Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.”
John 4:13-14
Got Water?
Picture the most parched version of yourself. Imagine that you’ve been running for miles and miles in the dry desert heat. You’ve got the sweat, blisters, and out-of-breath lungs to prove what you’ve just put yourself through. You are on the hunt for something—anything—to quench the unquenchable thirst you now currently experience. You would knock back anything if it meant relief from this need you can already feel welling up inside.
Now enter Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
A Similar Scene
It wasn’t like the woman at the well had been running for miles and miles in the dry desert heat. But she knew the same need, that exact innate desire for something—anything—that would satisfy her longing. She’s gone all the usual routes to find that satisfaction: in reputation (for better or for worse), in other people, in anything she could cling to that could ease the need she felt from within.
And while her story may end with an empty jar, the woman herself becomes a well of living water, springing up and overflowing so that others would hear of this gift that the promised Messiah brings.
He Pursues Anyway
Jesus Himself is the living water He mentions here in this gospel conversation with the unsuspecting woman at the well. He tells her that He alone can meet her needs and make up for the ways that both she has failed and that others have failed her; all that has led her to look for satisfaction apart from Himself has now become that which she is free to turn away from.
She knows the right churchy answers and ways to derail the conversation. Yet Christ sees her heart through and despite her avoidant efforts. He divinely orchestrates that they would meet right then and there; He pursues her for the exact same reasons that others would turn the opposite way.
Water for The Unworthy
This is the heart of the gospel: that God would pursue us in our unworthiness, to quench the unquenchable longings of our hearts. No matter who we are, what we have done, how we have strived in vain or strayed off the path—He comes with the gift of living water, that we, too, would drink and never get thirsty again.
He offers this gift so that we, too, would becomes wells of water springing up for eternal life, that others would see this life for themselves and desire it, too.
Now What?
Consider what it means for Christ Himself to truly be the living water. Are there areas in your life that you have not yet allowed Him to take control of? Thank Him for this gospel that pursues us, despite our sin and shame. Then, pray that this well of living water within you would spring up and overflow so that others would hear of His good news and find life everlasting, too.
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