Heart Matters

“The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” John 4: 17-18

I can’t believe I’m going to say this but here it goes-as a middle aged woman (ouch) there are certain terms the African American young culture have come up with that I find quite clever and spot on!  One such term is the word “thirsty”-as in someone being desperate to the point of degradation and humiliation.  I find it very accurate and appropriate for the day and age we live in today-one in which there is simply no shame.  With the popularity of social media and the visibility it affords it seems everyone wants to be famous.  The majority of the young women today seem to think they have what it takes to be a top model. They take selfies while in restrooms, at the dining table, and even while driving in the car. They can apply their makeup like they’ve been to cosmetology school and some of them are able to transform themselves in a way that without their glam they’d simply be unrecognizable. They’re selling something, it seems to be themselves, and so they don’t even shy away from revealing their barely clothed bodies even though they know hundreds, for some, thousands of strangers are watching.  “THIRSTY.”  Whether they know it or not- they’re thirsty-for attention, for acknowledgement, for affirmation.  I suppose the number of “likes” can temporarily provide some satisfaction, quenching their thirst at least for a moment-that is until they thirst again.  Yes, I do believe the word “thirsty” aptly describes many of the broken and misguided young women growing up in our world today.  Until they turn to the One who provides “living water” they will thirst, over and over again.

The woman at the well was thirsty. For those of you who haven’t read the story, please read it and be blessed.  You can find it recorded in John 4:1-26; Luke 3:19-20, Matt. 4:12; and Mark1:14a.  Jesus was taking a trip with His disciples from Judea to Galilee. Apparently there were several different routes one could travel from Judea to Galilee and most Jews would have avoided the one that went straight through Samaria.  The Jews rejected and distanced themselves from the mixed race Samaritan people who no longer worshipped the One True God in Jerusalem.  Yet here’s Jesus, a Jewish man in the flesh, stating that “He needed to to go through Samaria.” John 4:4. It would seem that this encounter He would have with the woman at the well would indeed be a divine appointment.  The Bible says that we do not choose Him but He chose us (John 15:16, Ephesians 1:4;). Jesus arrives in Samaria with His disciples, stopping at Jacob’s well to rest His tired physical body.  But what strikes me is that by the time the woman arrives, He is alone, the disciples having gone off to get something to eat. The woman heading to the well is about to meet her Savior and she’s going to get His undivided attention.  The One who carved our finger prints into our hands and allowed the nails to pierced His hands for us, is willing to meet with us One on one.  Mind blowing!

Jesus didn’t care about what the Jews would think (about Him traveling through Samaria). He didn’t care what the Samaritans would think (about Him speaking with a woman – one with a reputation at that).  All He cared about was giving her a chance to meet Him, believe in Him, so she could one day live with Him forever.  Seeing things with an eternal perspective will set us free from man’s perspective.  There’s no place for people pleasing if we’re going to follow Christ.  Jesus was completely free from public opinion.

So there He is-sitting at the well, the place of refreshment and replenishment.  And here she comes fully intent on taking back all the water her fragile arms and hands could carry, painfully aware that not long thereafter she’d have to repeat the process and soon come back over and over again.  Heading towards that well she would have been oblivious to the fact that she was about to encounter the One who could give her the water that satisfies once and for all. The water He would offer to her would never run out and she would never be thirsty again.

The Woman at the Well was Thirsty-She was at the well in the middle of the heat trying to satisfy her thirst.  She’d draw from the well and have the water she’d need to drink, cook with, wash herself and her clothing, but it would never last. She’d always eventually have to go back because, well, because she was thirsty (pun intended).  Okay I’m not trying to be facetious, I realize going to that well would have been a very practical part of her life during that time. They wouldn’t have had the luxury of indoor plumbing, and water is a basic necessity, crucial to sustaining all life.  Everyone in that town needed it.  However don’t miss the analogy.  For isn’t it also the same for us when it comes to the things we look to for satisfaction? Is it not true that when we look to the other things instead of going to Christ,  that we have to keep going back to them over and over again, just to get that temporary fix?  Do we not in a sense become a slave to the things we crave and have developed a thirst for?  Is it not true that the temporal can only satisfy temporarily? Perhaps the woman at the well was pondering that very thing as she approached the well. Just maybe she too was thinking of how tired she was with always looking to be filled and yet never finding true fulfillment.

The Woman at the Well was probably Tired- This story gives hints that this special lady had a sorted past.  It was at the “sixth hour” that she went to the well to draw the water she needed.  Many commentators believe that based on the Jewish calendar this would have been at the most inopportune time to do so for it was at noon and in the heat of the day.  It is also believed that culturally the women of that day would have gathered and went to the well together and yet she was alone.  From her conversation with the Lord we learn she indeed had quite a history in regards to her relationship with men.  Therefore it’s not that far of a stretch to think perhaps she was ridiculed and rejected by the other women in town.  It’s possible that every time she walked towards that well she was reminded of how all the other women rejected her.  But this time Someone was going to be there-just for her-waiting for her-ready, willing, and able to meet her where she was-to give her His unconditional love-and acceptance.  When we thirst there’s only ONE Person who can satisfy us  and He’s always there waiting for us to turn to Him.  

