So He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give Me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to Him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can You ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “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.” “Sir,” the woman said, “You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can You get this living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” (John 4:5-15)

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     Think about this for a moment. Jesus was thirsty. Jesus – the Son of God, Saviour, Messiah, King of kings and Lord of lords – was thirsty! What could be simpler than that! And how easy is it for us to relate? How often during the day do we feel the need to get a drink of water, or a glass of pop, or a cup of tea – or whatever! We don't even think about it. We just feel thirsty and we take care of the feeling. It's the simplest thing in the world, and Jesus was just like us in this way. Jesus understands even our simplest and most mundane needs. Some might interpret Jesus' request for the Samaritan woman to give Him  water as nothing more than an introduction to His discussion with her of a much more serious and in depth theological question – as a way of talking to her about God and causing her to reflect on His own identity – but, while that was certainly the result, I suspect Jesus was being quite sincere in His request – He was thirsty. He had traveled a long way on dirty and dusty roads, He had been scorched by the desert heat – and He needed something to drink. To me, that simple need makes Jesus so much more approachable than, say, the portrayal of Jesus doing battle with Satan in the desert. Doing battle with Satan seems – on the surface anyway – to be work best left to Jesus. Being thirsty? That I understand.

     Still, there's more to the story than simply Jesus' thirst, I agree. Another thing that strikes me in this passage is that even when confronted by a very basic and very serious human need, Jesus still looked beyond His own immediate condition and was able to see the more important needs in someone else's life. The Samaritan woman appears to have had the same need that Jesus had – she, too, was thirsty. She needed water and she had come to the well to get it. But Jesus was able to see more deeply – the woman's physical thirst was only scratching the surface of a much deeper spiritual need – a need that she had forgotten about as she struggled to meet the everyday, mundane needs that we all have. This woman was like most of the people Jesus encountered during the course of His ministry – and, in fact, she's like most of the people we encounter today (and, she's like most of us really.) The only thing the Samaritan woman was thinking about was her basic physical needs – the necessities of life as we call them. Nothing mattered to her at that moment except that she was thirsty. That's understandable, of course, but Jesus wanted to use this moment to focus her sight on a very different need – her need for God. The woman had no concern for anything beyond this life – even, in fact, for anything beyond this moment. She needed water – and everything else could wait. That seems to me to still be one of the big challenges we face in trying to introduce people to Jesus – people are so concerned by what they perceive to be the needs that are front and centre in their lives that they've largely forgotten about God. Or they're so consumed by the perceived need to get more of what they already have that they have no time left for Jesus. Sometimes I suspect that we all find our immediate wants and needs pushing Jesus off centre stage – and we're the ones who call ourselves His disciples!

     The world is full of people who give up on God before they even give God a chance. Perhaps because they perceive that God hasn't met their needs; perhaps because they feel God's people haven't made them feel welcomed or valued. As Ghandi once said “I admire your Christ, but you Christians are not like your Christ.” For many reasons,  doubt can often outweigh faith – even after a lifetime of faithfulness. How much harder is it for those who don't know God and who haven't experienced Jesus and who feel rejected or judged by God's people to truly understand the power and strength that faith gives us! Jesus – knowing her real needs - promised the Samaritan woman “living water.” And she replied with obvious doubt, “You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can You get this living water?” And the truth is that we so often do the same thing. Rather than putting our trust and our faith in Jesus, we approach Him hesitantly and doubtfully, not really sure that He can do the things He's promised; not really sure – even if He can – that He'd really want to do the things He's promised. More often than not, when we get disappointed in Jesus, our disappointment really stem from our own doubts about Jesus rather than from any failure on His part. It's usually our faith that's lacking; not Jesus' power. And if we harbour those doubts and uncertainties, how much harder must it be for others?

      As I tried to point out last week, God places no conditions on us to be recipients of His grace, but our culture is full of people who want to place conditions on God. So many people base their faith in God only on what God is willing to give. So many of us even within the Christian community put conditions on our willingness to believe. And so many people in our society are withering away due to spiritual thirst – a thirst caused not by lack of water but by the lack of any real, abiding and life-giving relationship with God. That's what Jesus is talking about when He offers the Samaritan woman living water. If water is a necessity of physical life, then living water is a necessity of spiritual life. To be truly spiritually healthy is to know the grace of God that came to earth in Jesus Christ. This is what Jesus is offering the woman – the grace of God to let her know that she too is one of God's people. This woman was a Samaritan. This woman was traditionally looked down upon by those who felt called to be God's people because of who she was, but then Jesus came and initiated this conversation with her in which He promises her that she also is one of God's people who are as deserving of the gifts of God as anyone else. “... whoever drinks the water I give Him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give … will become … a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Once the grace of God gains a foothold in your life, your life will never be the same. It enters you, it grows and it leads to eternal life. The Samaritan woman – and her people – weren't cut off from God because they weren't of the right group of people; they were welcomed by God as they were. Jesus put no conditions on her or her people. They didn't have to convert to His religion, or change their way of life. It was just a matter of them realizing that  His God was their God, and once they understood that it was only a small step to understanding that He had been sent to them to reveal this God.

     The story is a long one, but if we were to read through the fourth chapter, we'd eventually come to the part of the story at which the Samaritan woman rushes back to her people, explains to them everything Jesus has said to her, and asks them in amazement, “Could He be the Christ?” She wasn't sure yet; she had to question; but suddenly she was open to the possibility that here was the One sent by God for her. And the Samaritans she spoke to rushed out in amazement to see this Jesus (Who belonged to this group of people who had long despised them) and found themselves equally amazed by Him and finally professing that “we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.” What's most amazing is that really Jesus offered them nothing in one sense. He performed no miracles, He cast out no demons. He just stayed with them – for two days apparently – and told them about the love and grace of God. And they believed. You see – it's not difficult. Sometimes people just feel so rejected and despised by God's people that they give up on God. But a little bit of the living water of grace and love can go a long way to convincing others that Jesus really is “the Saviour of the world.”