Who you ask to quench your thirst matters. After you have been running around on the playground, in the backyard, on the field or on the court and you go to mom or dad asking for something to drink, you trust they will give you what you need. On a warm winter day in Texas in March when it is 80 degrees, mom or dad would not reach for a nice cup of mayonnaise to quench your thirst. Instead, they would hand you a cool cup of water. When you are thirsty, going to the right person matters because the right person will take away your thirst.
Our water source matters. For most of us we have the luxury of multiple faucets in our home, school and offices with water that comes from treatment plants constantly testing water quality. Compared to the rest of our world, we have much to be thankful for when it comes to the availability of safe drinking water. This was not the case for the Israelites in the months after God freed them from Egypt. At first Israel camped in places with springs, but after making their way through the desert for almost two months, the Israelites came to a place without a water source. Quickly, they all pulled out their phones and flooded Moses’ inbox, voicemail and social media with complaints. They questioned Moses’ leadership to bring them to a place where they and all their animals would all die of thirst. They even questioned leaving Egypt despite their lifetime of complaints while enslaved there. To answer their grumbling, Moses went to the source for all the water in the universe who graciously provided them with water as we read in our Old Testament reading from Exodus 17, 5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” The source for Israel’s water was not an aquifer tapped into by digging a well or an existing spring. God was their source for water. Rather than grumbling, the people ought to have confidently called out to God who would quench their thirst.
Over 1400 years later, the water source for Israel opened a new spring in Samaria. With growing opposition from the Pharisees, Jesus left Judea and headed back to Galilee. There were three main routes he could have taken, but in our Gospel reading from John 4, we read, 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. Unlike water that takes easy and predictable paths settling in the low areas, Jesus took the difficult path. Tension between the Samaritans and Jews had existed about three times as long as the United States has been a country, so most Jews would go around them. Yet Jesus had to find this one Samaritan woman. Her water source had been reliable for over 1900 years. Unlike the Israelites traveling through the desert, she did not need a miracle or guide to find water. The Samaritan woman regularly went to Jacob’s well to fill her jar with water. Her trip to the well happened the same way as it always went until she saw a man by the well. At first Jesus, asked the woman for water, which surprised her because Jews did not associate with Samaritans, a traveling teacher like Jesus would not converse with a woman, she was a known sinner as evidence by the time of day she went to the well, which Jesus knew as the all-knowing God, and he had nothing with which to draw out the water. Jesus further surprised the Samaritan woman by claiming to be able to give her living water that would keep a person from ever being thirsty again. Though it was an odd thing to hear, we hear her response to Jesus in John 4, 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” More tempting than an algorithm based sponsored ad, the Holy Spirit moved the woman to click ‘Yes’ to Jesus’ offer. In response, Jesus asked that she go get her husband, which revealed what Jesus had brought to draw out the sin resting deep in the Samaritan woman’s heart. She had been married five times and the man she was with now was not her husband. With his words, Jesus revealed her thirst went beyond water. This woman was searching for a life, protection, security, love, etc. in all the wrong places.
Searching for hydration before running a 5k will not lead you to the fizzy sugar filled 23 flavor Texas native Dr. Pepper. Although it is delicious and may run through some of y’all’s veins, Dr. Pepper is not the best to hydrate with before running a 5k, but the temptation is there. Temptations also flood our hearts as we search to hydrate our souls. I image that if the Samaritan woman had sat down with Jesus in a reality shop style interview telling him that she really believed this sixth man would bring her what she had been searching for and that the constraints of marriage were just not the right path for her, he would have given her one of those looks that we send one another in text messages and social media of a meme of a person trying to hold back their words. We put Jesus in the same situation each time we try to quench our thirst with things we have tried in that past that have not worked. God is with us every moment of our lives as a deep well of water, but we put up dams and levees and run into the desert of temptation. Rather than hear God’s law convict us and repent of our sins, we dig in the burning sand as the devil whispers we can find water with just one more sip from the bottle, one more pay increase, one more designer outfit, one more staged social media post, a new car, a new relationship, or a better spiritual path that will lead to real change in my behavior and bring me the healing or prosperity I want. We all have regular paths to sources of water, but only one source gives us living water.
Jesus gave us living water. Jesus did not sit in silence with a judgmental look on his face while the Samaritan woman drew water. He took the difficult path to give her living water by calling out her sins and opening her eyes of faith to see beyond arguments between Samaritans and Jews. Jesus explained that God works in hearts and establishes his rule there. This woman needed to hear who her source for living water was as we read in John 4, 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” Jesus did not leave her floating in ambiguity; she was not talking with a random traveling teacher. Her source for living water sat with her to give her what she needed most as he said earlier, 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Like the Samaritan woman we were thirsting for someone to save us from our sins. And like her, Jesus came for us as we read in our New Testament reading from Romans 5, 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were thirsty, parched from our sinful patterns, Jesus walked the hard path carrying a full jar of the sins of the world, and he emptied himself of life on the cross. When we were not good people, Jesus loved us. While we were bad people, Jesus dared to die for us. God demonstrated his love for us in burying his Son in the ground, so that he could open the flood gates of living water. Jesus is the well of living water inside you for eternal life.
Our supply chain is a matter of life and death. Right now, war in the Middle East has disrupted trade through the Strait of Hormuz. Billions of people are living in uncertainty as they rely on global supply chains as their source of life. As we wade through uncertain times, we have another supply chain to maintain. Jesus came to us to give us eternal life. As he intentionally traveled to, sat with, spoke to and saved the Samaritan woman, he has come to us. We must remain connected to Jesus. When we turn from gratitude to grumbling, tolerate temptation, live in sin and adopt a powerless victim mindset, these are indicators that our supply chain is being interrupted between us and Jesus. As we see this in ourselves and see it in one another, work to restore the supply chain. Return to the Word of God, repent of your sins, hear Jesus’ words and works of forgiveness for you and be filled with living water by the Holy Spirit.
Who you ask to quench your thirst matters. When you are thirsty on a warm 80 degree winter day in March in Texas, and you go to mom or dad for a drink, they would not reach for a nice cup of mayonnaise to quench your thirst. Instead, they would hand you a cool cup of water. When a woman met Jesus at Jacob’s well, she only planned on filling her jar with water, but Jesus knew she needed more than water. Jesus shared the good news that he was living water and the Messiah, the Christ. Our thirsty souls have the same forgiveness of sins and eternal life through Jesus, the well of living water who has come for us. Amen.
Gunnar Ledermann, Pastor Divine Peace Church
Gunnar Ledermann
I’m passionate about Rockwall’s vibrant community and actively engage with local non-profits and community organizations, including the Rockwall Chamber of Commerce, the City of Rockwall, and the Downtown Rockwall Association. My background includes a bachelor’s degree in Classical Languages and a master’s degree in divinity. Currently serving as a pastor at Divine Peace Church in Rockwall, I also enjoy spending time with my wife, Marinda, and our five children.
