Tuesday, October 30, 2012

How To Quench Your Thirst

    Come, see a man, which told me all the things that I ever did: is not this the Christ?--John 4:29
                                   -----
    The hot sun was beating down on her as the woman carried her pot across the clearing to Jacob's well for her daily supply of water. Life in Sychar had not been good to her, especially with the women and the elders who ruled the city. After all, she was well known to her neighbors and they had branded her as a harlot--and rightfully so.That's likely why she chose to brave the noonday sun each day as she made her trip to the well.
    The "good people" of Sychar made it a point to draw their water early in the morning before it got too hot. This was the best time for her, however, because there was seldom anybody else at the well at this time and she didn't have to endure ridicule from any of the townsfolk who knew her. 
    This day, though, there was someone else at the well, a man quietly sitting there. It was almost as if he had been waiting for her to come by. It was obvious to her that he was Jewish. Oh, boy, what kind of trouble was she in for now?
    "Give me to drink," he said.
    How can he ask me a question like that, she wondered. Aloud, she replied, "How is it that thou, being a Jew, asketh drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans?"
    "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou would have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water," the stranger replied.
    Her response to that statement was one of shear wonder and perhaps unbelief. "Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
    "Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle"
    Lots of questions. But, then she was like a lot of people who are so quick to question Christ. Perhaps it's because He really is still such a stranger to them. And, for sure, they've never ever met anyone like Him before.
    John 4:13 records Jesus' next response to her as:
    "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I give him shall be in him a well of living water springing up into everlasting life."
    As you might expect, the woman gave a quick, affirmative reply, at least verbally. "Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come to draw," she said. Inwardly, she had to be wondering, just how does he think he's going to do it? Or, in other words, Oh yeah, let me see you prove you have such abilities.
    Jesus told her: "Go, call thy husband and come hither."
    "I have no husband," she retorted, probably thinking, I've got you now.
    "Thou hast well said, I have no husband," Jesus told her. "For thou has had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that thou sayest truly."
    "Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet," she acknowledged.
    Take a moment and read the rest of that exchange in John 4. There's a good chance you may find Jesus waiting on the sidelines somewhere in your life sometime when you least expect it, but need Him most.
    The woman, by the way, went back and told her neighbors: Come, see a man, which told me all the things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? They were so moved by her experience that they not only listened to her, but went out to see Him for themselves.
    Have you checked out this amazing man with the living water yet?

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