Are you drinking from the Living Water?

Excerpted from: http://mitchlewis.net/blog/articles/jesus-woman-at-well/


The woman didn’t know it, but Jesus was giving her a drink from the moment she walked up. Jesus encountered her on many levels, and he was watering her spirit with every word he spoke.
First, he asked for a drink of well water. A cold cup of water is a spiritual matter. A watered soul learns compassion. There is living water for me in acts of mercy for others.
Jesus spoke to her, a woman, a Samaritan and a person apparently disconnected from her community. Jesus broke down more social barriers than you can imagine. There is living water in our fellowship, in our being one people in Christ, undivided by race or gender. There is living water in Jesus’ gracious openness to all, regardless of circumstances. There is living water in Jesus’ overcoming every form of alienation in our lives.
Jesus spoke to the woman about her husband … her five husbands, that is, and the man that she is living with now who is not her husband. I want to know more, so I can judge. Is she guilty? Is she innocent? Is she a little of both? I’ve heard so many sermons that jump to conclusions here, but we don’t know any more than the text itself says. Whatever the reason for her many marriages, there is surely a story there with heartache, grief, anger, and broken dreams. Whatever her story happened to be, she was certainly a person that had been ground down more than a little bit by life. In his encounter with her, Jesus lifted her life story into the presence of God where forgiveness and healing take place, where hope never fails and where new life is possible. There is living water for broken lives in the presence of God.
He spoke with her about worship. Samaritans and Jews had different centers of worship. Jesus and the woman had a theological discussion, which itself is quite surprising. There is living water seeking the truth with Jesus.
Our word worship comes from the English word “worthship”. You worship something because it is worthy. The ancients bowed down and built fires and burned incense and sacrificed animals and did a lot of stuff that seems strange to us today. The idea of bowing down before something seems just wrong to us today, but we all do worship! Whatever is most important to us, we worship. Jesus told the woman this: God is looking for people to worship him in spirit and in truth, regardless of where it takes place.
What was the most healing thing I did after I returned from Iraq? Worship. Behind a battered building by myself. In a congregation, in which I couldn’t get through a hymn without weeping. Worship watered my soul. Worship is giving God the honor and praise due him, but it is also a fountain of living water. There is living water is worshiping God.
The woman told Jesus that her community was expecting a messiah – a Christ – to come and make the truth known to them. Jesus declared that he was indeed the one she was expecting, so she ran to her village. Her testimony was simple: He told me about my life. Her invitation was simple. Come and see for yourself. Her profession of faith tentative: He couldn’t be the messiah, could he? The people came and they believed. Have you ever been part of the excitement of a growing body of believers? There is living water in even the most basic, unformed immature faith in Christ. There is living water in a living community of faith in which belief grows and spreads.
Jesus says, “I am he.” He claims to be the messiah, the Christ. Now from time to time people come along trying to tell us how to live our lives. By and large, we resist such people, although we’re bigger suckers than we like to admit. Who you follow can make your life better, or it can make your life worse. But Jesus is doing more than claiming to be the best leader, the best adviser, the best guide, or the best teacher. He claims to be God. I can give you living water. I can give you a spring of eternal life. Who can do that except God?
This hot, tired, dusty and thirsty man is God! In her encounter with him, this woman has a divine encounter that fills her most basic need for life. It is truly living water that Jesus offers..
Compassion for others. Acceptance and healing for yourself in the presence of Christ. Worship for God in Christ. Belief in Christ that engages the mind and the spirit. Living in Jesus’ community of faith. These are all aspects of Jesus’ living water in our lives, and I need a drink.

I couldn't say it any better!