Bring the Living Water

John 4:7

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”

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Somebody bring me some water
Can't you see I'm burning alive

"Bring Me Some Water" by Melissa Etheridge

Burning thirst, we all know it, the woman at the well knows it better than most though.

She went to the well at noon. Anyone who went to the well to get water knew to go in the morning and in the evening. The air was cooler and so was the water. The only reason not to go then was if you wanted to avoid everyone. This woman wanted to avoid everyone.

She had had five husbands, and the man she now lived with was not her husband. Scripture doesn't say what happened to the other five. Was she abandoned? Was she divorced? Was she a widow? Was it a combination of the three? Anyway you slice it, she was seen by the other women as unseemly and as a rival for their husbands and sons. Today we would say she was bullied. Because of their bullying, she decided she'd rather get her water at the worst time of day rather than see the other women.

One fine day, Jesus was at the well when she arrived. He was burning alive in the midday sun and asked her for water. Now this just didn't happen. Across time and space, society collectively gasped when this happened. She knew any conversation between them was dicey for the both of them and asked how he could ask her for water.

This is when Jesus tells the world about the living water, the water that will become a spring of water gushing up with eternal life in all the people. She wants to know how to get some of that, who doesn't? So he tells her.

He tells her that the time is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, just like the Father wants. This is when the woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming and when he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” So Jesus said to her, “I am he.”

Jesus tells her not just that he is the living water but that he is the Messiah she awaits. He says so using the holiest phrase in the Old Testament, "I AM."

It's time to think of this as a call to evangelism, to share the Word of God with those we love and those we revile. We are all burning alive, and the only thing that will satisfy the thirst is the living water of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Great I AM.

It's time to hear the world cry out "somebody bring me some water, somebody give me a drink" and bring the only water that satisfies. We need to bring the living water of Jesus Christ.

Thirst

John 19:28-29

After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth.

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Let me die like a man
No one understands
Let me pray that a poor man`s brave

Smacked that horse in the ass
With my last dying gasp
My brother could hear me say

"Gimme Some Water" by Eddie Money

The story of a dying man who wants nothing more than water; cool, cool water. A man and his brother need money to pay for their dad's medical care. The elder brother gets in a card game to get money; probably a crooked game, maybe he's just got a lousy poker face. He shoots a man on the Mexican border. Years later, little brother catches up and rides with him. They will meet the same fate, a long white rope and a hangman's tree; after all, the sheriff always gets his man.

Trying to get what they need for their father's life, they die together on a tree.

Jesus was looking to save a life too, in exchange he gave his own.

It's not uncommon to feel thirst before death. I don't know why, but I'm told it's true. It's true for hanging men in a desert and it's true for a crucified man on Golgotha. Thirst, it's a fully human response to the final situation. It's a biological response, not a spiritual one.

In Jesus, there is not strictly biological response, their must be a spiritual one that accompanies. Jesus thirsts because his body is responding to his pending death. Jesus is thirsty. Jesus is so fully human that his body is thirsty. There's no "super-human" thing going on here, he's fully human and very thirsty.

The good news is for us in our thirst, Jesus provides the living water that never goes dry. Yes, our bodies will thirst, but our lives don't need to be parched.

The Sound of Thunder in a Hard Rain

Thanks to Vicke Bailey for the song suggestion.


John 12:28-30
“Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine.”

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And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’
Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

"A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" by Bob Dylan

"I heard the sound of thunder, it roared out a warnin'." It's funny how people hear things. Some hear the roar of a wave that can drown the world. Others hear drummers while others hear whispers. Some starve while others laugh. Some hear poets and others clowns while some say it sounds like thunder, others say it sounds like the voice of an angel.

It isn't the message that changes, it's how people hear it; if they hear it at all. The voice from heaven says I have glorified my name and will do it again. The people heard the voice, but some heard thunder and others the voice of the angel.

This is when Jesus tells the people this voice has come for their sake, not his. The Lord Jesus has a relationship with his Father. They have an outstanding relationship that while they are separate persons, they share the same essence. They are both fully divine. So Jesus does not need to hear the Father's reassuring words. He hears them constantly in every fiber in his being. The voice wasn't for him, it was for us.

The Lord God tells all with ears to hear that he will glorify his name, he will glorify himself again and again. He will glorify his name constantly without ceasing. This is to reassure us. We live in a hectic, dangerous world, not so different from 2,000 years ago, and God will glorify his name. We can rest assured God will do as he says and glorify his name.

Funny though, some hear it as thunder and others as the voice of an angel. That's the difference, how are we going to hear it. A hard rain's a-gonna fall, Bob Dylan says so. How are we going to handle it when it comes. Will we hear the roar of a wave, a hundred drummers, or a thousand whispers? Will we be there for the one person starving or with the people laughing? Will we hear thunder or angels? The voice is there. The decision is ours.