Sometimes
we hit a point in which we feel so empty, yet each passer by seems to think we
are filled to the brim. Time and again we are upended, asked if we can commit
to fulfilling just one more cup, just one more task, one more role, one more
event. Does no one see the bottom? Does no one see the emptiness? What do you
do when you're upended and still expected to produce in spite of emptiness?
Well,
we are called to go to the fountain, the fountain of living water, to be filled
once again. We kneel at the well, at the
feet of Christ, and He fills us with His Living Water.
It's
hard, when you feel so empty, you don't feel like going to God, or spending
time reading His Words. You want to lay in your emptiness and exhaustion, but
the beauty is that God comes to you, and after you've come to Him, He lives in
you!
Let's
examine the story of a woman who went in search of earthly water, but in need
of heavenly, living water. This woman had had five husbands. Five. She was
empty. She had given herself away time and again. When I think of her face, I
imagine one of hollowness and anxiety. She is not secure in herself or her
place in life, she is lost, hurt, and confused.
Right before the passage below begins, it says
it was about noon when Jesus was there. This is actually important to
understanding this woman's life. People normally drew water at the end of the
day rather than the heat of midday. She was likely an outcast in this society
because of her adulterous ways. Also, women could not divorce their husbands.
Perhaps the reason this woman had been divorced so many times was that she was
infertile, this was a great disgrace in middle eastern culture, so it would
also explain why she would have been an outcast among the women. (Both of these
are assumptions, not fact).
Also, another point to highlight is that she
was a Samaritan. Samaritans were considered unclean by the Jews, so if a Jew
were to drink from a vessel handled by a Samaritan, they would become
ceremonially unclean, a huge disgrace.
With
these things in mind, take a look at this incredible encounter. I've included
the first part of it here, but I highly encourage you to read the full context here.
John 4:7-15
7
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me
a drink?”
8
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
9
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How
can you ask me for a drink?” For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and
who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have
given you living water.”
11 “Sir,”
the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can
you get this living water?
12
Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it
himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
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.”
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.”
Isn't
that great!? I've broken it down some below to try to get a deeper appreciation
for everything that went on.
So
Jesus was by Himself; His disciples had left behind the Bread of Life in order
to seek the bread of earth to fulfill their physical need. They unintentionally
left to fill their stomachs so that He could be alone with a woman who need Him
as her Savior. Their hunger was an opportunity for a personal encounter that
would fill someone else forever.
Christ
was at the well of Jacob, from whom He descended, dug many generations before.
As fully God, He knew this woman would be coming. He had formed her in her
mother's womb and knew the details of every moment of her life. He was waiting
for her. Like a jar brought up from a well, He was there to draw her to Himself
as her Lord and Savior and carry her down the path of eternity.
There's
a big cultural difference here though. In verse nine the woman immediately
reminds Him of His own Jewish custom that He would be made unclean by accepting
something from her, according to Jewish law. But He was here to establish a new
covenant, one of free redemption and free of the obligations of the Jewish
laws. No one of that time and culture would refuse a drink to one who asked,
but since these two peoples did not typically interact, it was not normally an
issue. Imagine her surprise.
Verse
10 is interesting, because he's saying "if you knew..." meaning, I
think, that she had an open heart, if she knew, she would have asked for
fulfillment. "...and He would have given you living water." Isn't
that amazing, that if we simply ask, all the thirst in our souls will forever
be quenched? All the craving of our spirits, all the emptiness, will be filled
by a stream of living water.
In
verse 11 she makes an interesting point without realizing it. She says, “you
have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living
water?" He had nothing to draw with, because He is the water. The well is
indeed deep. There's a children's song that says "deep and wide, deep and
wide, there's a fountain flowing deep and wide." That's about all I
remember of it, but it's very true. Christ's fulfilling runs deep, it courses
through every vein.
Verse
12 tripped me up a little when I read it. The woman said OUR father, Jacob.
Jacob (Israel) was a key form of establishing identity as part of the nation of
Israel. So why was she claiming Jacob as a father? Samaritans were descendants
of Israelites who had intermarried with Assyrians during one of their times in
exile. This broke one of God's laws of not intermarrying with pagan cultures,
but they were linked to Jacob, which explains her use of "our
father". Some Samaritans worshiped God, but it was outside of Jewish law,
because of this, and their mixed background they were avoided by Jews.
"Everyone
who drinks from this water will be thirsty again," Out of the mouth of
Christ these words are spoken. The mouth that speaks love and life into us, who
gave us the Holy Spirit which speaks to the Father on our account. The things
of this earth are temporary, but that which we store up in heaven is eternal.
The lives we impact on earth will make a difference in eternity.
Matthew
6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and
vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and
where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also."
Invest
in things of the spirit, rather than things of the earth and flesh, which will
pass away. But, anyone who drinks the water of the earthly wells will become
thirsty once again. Things of the earth do not bring fulfillment, they do not
touch what the heart craves for.
Back
to verse 14 of our main text, this is wonderful, because God is promising us
what the world cannot provide. He is promising ultimate fulfillment through
Christ, and in walking with God, in this woman's case, away from her adulterous
ways. We are presented a choice in this verse; a choice to drink deeply, to
find water that will eternally quench the thirst. The description of a spring
"Welling up" is interesting here; it actually means "leaping
up" implying a vigorous effect on life. (Paraphrased from NIV study note)
Verse
15 is what the Lord desires all of us to do. Ask and accept His invitation of
His Son, His living water, that we must never have to thirst again or seek the
water of the world. The water of this world is dirty, filled with sin, but His
is pure, always moving, always flowing, continually filling us with life and a
constantly renewed spirit.
So back to the original question, how can you be filled again after feeling upended? Go to Christ, for you can only truly fill others when you stop relying on your own strength and allow yourself to be filled with the Father's strength and Spirit once more. So seek Him, draw near to the well, the fountain of God, and kneel at the feet of Christ, your Savior. Drink deeply of His living water and be refreshed.
Related
passages:
Isaiah 12:3
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
Psalm
42:1-2
As
the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul
thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
Proverbs 14:27
The
fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of
death.
John
7:38
Whoever
believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from
within them.
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