Living Water — Bible — Andrew Forrest

Our Bible Study has been moved to Wednesday, February 26, due to inclement weather expected in Tulsa.

John 4:7-26

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

This woman—a Samaritan, seen by the Jews as unclean—is out by herself in the middle of the day. She is ostracized from her community—who goes to the well in the heat of the day?—and is therefore totally shocked when Jesus approaches her. Women couldn’t initiate divorce in that culture, so she has been used (abused?) by a series of different men. She’s a mess. Jesus reaches out to her. (Love goes first.)

As the conversation begins, she thinks they are talking about water, but Jesus is talking about life in the Spirit. (In Greek, fresh, running water is called “living water.”) He says that the life that He brings will be like having a spring of water flowing up out of a person. He’ll say something similar in 7:37–38:

37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’ [John 7:37–38].

The Samaritan woman is intrigued by what Jesus is telling her, and she tentatively begins to talk to Him about theological issues. Jesus explains to her that God’s plan to save the world begins with the Jews, but that once the Spirit comes, the literal place where worship happens will not matter. The temple was the place where God’s presence “dwelt,” but Jesus is now the place where heaven and earth meet (see 1:14), and after His death and resurrection the Holy Spirit will be with all who believe in Him.

All this discussion prompts this poor woman to turn in faith toward Jesus, and He reveals Himself to her. It’s a powerful moment.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:
Why do you think Jesus uses the metaphor of water to describe life lived in the Spirit?