Tonight’s sermon looked at John 4:1-26 and the theme of living water. This encounter between Jesus and an unnamed woman at Jacob’s well in Sychar gives us a fascinating insight into His ability to draw people into conversation and move from the physical to the spiritual. Jesus came to the place tired and thirsty after a long journey, yet His priority was not HIs own needs but those of the woman. As He told His disciples, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.’ (John 4:34)
In the previous chapter, Jesus encountered Nicodemus, a Pharisee who was eminently respectable and religious and yet still needed to be born again. (John 3:7) Here, his conversation is with a Samaritan woman living with a man after having been married five times – definitely not the kind of person you would expect a rabbi to be talking to! The enmity between Jews and Samaritans went back hundreds of years; the conventions of the day meant a man speaking with a woman in public like this was unheard of. Yet Jesus defied conventions and prejudice to speak with this woman and reminds us that no one is outside God’s reach. We need to understand God’s heart for people and be willing to engage in conversations as we are led by the Spirit because the living water of which Jesus spoke is not for us alone. It’s meant to flow through us to others so that they too may have their spiritual thirst quenched.
Jesus’s conversation with this woman shows us that evangelism can be leisurely and conversational; it can be oblique and cryptic at times. (As Emily Dickinson put it, ‘tell all the truth, but tell it slant.‘)
Jesus engaged the woman’s attention and was not content to let things remain on a argumentative or impersonal level. By revealing her lifestyle to her – something that was revealed by God’s Spirit to Him – Jesus demanded a personal response. She wanted to prevaricate, talking about places of worship, keeping the conversation at a ‘safe’ level. Jesus always takes us beyond this safe level. How we respond is immensely important. This woman was so intrigued she left her water jar behind and went to the villagers to ask them if this man could be the Messiah. Her witness led to many others believing in Christ.
Jesus offers us living water and gives us insights into how to talk with those who don’t believe in Him, showing us how this living water makes a difference to our lives. It is the pathway to eternal life. It has the power to satisfy us and flow through us to reach others. How we all need this thirst-quenching, soul-satisfying water!