Daily Bread 2011 - John 4
Daily Bread 2011 – John 4
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.”
What Does This Mean?
Next, we see Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman. There was a lot of ill-will between the Jews and the Samaritans, because many of them had inter-married with non-Jews in Samaria due to the diaspora (spreading out of the Jewish population following the fall of the Temple). So again the woman is tentative in her interaction with Jesus, knowing He is a Jewish teacher.
Jesus asks her for a drink, which was also taboo for a man to ask a woman for a drink. Then, Jesus begins to invite her to drink the “living water” that He has come to bring the world. The woman refers to Jacob and His well (the common thread in the Jewish lineage between Jews and Samaritans) which was situated in Shechem, and mentioned in Genesis 33:18. It still stands today as a place of meaning and religious significance.
The key thing here though is Jesus is inviting the woman to drink of the living water which he brings which will quench the thirst in her heart.
What Does This Mean For Us?
John uses several visceral images for Jesus that invite people to partake of him in very physical or bodily ways. We might call this sacramental as well. I.e. In Holy Baptism we are baptized in the living water of salvation. In Holy Communion we partake of the Jesus body and blood through bread and wine. This is the sense in which John’s gospel was more theological in nature.
But also we see John’s gospel to be more evangelical as Jesus invites people into a relationship with him through the experience drinking the living water He brings. A few verses later we see the famous John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son that whoever would believe in Him what not perish but have eternal life.”
Just as Jesus invited the woman who was despised by the Jews to drink the living water, He invites anyone today from any background, race or religion to drink of the living water He came to bring that truly satisfies.
Heavenly Father we thank you for the living water that Jesus can to bring us. We know that when we drink natural water we are thirsty again, but as we drink from the fountain of your love in Jesus Christ it will be a spring welling up into eternal life. Amen.
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.”
What Does This Mean?
Next, we see Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman. There was a lot of ill-will between the Jews and the Samaritans, because many of them had inter-married with non-Jews in Samaria due to the diaspora (spreading out of the Jewish population following the fall of the Temple). So again the woman is tentative in her interaction with Jesus, knowing He is a Jewish teacher.
Jesus asks her for a drink, which was also taboo for a man to ask a woman for a drink. Then, Jesus begins to invite her to drink the “living water” that He has come to bring the world. The woman refers to Jacob and His well (the common thread in the Jewish lineage between Jews and Samaritans) which was situated in Shechem, and mentioned in Genesis 33:18. It still stands today as a place of meaning and religious significance.
The key thing here though is Jesus is inviting the woman to drink of the living water which he brings which will quench the thirst in her heart.
What Does This Mean For Us?
John uses several visceral images for Jesus that invite people to partake of him in very physical or bodily ways. We might call this sacramental as well. I.e. In Holy Baptism we are baptized in the living water of salvation. In Holy Communion we partake of the Jesus body and blood through bread and wine. This is the sense in which John’s gospel was more theological in nature.
But also we see John’s gospel to be more evangelical as Jesus invites people into a relationship with him through the experience drinking the living water He brings. A few verses later we see the famous John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son that whoever would believe in Him what not perish but have eternal life.”
Just as Jesus invited the woman who was despised by the Jews to drink the living water, He invites anyone today from any background, race or religion to drink of the living water He came to bring that truly satisfies.
Heavenly Father we thank you for the living water that Jesus can to bring us. We know that when we drink natural water we are thirsty again, but as we drink from the fountain of your love in Jesus Christ it will be a spring welling up into eternal life. Amen.
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