A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
Jesus often acts to bless us by first asking something of us. What he asks may test our assumptions, as when he spoke to one who was both a woman and a Samaritan. And the response he desires may not be literal or straightforward. Yes, he ultimately did want a drink. In his thirst for souls he sought to be quenched by the faith of the Samaritan woman. But for this to happen she first had realize that there was something more and better, something that her life had not provided to that point. Even a rumor of living water was worth pursuing over the unsatisfactory water, water for which she had to expend much effort, but which never truly satisfied her. She had, it seemed, sought to quench her thirst in addictive patterns of behavior demonstrated by her unstable relationships. This was absolutely a well of water that was never going to satisfy her.
for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water (see Jeremiah 2:13).
We can't seek both the broken cisterns and the source of living water. A lesser thirst must give way to a higher one. Trying to satisfy ourselves at the same old wells is going to produce the same results, and leave us too tired and distracted for anything else. But this implies that we must change our patterns of behavior. We tend to push back at this point. We may suddenly become deeply interested in theological disputes that previously seemed abstract, as misdirection away from the inner work we need. It isn't that there is nothing to what we say. We might be implying something to the effect that the hope Jesus offers doesn't apply to us. We worship and must worship on a different mountain. Or so we think.
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.
Whatever limits we place on God are entirely self-imposed and imaginary. He is inviting us to leave behind stale and static worship, worship that is merely performative, or merely unreflective habit, to enter into something that is real, something defined by God rather than ourselves. We are being called, led by the hope enkindled in us by the invitation of Jesus, into true worship. And in this worship in Spirit and truth we even now taste the reality that will one day satisfy us for eternity.
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.
Songs In His Presence - Isaiah 12: You Will Draw Water
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