The Book of John: God Became FleshSample

People can generally survive weeks without food. But without water? Only days. Water is that important.

Israel is hot and dry most of the year, and water is scarce. Women would typically go to a local water source, like a well, to get what their households needed each day. They’d wake at dawn and fill their water jugs before the heat of the day set in.

Except for one woman, who began her journey to the well at the hottest part of the day. Why? Because she’s a social pariah with a tarnished reputation. It’s easier to deal with sweltering heat than face the judging stares and whispers of the other women. Even outcasts need water, after all.

Jesus knows this woman needs more than just water in a jug. So he defies social norms and comes to talk to her. He knows what she did, the mistakes she’s made. (He even tells her so. Imagine a perfect stranger walking up to you and recounting everything you’ve ever done!) All so he can prove to her that he is the Messiah everyone has been waiting for.

Jesus tells the woman of the same eternal life that he told Nicodemus. He explains that he is Living Water, which will never run dry.

She believes. Then she goes back to town to tell others what she just heard. She risked having doors shut in her face because she wanted that badly for them to know about this man who had just changed her life.

Sometimes the fear of rejection can keep us from reaching out to the people around us. But if we have believed in Christ, we know what the woman at the well knew: Jesus is the Living Water and the one we’ve been waiting for. The people around us need to hear it. Will you tell them?

Pray: Dear God, thank you for this gift of living water! Give me the strength and courage to invite others to sit with me at church so they can meet Jesus, too! Amen.