Thursday, June 12, 2025

John 4: Who has more to offer?

Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman. He asks her water, but Jesus says he has much more to offer her than the woman to him. 

9 The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”

11-12 The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?”

13-14 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst — not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”

15 The woman said, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!”

When I was young, I thought that I should give everything to the Lord and not expect anything from him, but now I understand that the Lord is the one who has much more to offer. In this dialogue, although Jesus had asked water to the woman, he claims that he has a much more valuable thing to give to her. The Samaritan woman had to go to the well again and again because its water satisfied her for a short period, but not for her life. Jesus said that his water was different: it would become a spring within her. Obviously Jesus was not talking about a literal water, but about a new life he could give her: a meaningful life dedicated to the Lord. Her life was a mess but not only that, others looked her down. In this new life, she would love others even when they looked her down. In her new life, she would come back to the well with joy and not feeling a burden for it. 
Who would not agree with the woman and say "Sir, give me this living water"?

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