Monday 7th January
John 4:7-26
I recently watched a film with my wife called the ‘Bucket List’. Without spoiling the conclusion it’s about two men from different walks of life being united by a common factor. Before they die they both want to do all the things they wanted to do in their youth but never got round to it or couldn’t afford it. In their adventure they explore their biggest dreams and desires together. After the film finished I questioned what I would like to do before I died (a morbid thought I know for the beginning of the year). The more I thought about it the more I realised that although material pleasures temporarily satisfy and thrill us, they always leave us wanting more. The truth is that there is nothing I could do that would fill my heart and leave me not wanting more other than knowing Jesus and living out His purpose for my life.
Lets take a look at today’s passage and see what Jesus says about eternal satisfaction. Jesus on His way to Galilee from Judea crossed through the ‘no-go-land’ of Samaria. Jews didn’t like Samarians and visa-versa. This traditional journey from Judea to Galilee was sometimes planned to bypass/go around Samaria via the Jordan river, due to the hostilities of the two peoples, although it would have been a greater journey. However Jesus had a purpose in visiting Samaria.
He meets a woman at a well whilst taking some rest from His long journey. Jesus’ humanity is shown here as He is genuinely tired and thirsty (verse 6). He asks the Samaritan woman for a drink (another no no), knowing that her response would lead to confusion, as Jew’s were not supposed to talk with Samaritans, especially not to women. But Jesus in His wisdom goes beyond the realms of cultural boundaries and human living to expose a deeper thirst in the woman’s life. He knew that the woman thirsts was not just physical but also spiritual.
He offers the Samaritan woman the water from a spring that never runs dry. Jesus explains that the water He can give would quench her thirst eternally. The woman understands this statement with a fleshly understanding. Yet Jesus highlights His deity by probing into the woman’s life and exposing her adulteress nature. She then realises that she is talking to someone who has a prophetic gifting. However Jesus explains that He is not a prophet but the Messiah. Jesus knew that this woman had an understanding of the prophetic literature but He also knew that she thirsted for more in her life. In exposing her sinful nature, He highlighted a problem in her heart. There was an emptiness in her life that was being filled through her adulteress attitude.
It is an attitude that is much the same in our lives. So often we replace Jesus’ living, eternal water in our lives with temporary satisfactions. You can eat in the nicest place in the world and the next day you will hunger again. You can give into an addiction and it might temporarily satisfy you but you will soon desire its fix again. Jesus explains in John 7:37-39 that this ‘living water’ is the Spirit of God in our life. There is nothing on this earth that can satisfy you as much as God’s Spirit in our lives. It is unquenchable, imperishable and eternal. And the best thing about it is that it’s free. Isn’t amazing how we spend our earthly resources in temporary pleasures to gain happiness, joy and peace (which leave us feeling empty, dry and yearning for more) yet the gift of God’s Spirit is totally free and gives us true joy, peace and happiness. The only thing it costs is a decision to follow Him and a submissive lifestyle to become more like Jesus.
When the woman at the well knew whom it was that spoke to her she ran and told all people in the village. She knew that the one who could fill her emptiness had come, the Saviour of the world (verse 42). Our response to the knowledge of Jesus’ Living Water should be seen in and through our lives.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6
A Daily Devotional - The Recipe of Life 