A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
The request Jesus makes of the Samaritan woman was shocking to her. For her, the status quo contained a litany of reasons why Jesus ought not ask this of her. She was an woman and a Samaritan, and an outcast even in that context. She was used to being excluded but Jesus did not seem deterred by any of these factors. The mode of his engagement with her was interesting. It disregarded the traditional grounds for marginalizing her, but he didn't simply do something for her or flatter her, but asked her for water. He didn't immediately skip past her checked past, but confronted it without letting it become grounds for pushing her away. He could not give her what he wanted to give until she discovered what it was for which she was truly thirsty.
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.”
"Give me a drink". Perhaps this meant that she would need to confront once more the endless cycle of seeking that had filled her life, one that had never truly satisfied her, but with this difference, that this time it was for the sake of Jesus who asked her to do it. At his command the inherent limitations of this earthly well were revealed precisely because they paled in proportion to Jesus himself. 'Look once more', Jesus might have said, 'at that which doesn't satisfy and recognize it for what it is. Instead, turn to me, who can give you that thing which you have always been seeking at the deepest level, but have never been able to find.'
“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.”
It is not altogether obvious to us that even when Jesus asks something of us he does so precisely because he has something greater that he wants to give. We have been seeking a myriad of mirages that have always failed to produce the happiness they promise. But when we allow ourselves to respond to what Jesus asks, to do something precisely because it is for him, we can begin to realize the endless possibilities for fulfillment and peace that can only be found in him. Suddenly a drink of water, which had heretofore been a sign that we were outcasts, that all was not well, that there was an endless drudgery we had endured and had yet to endure, takes on a new meaning full of hope.
“Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep;
where then can you get this living water?
We need to allow Jesus to raise our minds above the exigencies of the moment, the seeming difficulties entailed in transforming the situations of our life. He wants to raise our minds to an entirely different level where the old preoccupations will no longer hold sway because we have found a lasting source of satisfaction.
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman began to realize that this was indeed the water for which she had always longed but which she had never tasted. It was this satisfaction that she sought to no avail in her many failed relationships. But now there was a new and preeminent relationship, one with Jesus himself, that was offered to her and that could truly deliver. She realized that she was spiritually thirsty and that Jesus himself was offering her the living water she desired. But could it really be so? This was obviously a religious remedy, a gift of the Messiah. She was still afraid that she might be excluded, if not by Jesus, then even perhaps by God himself.
But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
The Father himself desired to pour out living water through his Son on any and all who would worship him in Spirit and truth. Old barriers and causes for division would be torn down and removed, their purpose having been served. She would then truly taste exactly that for which she thirsted, the Spirit himself, the true source of living water. The fulfillment she had always sought and never found could finally be realized in this right relationship of worship to the Triune God. And because all of this happened at a well we know that author had in his mind the Old Testament background of marriage relationships that began at wells. With Jesus, this location was no accident. He was inviting this woman to a nuptial union with God himself.
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one speaking with you.”
Jesus was the gateway to this relationship, the source of this living water. She was able to realize it precisely because of the way he knew and comprehended her entirely, including her past, and yet still accepted and desired her. What was this experience like? It was like finding in Jesus himself the true and ideal bridegroom who loved her and had always loved her. He thirsted for her, that she in turn would thirst for him, so that, at last, she could be sated.
And hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Are we thirsty for God? Or are we instead preoccupied with "broken cisterns that can hold no water" (see Jeremiah 2:13). The more we learn that thirst for God the more he himself can satisfy our hearts.
Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart (see Psalm 37:4).
Lent is an ideal time to become increasingly aware of this thirst and to allow it to make us cry out, "Sir, give me this water", knowing that he will do so.
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