One of the most tender moments in the gospels is in John 4 when Jesus, weary from his travels, goes into Samaria (something that no other Jew would do), and sits by Jacob’s well. The disciples have gone to buy food. He’s alone. He waits. Soon a woman comes to draw water. He knows everything about her… she’s a prostitute and living a sinful life. A short conversation developed between Jesus and this woman until He finally offers her what she really needs: LIVING WATER. The water she had come for would only satisfy temporarily, but the water He offered her would last a lifetime.
This woman… she comes to the well alone in the heat of the day. Why? Because she didn’t have any friends. No one wanted to associate with her… she was a sinner. Sin had risen up in her until she didn’t recognize it anymore. She must have felt all alone, rejected, and like an outcast. She may have looked beautiful on the outside, but inside, the dirt had covered every nook and cranny of her heart. She felt dirty. Unworthy. Not valued. She was miserable inside.
But then she meets Jesus. His words are tender, kindhearted. She felt a love in His eyes… a love that just wrapped around her. She never felt this kind of love. EVER! And then He offers her a gift no one else had ever given her… LIVING WATER. She drinks its. Immediately, she feels clean. All that dirt… bitterness, pain, hurt, and filthiness washed away. She is transformed by the LIVING WATER. She feels satisfied for the first time in her life. She runs back into town to tell everyone.
You may feel like this woman. The pain of your past keeps rising up. The hurt someone caused you keeps stabbing you in the heart. The guilt and shame have washed over you until you have become its slave. Believe me… you can be a Christian for the majority of your life and still feel like this woman. Maybe it’s because you need to stop what you’re doing, stop running, and sit down to drink… Drink the LIVING WATER Jesus is offering you. He is the life-giving water that we all need to drink. It’s a continuous thing, though. This water is the only thing that will make you feel clean inside. Let me encourage you today to drink up… drink as though you can’t get enough. Let the LIVING WATER fill you, cleanse you, purify you, and wash out all that grime and dirt. This is a gift that each of us need to accept, just like this Samaritan woman.