John 4: 1-26

I had my recent stay in the hospital after emergency hernia surgery. By virtue of my condition and ongoing examinations by a few nurses and doctors, I was reminded of a story of a man suffering from an irritating headache. He went to a local doctor for some help. The receptionist at the doctor’s office immediately told the man to go into the examining room and take off all his clothes. The man wasn’t sure that this would do him any good. He explained to the nurse that he just had a headache. She was still adamant. “Go into the examining room and take off your clothes!” she said. The man went into the examining room and had just taken off his clothes when he saw another unclothed man sitting on the examining table. He smiled a little sheepishly and said, “It’s silly to do all this for one little headache.” The man who had been sitting on the table replied, “You think this is an inconvenience! I just came in to read the meter!”

Do we know what it means to be thirsty? Was the woman at the well dehydrated? Was she thirsty?  In our own lives we experience thirst due to exertion or exercise. Our bodies need adequate hydration for our organs and brain to function properly. In my recent stay at the hospital I was inundated with fluid filling me up through the I.V. My surgeon said I came to the hospital dehydrated and that needed to be addressed before they went any further. That was fine with me.

The conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, at first, seems to hold no promise, the two being distanced by race, gender, and religion. The topic that first engages them in conversation is the availability of water. Jesus, sitting at a well, is thirsty and asks the woman for a drink. The woman appeared to be uncomfortable with Jesus, a Jew, asking her, a Samaritan woman, for water. The fragment at the end of verse nine, “Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans,” touches on the segregation of Jews from Samaritans. In addition to that, a male and female not in the same family engaging in conversation in public was not appropriate, but it was Jesus who crossed that line. But again, it all starts with water.

Jesus is thirsty and requested water from the woman. The woman came to the well to draw water at noon. It was understandable for a person from each family group, primarily a woman, to draw water from a well or other water source at the start of a day for the purposes of cleansing or meal preparation. This woman came to draw water at noon when no one else would be there. In our story, Jesus ruined her plan to be invisible, unnoticed by the citizens of the Samaritan town. She was noticed not by an inhabitant of the town who may have thought of her as disreputable or immoral but of the long awaited Messiah, the Anointed One from God. Jesus said to her if she knew who it was asking for a drink she would have asked him for water, and he would have given her living water. If she knew in whose presence she was, she’d ask him for a drink. If she only knew, she’d ask for a drink from him. If she only knew she was the one who was truly thirsty.

What is it that makes us thirsty? A lack of hydration, a lack of fluid within us that permits all of our organs to function properly. Thirst is a good thing. Thirst is the discernable feeling in our bodies that prompt us to seek hydration, to seek water to consume. If we did not thirst, our bodies would break down. If we did not thirst, we wouldn’t seek the fluid we need to satisfy us, to meet our needs, to survive. Is this woman thirsty? For what may she be thirsting?

There aren’t too many illustrations of thirst or drinking besides those that illustrate drinking too much. Sam attended a men’s prayer breakfast and heard a visiting psychologist speak on the topic of showing appreciation to the important people in our lives. Sam decided to start with his wife. After work he did some shopping and brought a dozen long stemmed roses, a box of chocolates, and a pair of earrings. He looked forward to surprising his wife with these signs of his appreciation for all she meant to him. He stood at the front door carrying his gifts to offer to his wife and rang the doorbell. His wife came to the door, opened it, and stared at him for a long minute. Suddenly she burst into tears. He gasped and asked what was wrong. “It’s been the worst day of my life,” she answered. “First, Jimmy tried to flush his diaper down the toilet. Then Eric melted his plastic airplane on the stove. Then the dishwasher got clogged and overflowed all over the kitchen floor. Then Brittany came home from school with a note from the teacher saying that she beat up a boy in her class. And now you come home drunk!”

“Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water’” (vss 13-15). Does she know she’s thirsty? Are there any who are thirsty here today? The assumption has always been that regular attendance or membership in a church will suffice for any of our spiritual hungers or thirsts. Our attendance in a company like this will satisfy our thirsts or hungers only when we surrender to whose company we find ourselves. Our relaxing and surrendering to his presence, to his voice, to his grace and mercy, power and love will uncover to ourselves what truly are our thirsts and hungers that only he can satisfy.

“Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’” (vss 16-18). There is something here that Jesus discloses to this woman that is more than just informing her he knows her history. He knows her hunger and her thirsts. Be it relationally, be it familial, be it some brokenness in wants and desires, he knows what she thirsts for and he is there to offer her living water that will quench any of her thirsts. She goes on and says he’s a prophet and the Samaritans worship there but the Jews worship in Jerusalem and the Messiah will come soon – a bunch of religious talk. Jesus finishes their conversation with the disclosure, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you” (vs 26).

Are you thirsty? You may not even know you’re thirsty. You may know Jesus but remain in need of what only he can provide, what only he can address and satisfy. To be thirsty is not a bad thing. To be thirsty means that you need what only he can provide, refreshment, hydration, relief, peace and comfort in his presence alone.  Thirst in this manner may not mean you’re not saved. It may mean you just aren’t familiar with living water flowing in your life, refreshment in a parched condition brought on by any number of things or choices or beliefs about yourself or others. We find ourselves today at a well. Perhaps you’ve come and wanting to remain invisible and unnoticed, but he meets you at the well and says, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

(Preached at St Mark UMC in Anniston, AL, March 12, 2023)