Have you ever wandered around the house muttering to yourself, “I want something.” If you’re like me, you will try chips, maybe some ice cream or a bowl of cereal. But nothing satisfies. Then you drink some water and realize you were just thirsty. I can’t tell you how many useless calories I’ve consumed trying to satisfy that craving before I finally work my around to what I should have started with.
Give me that water!
When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, He told her that if she drank from his well she would never thirst again. Of course, he was speaking in spiritual terms while she was thinking in the natural. “Where is that water? Please give it to me so I never have to come back here again!”
To understand her response, we must look beyond the obvious. Her response was not born of laziness but of desperation. Consider the setting, she has waited until the heat of the day to perform a task that is normally the first thing you do in the morning. She’s waited until there is no chance of encountering her fellow townspeople before going to the common area. As Jesus reveals in further conversation, a major reason for her avoidance is probably shame. Surely her promiscuity is well known in her village.
Five marriages. I think she must have been a beautiful woman at one time to secure five husbands in the context of the day. Unlike today, divorce for a woman usually meant she was used goods. Most women who were turned out or “set aside” by their husbands would have to resort to prostitution to survive. This woman, however, had been able to obtain the inference of the respectability of marriage five times in spite of her previous failures. With each failure, she became more used, more damaged, and less desirable and now, at the well with Jesus, she is such an outcast she has waited for the well to be deserted before going to draw water for her household.
Anyone who has had a failed marriage understands the shame of divorce, even when you weren’t really at fault or didn’t want it to end. Can you imagine being a woman in the first century with no rights and very little value? Whose entire well-being depended on her ability to be pleasing to her husband? Have you ever heard the phrase “She can’t keep her man?” No wonder she cried, “Give me that water!”
I can satisfy you.
It is in this encounter, that Jesus says, “I can satisfy you.” Of course he doesn’t mean she will never thirst again – physically or spiritually. He is saying I will give you what you are longing for. Never again will you try to satisfy your thirst with the wrong things because you will have access to my Spirit. He will become like a spring within you, fully satisfying you but also gushing out from you spilling out into the world. No longer will you try to satisfy yourself with the wrong choices – sin choices – looking for identity, protection, provision at the wrong wells. Drinking from these only produce shame, guilt, rejection, and abandonment in greater and great measure.
“No” Jesus promises, “Drinking from my well will free you from the compulsions that drove you to wells of sin. No longer will you be a slave to your propensity to sin but you will be free to drink deeply of that which satisfies you completely – restoring you to the glory you were meant to walk in. My living water produces life and restores damage.”
Even as I write this, I find I thirst again for Him!
However, He does not replace one compulsion with another. He replaces bondage to sin with the ability to choose. Even if we drink of Him, we can always return to the old wells, the old ways of thinking. We can still choose to agree with the devil that God isn’t able to fully satisfy our needs and continue in our sin. We can still try to self-medicate our brokenness with sin-choices. The difference is NOW it is a choice. We know a better way, a way that produces life not destruction. Now, to sin is a purposeful decision to return to the familiar instead of the Holy.
How do we break away from the well-worn and familiar paths leading to that which does not satisfy? I believe He would say drink deeply and drink often. Come to Him FIRST not last and come OFTEN.
Today, I am praying that I will increase in the discipline of prayer – that I will drink deeply and often. I am also praying for believers to become more sensitive as to which well they are drinking from.
What will you pray for?
Drink deep and drink often are the perfect antidotes to keeping ourselves from sin patterns and being filled up with more holiness. Thank you for painting the picture of Christ’s kindness and love towards us when He offers us His water/refreshment.