Elemental: S2 - Day 9

“My people…have forsaken Me, the spring of living water…” Jeremiah 2:13

It’s a well-known story with at least one missed detail. Maybe you never overlooked it. But for the longest time, I did.

Another story from the audacious life of Christ: John tells of a trip Jesus took to visit a very specific woman. He went out of His way. He crossed a border He shouldn’t have and embraced the criticism that accompanies our prejudices. He HAD to talk with her. How very Jesus.

A cup of water serves as the conversation starter for the Samaritan woman to come face-to-face with her deep, unquenchable thirst. If I’m honest, I’ve never been all that thirsty. Sure, I’ve experienced parching heat and once had a headache from dehydration. But I’ve only ever known “normal thirsty.” Still, even I know if you are truly thirsty, you’re not looking for juice, coffee, or a soft drink. For deep thirst, only water will do. So the woman’s interest is peaked when Jesus announces, “If you knew who I was you would be asking Me for water.”

Their conversation will twist and turn through the woman’s personal life and her errant theology. And we might get distracted, wondering if this woman made such poor relationship decisions that the whole town considers her an “easy” woman, only willing to come to the well in the middle of the day. Or have all five of her husbands died? If so, she would be known as cursed and unacceptable to God. And the woman’s theology? As expected, her Samaritan roots mean decades of Hebrew faith mixed with paganism. And what are Jesus’ responses? He seems to say to her lifestyle, “You are bad,” and to her theology, “You are wrong.” But here is where I missed the detail.

We would expect this woman to look for a quick, angry exit from the conversation. Instead, she goes deeper, more vulnerable. Essentially, she asks Jesus if He’s the Messiah. He methodically peels the skin of her life, painful layer by layer. And her response is worship? What are we missing?

Something nearly magical happens when Jesus shows up in our confusion, failure, and pain. The Bible doesn’t explain how it happens. But we hear it in the words of the disciples from Emmaus. We hear it now as the woman attempts to reflect her experience with Jesus to the people of her town, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” (John 4:29)

This is the gulping sound of spiritual water passing cracked lips, rushing down a dusty throat, nearly choking with its speed. Jesus is essential if our lives will ever be more than dry, thirsty, and dead.

1. In what way have you felt excluded, an outsider?
2. What is something you fear others think about you?
3. What are you thirsty for that only Jesus can supply?