Words of Faith: Jesus offers us living water – the water of eternal life

Water is the source of life.

Our bodies are almost totally water. I realized the importance of water when I made a pilgrimage to Mount Sinai in the Egyptian desert. The desert was dry and barren. This is where the Israelites wondered for 40 years. There was very little water in the desert.

On my journey we each carried our own water. And we drank constantly. Without it, we would have become dehydrated. This water was vital to life. Without it we would have died.

In the fourth chapter of the gospel of John, Jesus met a woman who was seeking water. Each day she went to the well in Samaria to get water for her household. One day at the well, she met Jesus. Jesus asked her to draw water for him to drink. The woman was startled by his request. Jewish men didn’t usually speak to Samaritan women. But as they spoke, Jesus offered to give her water, living water. This confused the woman because as she looked around, she saw that Jesus had no bucket. How would this be possible? She asked. She remembered stories of their ancestor Jacob and how water had bubbled up to the surface for him. She wondered if this miracle was possible for her also. But Jesus told her he was speaking of a different kind of water, the water of eternal life.

Though the woman needed water from the well, she also had a deeper thirst. She had a thirst for love, acceptance, and inclusion. In their conversation, Jesus revealed her past – five husbands and the man who she was currently living with was not her husband. Jesus was not making a judgment but rather stating a fact. Jesus knew all about the woman. He knew the longing of her heart. He knew what made her sad and what brought her regret. To quench her thirst, Jesus offered living water, his own life.

Like the woman, we also need living water. We are all thirsty. We are tired and exhausted from this journey we call life. We are lonely – alienated from each other. We are fearful – running from the past or afraid of the future. We are insecure – wondering who or what we can trust. We long for our lives to be made whole. We try to find this wholeness in possessions, in the opinions of others, and in signs of success. But these things leave us with a bitter thirst.

They never satisfy.

But Jesus knows our need. Just as he knew the details of the woman’s life, he knows ours. He knows the good about us – our creativity, our love, our humor, our self sacrifice, our compassion. And he knows the not so good – our selfishness, our anger, our greed, our envy, our doubt. He knows everything about us, even the parts we think are unlovable. He knows us fully and still loves us, still wants to offer us his living water.

As we spend time with Jesus, we will taste his living water. And when we taste it, we will want more. Lent is a time to drink deeply of this living water – this water of life. We drink as we turn to Jesus in prayer, as we seek communion and conversation with God. When we are in his company, our faith will grow and we will be nourished by his living water. We drink as we study the Holy Scriptures. In the word of God we will discover God with us, speaking to us in the words written by the faithful in the past and yet meeting the needs we have today. And we will drink of his living water as we repent, as we turn from seeking other things to satisfy our thirst, and turn to God as the only source of life – the only source of living water.

Jesus offers us living water – the water of eternal life. He offers to satisfy our unquenchable thirst. He offers to take our brokenness, our separation, our failures and to fill our emptiness with his life. Jesus promises to fill us and refresh us with living water, with life that over flows without end, with eternal life.

Jesus invites us to drink of his living water. He holds out his cup – now drink and know his life!

This story was originally published March 22, 2017 at 7:48 PM with the headline "Words of Faith: Jesus offers us living water – the water of eternal life."