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Living Water
Living Water
Michael J. NIelsen / General
Water; Life; Failure; Eternal life / John 4:1–42
Introduction
We meet a woman in the text for today who is a lot like you and me. She’s got baggage. Her
life has limitations, disappointments, failures, and sins. Sounds like yours and mine to. We
also again meet Jesus, God in human flesh having another conversation about eternal matters.
This is the second one we encounter in as many weeks. Last week was Nicodemus, this week
it’s an unnamed Samaritan woman. This morning we are going put ourselves into the shoes of
the Samaritan Woman, for we oftentimes fill her shoes. We know her experience. We live her
experience, so it’s really not that hard. We are going to encounter our own limitations, our
own disappointments, our own failures and sins.
We aren’t just going to encounter the law in our life, we are also going to encounter Jesus, the
one who can give us those living waters. Let’s embark on this ride together, this encounter has
a lot to teach us this morning.
Limitations
This Samaritan Woman had limitations in our text. First, let’s set the stage.
English Standard Version Chapter 4
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing
more disciples than John 2(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he
left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came
to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the
well. It was about the sixth hour.
Jesus was on a journey to Galilee and he was going through Samaria and came to Sychar. Jesus
is a Jew, he’s also a man. So I’m sure when He meets this woman from Samaria and he speaks
to her, she’s questioning to herself. She even asks, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink
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from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jews and
Samaritans they don’t get along. CUlturallly they don’t associate together. Here’s is this
woman’s first limitation. Second, she’s a woman. Culturally men and women don’t typically
communicate in public like this. This is virtually unheard of.
Conversing with Jesus, certainly does have it’s limitations. This conversation started simple
enough. Jesus was wearied and wanted a drink. He was thirsty. He asks this Samaritan woman
who was drawing water for a drink. This woman had no idea who Jesus was. She thought he
was an ordinary Jew, so her question isn’t out of context by any means.
You have your limits to. Perhaps you think you’re not good enough, perhaps you think that you
are at enmity with God. You know your limits when it comes to faith or even helping someone
when they need it.
So Jesus set his physical need aside and she sees her spiritual need. Jesus clearly makes it clear
in our text and in his words to this woman that she has no clue who was speaking to her.
English Standard Version Chapter 4
“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would
have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11
They have this conversation about water, living water, and she desperately wants, but she’s
thinking that it’s a water that will quench her physical thirst. She doesn’t realize that it will
quench her spiritual thirst.
Disappointments, failures, and sins
This woman not only had cultural limitations, but she also had moral disappointments, failures,
and sins. This woman in this way is a lot like you and me. You have had your fair share of
disappointments, failures, and sins.
This woman is certainly thirsty and not just physical thirst. She’s spiritaully thirsty. She needs
someone to step into her life and point out these disappointments, failures, and sins. Maybe
she already knows. Jesus says to her, “Go, call you husband and come here.” This is the proper
way to handle the situation to have a further conversation about this life changing water. The
woman responds, “I have no husband.” Jesus then hits her with the law, “You are right in
saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now you have is
not your husband. What you have said is true.” This is is her moral failure and sin. We aren’t
given any more information, perhaps she’s been widowed, perhaps she’s been divorced. We
do know now that she’s living in sin. She’s living with a man that isn’t her husband. Adultery in
that day and age was punishable by death. It still is today, but not by society, but by God…for
any sin earns eternal punishment.
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This is where we can put our feet into this woman’s sandals. This is where we can have a
conversation with Jesus exactly like this. You have disappointments, failures, and sins. What
are yours? Perhaps you,too, are caught up in adultery as this woman is… it may not be the
actual physical act of sex outside of marriage… it’s lust, it’s pornography, it’s those exotic
thoughts in your mind. It’s the fact that your own thirsts in life cause you to go after other
gods, like money or power or intellect. You want to show up the next guy down the road with
the bigger newer truck. You enjoy talking about people behind their backs, you like to gossip
about others - whether you know it or not. You tell yourself, I don’t need God, I don’t need the
church, I can get past this sin on my own. You are also using your families, your children, your
grandchildren as a way to satisfy your thirst. Watching them in sports 7 days out of the week,
but never sitting down and teaching them the things that matter the most, the very Word of
God and his promise for them and you.
