“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” John 4:10
One of the most well-known meetings of Jesus with an individual, and the account of that most significant meeting, was when He, with His disciples were traveling through Samaria. It is there that Jesus rested by a well, as He was weary from traveling. A Samaritan woman came to the well to get some water in a water-pot. Jesus spoke to her, first of all asking for a drink of the water, as He did not have anything to draw water from the well. It is in the conversation that followed that Jesus said a remarkable thing to this woman. He spoke of “the gift of God,” and then described it as “living water,” “…a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (Jn. 4:14) The woman was greatly moved by what Jesus said and wondered just who this man was who spoke so powerfully, and yet graciously. Her question to Jesus revealed the thoughts of her heart: “Are you greater than our father, Jacob?” It is then, when the woman asks to be given this living water, that Jesus revealed that He could not give it to her, because she was not capable of receiving it. The woman could not receive the gift of God, the Spirit of God, because her heart was still bent on being filled with the “ways” of the world, in her case, an adulterous, empty life of seeking her security and satisfaction in that which was in opposition to God. Christ desired to give her spiritual Life by the Spirit, eternal Life, but as long as she was not willing to recognize Jesus for who He declared Himself to be, the Messiah, and then repenting of the “world’s” ways of knowing true peace and life, she could not receive from God His gift. So, what did the Lord do, and how did He draw out this woman’s heart to seek the truth, and the answer for her need?
Jesus had begun his dealings with the Samaritan woman by making known to her the great spiritual reality of the “gift of God,” the Spirit of God, living water, life-giving, and life-communicating water to the lost soul, which was completely empty, dry, helpless, and hopeless. He then brought her to see that the gift was offered by God, the Creator and Redeemer of men, therefore, this was a serious matter, one that demanded her attention. But then He reveals the obstacle to her receiving such a gift. To overcome this barrier, Jesus teaches her more about the true worship of God, as being by the Spirit and according to truth, not being a question of “where” one worships. But it is when Jesus declares very clearly, and simply to her that He is the “Messiah that is coming, who is called Christ,” (v.26) that the conviction of her sin, and the increasing certainty that Jesus was the Messiah, would move her to respond in two ways. First, she put down her water pot and left it. The woman by that action turned away from this physical water, and the seeking of the answer to her life in that which the world declared was the answer. The second thing she did was to go into the city to confess, not only her sinful actions to those gathered there, but also, her conviction that Jesus was the Messiah. We understand this by her words to those who knew her well: “…Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ.?” The woman’s testimony moved many men of the city to go where Jesus was to hear Him. They would then testify to the woman: “Now we believe…for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” (4:42)
The immeasurable gift of God was Christ by the Spirit, Life everlasting.
Dear Father, Grant us living water. In Jesus’ name, Amen.