I Am...The Spring of Living Water!

I am...the spring of living water (John 4:1-30, Jeremiah 2:13)

The jar on her shoulders, while empty, carried the weight of the world, as the woman struggled with every step toward the well.  She preferred coming during the hottest hours, because she knew she’d be alone.  Better to sweat under the mid-day temperatures, than under the heavy stares and whispers of the other women.  Theirs were the voices she heard in her head, anyway.  She knew what they said, and she beat herself up regularly with the same sentiments.  Her heart carried the same weight she felt on her shoulders...yet, it was just as empty as the jar she sought to fill.  Internally, at her deepest level, she was gut thirsty.  No matter how many times she drank deeply from Jacob’s well, she wasn’t satisfied.  It was this deep dissatisfaction, that kept her searching, looking to so many men to fill the hole in her heart.

As she moved slowly towards the well, her eyes stared at the sight of an individual perched there...waiting.  Her spirits sank.  She didn’t feel like talking.  She kept her head down, hoping to avoid eye contact that might possibly invite any conversation.  The Jewish man apparently didn’t take the cue, asking her for a drink.  What twists and turns their dialogue took, until the moment he asked her to go call her husband, and then proceeded to unwrap her past.  She definitely didn’t want to go there, so she tried to change topics.  Yet no matter what direction she digressed, he followed, and the invitation was still the same:  “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.”  Translation:  I am the satisfaction of life you are looking for...drink deeply! You will never thirst again.

Leaving the symbol of her thirsty life behind, the woman ran into town...”Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did (shame – gone!).”  Her next words were even more telling as she declared him to be the Messiah...now, the source of her soul’s true satisfaction.  (See John 4:1-30)

Many of us have found Jesus to be a sufficient Savior.  We’re grateful for the forgiveness of sin.  We’re hopeful for the gift of eternal life.  Yet the secret we harbor is the same as the woman at the well in Samaria.  We hold it inside.  We’re careful to not voice it.  To do so, doesn’t seem very “Christian.”  However, we’re just not satisfied.  We keep stuffing our lives with all manners of possibilities trying to find the one thing that will bring us happiness, contentment...fullness of life.  Yet Jesus came to bring us life and life more abundantly (John 10:10).  Anything other than Jesus is less.  Looking anywhere other than the cross is nothing more than a broken cistern (Jeremiah 2:13).  He is the spring of living water – turn away from anything you search for that you think will bring you happiness.  The guarantee is this:  it won’t.  It can’t.  Only Jesus can.  Anything else is sadly, simply – an idol.