples, not Jesus, did the actual baptizing). They had posted the score that Jesus was ahead, turning him and John into rivals in the eyes of the people. So Jesus left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee. To get there, he had to pass through Samaria. He came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon.

"A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of water?” (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.) The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)

"Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.” The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?”  Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”

"The woman said, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!” 

This notion of living water is an interesting one. It was to this woman. It is to me. I would change the setting to my own, Coushatta, La., instead of Samaria. I would change the woman to me, a sinner, come to buy water at the local convenience store. 

There I am. I'm so darn thirsty. I have so little. I'm looking for answers. And this man. This man comes up to the well I'm attempting to draw from one more time and he says he can give me just what I need. 

So, the question becomes once and for all time, do I believe him. 

This morning as I look at the swirl in my coffee, as I ponder just how tired I am, as I think about the decisions that lie before me on this day, the most important question that will ever come up, the one question I can't bypass without terrible consequences is this one: Do I believe him? will I give attention to the gushing fountains of endless life or will I simply walk on by? 

Jesus was walking with Peter one day and asked the question in another manner. He asked, "Who do you say that I am?"

The correct answer brings living water, brings the bread of life, brings the answer even to defeating our most persistent enemy, death.

You are the Christ, Peter says.

You are the Christ, the woman at the well thinks.

You are the Christ, I say.

And the generosity of a living, loving God pours fourth.