You also have disappointments and failures. Maybe you are like the woman and have a failed
marriage or two or three. You have failed relationships of all kind. You’ve failed your kids, your
parents, your teachers, and your coaches. You have your own disappointments - you didn’t get
the starting position, you missed out on a raise, you missed out on something that would have
benefited you financially. You missed out at an opportunity to share your faith or even provide
a listening ear. Disappointments, failures, sins to the human come in all shapes and sizes and
they all make you thirsty. Thirsty for something more, so that we are never thirsty again.
Living Water
If we look to our own self to quench our thirst, we will by thirsty again. That’s what JEsus was
telling the Samaritan Woman. The water Jesus provides will quench your spiritual thirst and you
will be brought to eternal life. Jesus then moves the woman from the law that is softening and
breaking the hardness of her heart . She knows that the Messiah is coming. She has heard the
promise. She perceives this man to be a prophet one who has come from God. She even
perceives him to be one who has a guideline of where to worship, and he does, and it isn’t in
Jerusalem or on the Mountain, but will worship the Christ who is now in the world. He even
says, I am he. I am the one who can provide you with living water. I am the Messiah. I am the
Christ.
She hears this and believes and she goes off and tell people to “Come, see this man who is
telling her her sins. She received this living water and sparks her to go and invite others to
“come, see”
Later on in the text, we see that many people received this living water because of the
testimony, and many more when they came to hear him and came to believe that He is the
Savior of the world.
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I thirst
That’s exactly who is! He is the Savior of the World! He’s your Savior. He knows what it’s like
to be thirsty as well. We see it here, He’s thirsty from being on the road. He also knows what
it’s like to be thirsty spiritually. It’s not a all ironic that one of the final words on the cross that
Jesus spoke was: “I thirst.” Jesus didn’t just have a parched through, Jesus was in agony over
those limitatations, disappointments, failures, and sins. And not his…He lived a perfect life.
Jesus Christ was parched with spiritual thirst because of you and your sin. He cried, “I thirst”
for you. He died for you so that you will never have to go thirsty again. He rose again, so that
you can rise too and be welcomed with teh springs of eternal life.
The incredible power of His love is that you have been given those waters to drink. You’ve
been washed in those waters of life. You’ve been given those life-giving water. You’ve been
declared innocent based upon the blood of Christ, based upon teh springs welling up for eternal
life.
You have life because Jesus was thirsty for you. You have life because Jesus poured out lifegiving water from his very body. Your parched spiritual life is quenched because of Jesus, the
living water. This water that you have been baptized into is a one time gift with ongoing
blessings. It’s really never ending. Yet Christ also provides you with other means to quench
your thirst,since you still life in the desert of life. You still sin, you still fail, you still have
limitations and disappointments, so he gives you His Word, He gives You His body and blood for
your salvation that you even now eat and drink.
Jesus Christ is indeed the one that thirsts for you and He is indeed the one that when He comes
to you changes your life as He gives you life-giving water. A life-changing water, a liferenewing water, a living water. Christ Jesus, will continue to sustain you in your life of faith and
as you have been changed.
So my prayer for you this day is that as your hearts are softened by the law, whcih prepares you
to hear the life-changing gospel message, that you may tell others about His love and invite
them to “come, see” for yourself this Jesus. This doesn’t have to be the stranger at the gas
pump, it starts in your families and it branches out from there. You can impact the faith of
those in your home and families…even your adult children and other relatives who have strayed
away. You, by the life-giving water, are empowered to say, “come, see”. “come, see” the one
who changes lives, who offers living-water who even thirsts for you in your own limitations,
disappointments, failure, or sin. For there is nothing too big that Jesus can’t break through.
In Jesus name. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding, guard your hearts and your
minds and keep them focused in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen.
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