John 4:7, 13-15 (NRSV)
Read John 4:7, 13-15 on biblegateway.com
Verse 7A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." Verse 13Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, Verse 14but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." Verse 15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."
Devotion
Encounters between men and women at wells often led to marriage proposals in Jesus' day. So our defenses are up when Jesus is suddenly left alone with a Samaritan woman at a well. Self-respecting Jewish folks weren't supposed to socialize with Samaritans.
Had Jesus followed conventional expectations, he would have shunned this woman. She had been married five times and was from a mixed-race background, making her morally and ethnically impure. Had she followed her traditional wisdom, this Jewish man could not be the bearer of salvation. Neither Jesus nor the woman was held back by conventional wisdom.
Jesus doesn't offer marriage to this woman, but something more lasting: Living, fresh, gushing water that gives abundant and everlasting life. He offers to quench a thirst far deeper than what brought her to the well. And she asks for this water. Having been water-marked forever, she runs to share the good news with her people. "Come and see," she cries to them—and to us.
Prayer
We give you thanks, O Living Water, that you met us where we were and quenched our thirst. May we respond with openness and joy.
Amen.