Jesus sat by a well with a Samaritan woman to talk about thirst.

“Whoever drinks of the water I give will never thirst. Indeed the water I give him or her will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4.14)

The God of living water has always pursued the thirsty in the heat of the desert. The eternal stream of God's water, Jesus came to offer to the broken and thirsty.

The rabbis in Jesus' day were thought to give water to their disciples. If the waters, their teachings, were good then the disciples could drink from God's waters. If a rabbi gave poor teachings he was “exiled to a place of evil waters, and the disciples who come after [him] will drink and die.” (Aboth 1.11)

The water of Jesus brought life to the Samaritan. The water that Jesus offered held no judgment for the misfits and outcasts. These were the very people that Jesus went out of his way to find.

God's water is for anyone who wants to drink.

To the Samaritan woman, Jesus exposed her unhealthy pattern of broken relationships. He exposed her “broken cisterns” and showed her the way of living water.

The living water of Jesus offers wholeness and peace in this world. And this is the path of eternal life. To drink now from Jesus teachings is to have the well of God in our very being. As our thirst begins to be quenched, the spring of God flows out to the broken around us.

Questions:

How can we begin to drink deeply from Jesus' words? Who are the Samaritans in our world? Who are the misfits and outcasts that need the ancient water of God?