The Woman at the Well was Teachable-  She approaches Jacob’s Well and the Lord initiates the conversation by asking her for a drink of water.  The fact that He spoke directly to her must have shocked her to her core knowing the Jews had “no dealings with Samaritans.” Yet she engages Him (remember she’s probably most comfortable interacting with men) questioning how is it He’s speaking to her and asking her for a drink. Now I’m certain she wasn’t prepared for what came out of His mouth next because He didn’t hold back any punches.  If it would have been me, when I heard His response, I probably would have fell over backwards right down that well. Jesus being THE BOSS He is, says “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” John 4:10.  For those of you reading this who do not yet know who He is …can I say to you that  “If you knew the gift of God and who” He is (and how much He loves you), you too would be asking Him to give you that living water. Trust me!  

So the Lord is like boom-right to the point, right to the core-and it’s deep.  But she can’t handle it so she tries to stay in the shallow by deflecting.  She starts talking like “Bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh bleh lol.  I have a feeling she already knows He’s speaking about the spiritual but she responds trying to keep it to the physical as she brings up the fact he doesn’t have anything to draw the water with.  She mentions the “living water” (because there’s no way she can ignore it altogether) wondering how and where He gets it from.  She seems to begin to feel a little self aware because she name drops.  She doesn’t waste time bringing up the the fact that Jacob is considered their father too.  She asks Jesus if He’s greater than Jacob-the one who gave them the well.  Once again The LORD responds to her shallow question with a deep and profound statement.  He says “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.  But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4: 13  His water satisfies the longing of the soul.  His water is everlasting and eternal.  Are you thirsty yet?  

And with that, Jesus breaks through!  The woman at the well asks Him to give her that water so she would not have to go there to draw again (I told you she was tired of going there!).  But get this-this time the LORD brings her back to the physical and the natural-you know, the place where sin does its thing.  You see there’s something the Lord knew had to be addressed about her life first.  There’s something in her life (you know that thing that makes her not want to have to go to that well no more) that needed to be confessed and called out.  Sooooo, Jesus says to her “Go, call your husband, and come here.”  Ouch! I’m wondering what He would have told me?  Maybe something like “Go and get that book of all your good deed and religious activities you’re relying on.”  Once again-“Ouch!” Someone once said in order for someone to be saved, they have to first believe they’re are lost.” Sometimes, as painful as it may be, the evidence of our depravity needs to be pointed out (in love of course). Jesus knew just what was needed and that’s what He did.

But this is where it gets good.  Because the woman at the well is there, face to face with The Truth, and she gets it, she responds truthfully.  She tells him that she doesn’t have a husband.  Jesus then says “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”  The Lord is like I know you-I know your pain and I know your problem.  He knows everything about you as well.   Her response indicates she probably now feeling more discomfort than ever because she starts to ramble once again.  She tells Jesus she perceives that He’s a prophet and then she foolishly starts to talk about religion-to Jesus! (It’s like “girl! no you didn’t!”) Once again “bleh, bleh, bleh bleh bleh….”  Hmmm I wonder how many times the Spirit of God begins dealing with us about our sin and we try to deflect with religion?  

Well Jesus isn’t having it.  I love how He begins His next response with the word “Woman.”  He says “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.  You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.  But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.  God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  Okay so obviously I was wrong to refer to her religious statement as “bleh bleh bleh” because Jesus addressed it.  He listened to her and  took the time to explain the truth to her.  The Lord wants us to know His Word and trust me He cares about us having sound doctrine.  

And with this the Spirit of the Lord must have been all over this woman (symbolically speaking). She’s starting to get where she needs to be!  She brings up the subject of the coming Messiah!  She says “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called the Christ).  “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” John 4: 25

The Woman at the Well was Told The Truth-I can’t get over what Jesus said next! He just outright says it! To the woman of the world, to the woman who was living in bondage to the same sin over and over again, HE said “I who speak to you am He.”  Jesus doesn’t care who you are or what you’ve done, He wants you to know who He is.  Jesus wants to reveal Himself to you. He wants to let you know that He is the Messiah and He wants to save you! With this the woman at the well  left her waterpot right where it was-her need for water for her physical body became as nothing as she began to be filled with the living water of GOD! She started to believed and became an almost instant evangelist.  She went into the city and told the men (once again probably the ones who would listen to her) to come and see Jesus, the Man who told her all the things that she ever did. Verse 39 says because of her word, many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him.  In fact, Jesus stayed with them for 2 days, allowing for many more to believe because of His own word.

Wow! What an amazing encounter! I have to say this too, for those of you who have falsely determined that Christianity is “the white man’s religion” or one that’s chauvinistic or egocentric -take this!  In this Scripture we see Jesus going out of His way to pursue a Gentile woman who was more than likely deemed to be a sinful social outcast by her very own people. He loves women just as much as He love men-He created them both and they are equal in His eyes. Jewish Jesus and His disciples departed with the ways of their people who avoided the mixed race Samaritans at all cost and decided to go through Samaria.  You see The Creator GOD JESUS loves all people!  He pursues all people! Are the Jewish people His chosen people with whom He made and will keep all His covenants with?  Yes, for certain they are! You can count on it!  Because of them we are all blessed! Jesus died for both the Jew and the Gentile!  Jesus came to quench the spiritual thirst of every nation.  The woman at the well needed an encounter with Christ.  She’d lived her life trying to satisfy her thirst all on her own and it didn’t work.  She went from man to man looking for someone to complete her.  However, it wasn’t until she met The GOD-Man that her thirst was satisfied-forever!

C.S. Lewis’ book the Silver Chair in The Chronicles of Narnia has a beautiful illustration of this principle-the well which contains the water which satisfies our thirst is only found in the presence of The Savior.  We must needs go through Him!

HEART TO HEART: “WHENEVER YOU THIRST, GO TO THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATER”