We are meant as Christ followers to bring the River of Life wherever we go.
The pictures are to help with understanding both the magnitude of an ancient fountain and the clarity of the River
I am back and still stuck thinking about the River of Life and the orientation that the “church” is supposed to have with fellow believers and the world that we all live in. I wonder first what you, my dear reader, think of when we talk about rivers. All too often it may be that when you think of a river you think of the damage we have done to our planet in our rivers and water. The River of Life is not a polluted River. I will examine the River and its purity by looking at the Living Water that Jesus addressed while talking to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4.
In order to ensure that we are rightly dividing the word of God I will use a longer section of scripture to introduce the context of what we are addressing here :
John 4:5-10 NKJV
5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”
8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
Jesus is addressing a woman whom the Jews considered completely unacceptable to talk to. She was not one that they would have considered able to receive salvation regardless of her circumstances. She was worse than most of them; she was in all essence a prostitute, though Jesus does not address her as such.
The gift that Jesus is extending to her is the gift of the Holy Spirit that is to be significant in our lives as Born-Again followers of Christ.
John 4:13-17 NKJV
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”
These are my observations from reading this chapter:
This is a packed chapter, just thinking about Jesus' interaction with the woman, the Samaritan woman at the well. It’s not her societal status that I will talk about as much as the “gift of God” being offered; it is Living Water, a drink from the fountain of water that springs up to everlasting life. This was not a water fountain like we have today. My first thought is to imagine a water fountain in the park with a tiny stream of water that we bend down to and take awkward sips out of. So, I pose the question: what was a “fountain of water” in Jesus’ day? In the ancient world a water fountain was a spring or aqueduct used to provide drinking water and water for bathing and washing for all the residents of a city, town, or village.
When Jesus offered the woman at the well Living Water and told her this water would spring up bringing everlasting life it was a fountain that springs up bringing everlasting life to many not just her. Please note that this water Jesus offered was not polluted water, it was pure, crystalline, beautiful. The Living Water also did not require her to clean herself up and get ready for the Water. The Living Water would do the purifying work in her after it was received.
Reflection-
The fountain starts with just one, one woman at the well, however the fountain has a flow that allows it to bring life to many. The idea that a whole town, city or community used this fountain demonstrates the idea that the Living Water flows and touches many, not just one or a few. This fountain draws in many allowing it to bring everlasting life to many not just the one.
*The Samaritan woman's first act as a fountain of Living Water was to call the people of the town to the one who told her everything she had ever done. She did not clean up her messy life, she did repent for the life she has been living when she confessed her many husbands to Jesus. The Living Water was not polluted by her receiving it. She does immediately begin to allow the Living Water to flow to those in her town who would come and receive the Lord Jesus and his teaching.
I have run out of relatives to share the “Good News. I like the Samaritan woman must move beyond my family for the Living Water to continue to flow. I know that I have way too often stopped the flow of the Living Water by not talking to those in the public places I do life in.
Devotion:
My prayer is that I want the flow of the Living Water to never again be stopped. I have asked the Lord to forgive me for the ways in which my inward church focus has stopped the River from flowing. I want to be bold for the Lord and allow the River to touch those I encounter so that they might know Jesus as I know Him. My heart's desire is to bring Life wherever I go.
May the Love of Jesus capture your heart. He loves you more than you can fathom.
Grace
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