We take water so much for granted here since rain is a common experience. With the turn of the tap, we have safe clean water for drinking, bathing, and washing. Many people in third world countries are not so fortunate. Like the Samaritan woman, they trek to a well with jugs or cans and carry their water back home.
Being essential for survival, who can blame the Israelites for grumbling about the lack of water in the midst of the barren dessert? “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?” They were doubting the Lord’s presence and questioning Moses’ ability to lead. Psalm 95 recounts their resentful attitude, urging us not to harden our hearts as the Israelites did at Meribah, yet isn’t that what we do when we find ourselves disenchanted?
In a gospel passage that is full of surprises, we find Jesus quenching the thirst of the Samaritans in ways they didn’t expect.
First of all, a Jew would not customarily travel through Samaria. To travel from Galilee to Judea, Jews bypassed Samaria by traveling along the east bank of the Jordan River. That would be like us bypassing Seattle anytime we drive to SeaTac Airport. Thus, for a Jew to talk to a Samaritan, much less a woman was unthinkable. Jesus was not about to let the customs of his time stop him from showing that anyone who is thirsting for God’s love will find that thirst quenched in him.
As their dialogue reveals, the Samaritan woman initially perceived Jesus’ offer of living water on a purely physical level. Stagnant water from a well sustains life but flowing water is much more refreshing and healthier, which is why it is called living water. At first, she could not see that the living water Jesus speaks of is God’s blueprint to the meaning of life. He tells her, “Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst.”
Without anger or rancor, Jesus prodded the woman at the well to face the reality of her life: the missteps and stumbles she had taken, the messes she had made of her relationships, the sins that had estranged her from others. He cautions her that the lasting satisfaction we yearn for in life will not be found in the well of excess, whether it is material possessions, drink, drugs, sex, or work. Five husbands, five cars, five high definition televisions, or five of whatever we yearn for the most will never satisfy our thirst for long. They cannot provide us with what Jesus can, namely, peace that comes from a personal relationship with him, or the joy that comes from knowing him by serving others.
The effectiveness of this “living water” that Jesus is offering us to satisfy our yearnings depends on our willingness to drink of it. If we do little to nurture our relationship with God through prayer, action, and study, what “living water” we have within us will become stagnant. Just as we need to drink water throughout the day to sustain our physical health, we also need to drink “living water” throughout the day to sustain our spiritual health.
Many of us do not drink enough liquid. When we begin to feel thirsty, we are in the initial stages of dehydration. Likewise, many of us may be more spiritually dehydrated than we realize.
Like the Israelites in the dessert, are we hardening our hearts still, refusing to forgive those who have hurt us in the past? Are we testing God still, doubting his love because things aren’t going our way? Lent calls us to renew our faith in God. Are we coming closer to Christ through added time spent in prayer and self-reflection? Are we giving witness to the gospel in what we say and do? The Samaritan woman went away changed by her encounter with Jesus and so can we, provided we quench our spiritual thirst sufficiently through prayer, fasting and works of mercy. So, how thirsty are you? Make time to meet Christ at the well and allow him to renew you with his “living water.”