Today's devotion deals with a lesson within a lesson. Maybe I'm a little slow, but at 45 years old, I just caught the significance of what was being taught in a very familiar story. My brain is actually a little rattled at further implications and lessons within this same familiar story... but, nevertheless, let's get on with it...
For background, let's start at the beginning, then we'll zero in on the focus for today...
John 4:3-18
New Living Translation (NLT)
3 So he left Judea and returned to Galilee.
4 He had to go through Samaria on the way. 5 Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. 7 Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Please give me a drink." 8 He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.
9 The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans.[a] She said to Jesus, "You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?"
10 Jesus replied, "If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water."
11 "But sir, you don't have a rope or a bucket," she said, "and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? 12 And besides, do you think you're greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?"
13 Jesus replied, "Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. 14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life."
15 "Please, sir," the woman said, "give me this water! Then I'll never be thirsty again, and I won't have to come here to get water."
16 "Go and get your husband," Jesus told her.
17 "I don't have a husband," the woman replied.
Jesus said, "You're right! You don't have a husband— 18 for you have had five husbands, and you aren't even married to the man you're living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!"
MAN! Jesus had a way of using the natural to get at the heart of a matter! Jesus was physically tired and physically thirsty in the midday sun of the middle east. (I'm sure many of our service men and women can relate.) He came to a well, known for its refreshing water and waited for an opportunity that he knew was about to unfold. You're probably wondering how the title of today's devotion is going to work in to the story... be patient.
Jesus began by requesting a favor of the woman who came to the well. There are so many lessons right here, but I want to move on. He goes through a metaphorical comparison of the refreshing, renewing qualities of physical water and the spiritual, or living water only He can give. I'm even going to bypass that for today's focus. Let's read again verses 16-18:
16 "Go and get your husband," Jesus told her.
17 "I don't have a husband," the woman replied.
Jesus said, "You're right! You don't have a husband— 18 for you have had five husbands, and you aren't even married to the man you're living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!"
Yeah, we've all read this and heard it preached. In my case, I have heard it for probably 40 years, back to the days of sitting in the "little chairs" in Sunday school. But "I" never got the lesson within the lesson right here until this past weekend.
Right here, Jesus "got all up in her business". I always read or interpreted that Jesus was just revealing her sins to her in a prophetic way. Beyond that, though, Jesus was revealing her failed attempts to fill her life with something that was missing. I've heard the statement that we all have a "god-shaped hole" in our hearts. We go through life often trying to fill that hole with other "stuff".
Try as we might, nothing that we attempt to fill that void with fits until we try to fill it with God. We don't know anything about this woman beyond what we read in this story. When we read verses 16-18, we can fill in some of the blanks. She had been married 5 times, and was living with another man she was not married to. She obviously had been through some stuff. Having gone through multiple marriages, she likely had suffered emotional distress. She likely questioned her own value. She probably had cried herself to sleep more nights than she cared to count. In the eyes of most, then and now, she was a failure. The very time of day that she went to the well tells us that she was trying to avoid contact or confrontation with other women of the area. I can imagine her mulling over in her head as she walked to the well in the heat of the day, the most recent issues or conflicts she was having with her current beau. Little did she know, she was about to come face to face with the solution to ALL of her problems.
Indulge me for a second... my mind can't get beyond one of my favorite tidbits of scripture unrelated in timing, but so relevant to the situation...
Luke 2:34-35
34Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, "This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed
35
so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too."
Jesus brought to the forefront what troubled this woman more than anything else in her life. He revealed her inner thoughts. He met her at the point of her deepest need. He gave her the opportunity to stop trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. In essence, he told her "don't drink the water... then offered her LIVING water.
What have you been drinking?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-9SOda65hE
