John 4:1-42 tells about an encounter Jesus had with a Samaritan woman who came to a well outside of Sychar (also known as Shechem) to collect some water. She was a sinful woman having had five husbands and living with a man who was not her husband. But the story indicates that the woman knew some things about the God of Israel and about the coming Messiah.
Perhaps the Samaritan woman had gotten to that place in her life where she had enough of the emptiness, bondage and lies of sin. She began to call out to the God of Israel. That’s all it takes. Just call out to the God of heaven in your distress. He will hear hear your cry. Maybe you expected an instant response? He heard you!
Time goes on and the longing for something different builds. Then one day, just like the woman, as you carry the empty jar of your sin seeking water for your soul in the heat of the day, there He is, sitting there waiting for you. Jesus. God has heard your cry. He offers you living water without cost – forgiveness, salvation. You won’t need to carry the weight of sin anymore.
I believe this was true for the Samaritan woman. She was living in sin, unable to break its chains…trapped. We find out from the account in John 4 that she knew about the history of her people, the Torah and about the prophecies of a coming Messiah. She was waiting – perhaps even anticipating that the time of Messiah was near, knowing he would bring truth, that he would “declare all things” to those waiting for him. Life goes on as normal, day after day, nothing changes. And then one day, surprisingly, there He is, sitting at the well of the water of life waiting for you. Are you ready to hear his word of life? If he is there, then you are ready.
This encounter with the Samaritan woman was not random. Jesus was deliberate in the road he took to Galilee which would pass through Sychar. He knew from the very moment he chose that road that this meeting would occur. Why? Because God heard her cry and saw the longing for truth and deliverance in her heart. Jesus said to her: “I who speak to you am he (the Messiah)”. I think deep down, she already knew that.
What about you? Tired of sin, emptiness, darkness? Isn’t it ironic that the more you fill your life with sin the more empty you become. Filling your life with sin may promise satisfaction, but that promise is never fulfilled is it? The jar is always empty and you keep going back to the well, just like the woman. Full jar, empty life. Never satisfied, always empty, One day, you realize you have had enough of the sin and the emptiness, the void you know is there in your heart, but you feel trapped, like there is no way out. Feel that way? Has this day come for you? Cry out to the God of Israel, to Messiah.
You know, in the book of Revelation, it says that the water of life flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He owns the water of life. Its a little different than the water the woman came for from the well – a little different than the water you’ve been drawing. Try some. Put that jar full of sin down and approach the Savior, the Lamb of God who will take your sin away. Put your complete trust in Him. That’s what this Samaritan woman did. That’s what all people who have ever come to faith in Christ do. You are not alone.
Jesus promised the woman that he would give her this “living water” that it would become a fountain within her that would spring up to eternal life. An Artesian well of living water, continuously flowing in her so that she would never thirst again. This is a spiritual truth, a metaphor for Christ Himself, the wellspring of life.
He who believes in Him will never thirst again. Ready for a surging wellspring of life?
And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wants it take the water of life free of charge.
Revelation 22:17
