Give Me a Drink

There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (For his disciples had gone away in to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."
                                                                                                     --John 4:7-10

On assignment from God, Jesus went where He "wasn't supposed to go." He met with a woman he "wasn't supposed to talk to." And the first thing He said to her is interesting: "Give me a drink."

Because of her reputation as a sinner, this woman sought to avoid the gossip and rejection of the other women on their early morning walk to the well. Instead, she preferred to go alone, even if it meant enduring the intense heat of midday. She probably would have avoided going to the well altogether, except that the water she drew there was her life source. It kept her hydrated in the merciless heat of the desert climate. But soon it was gone, and the very next day she would have to hike back across the hot land and draw water again, simply so she could stay alive.

So her reaction to Jesus when He asked her for a sip of her precious life source was predictable: "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" 

In other words, "Why are you even here? Go draw your own water!" She had been disregarded by Jews (who believed Samaritans were the "red-headed stepchild" of Judaism, to use a Southern phrase) and counted as worthless by her own people. She couldn't understand why any Jewish person (and a man, no less) would approach her with a heart full of good intentions.

She figured that Jesus was like everyone else: He only wanted to take from her.

But Jesus had quite a different thing in mind. In exchange for the water that kept her alive, He would give her a baptism into new, everlasting life.

Naturally, though she saw that Jesus was tired and thirsty, the woman wanted to hold onto the tiny jar of water, so hard-won, that she thought was preserving her life. She had no concept that God could preserve her life eternally. Instead, her initial reaction was to deny Jesus the mercy He asked of her, not knowing that He was stretching out His hand to offer her an infinitely greater mercy.

To her, a woman worth nothing, her tiny bucket was priceless. To Him, she was priceless.

How often do we shy away when Jesus says to us, "Give me a drink"? He asks for our hearts, our sense of identity in our reputation or circumstances, all of the things we believe we have worked so hard to obtain. He asks for nothing less than our very lives. But in exchange, He gives us something greater: streams of living water--His life!

And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong, writes Isaiah, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail (58:11).

The woman at the well was not an unbeliever. She was a Samaritan who worshipped the one true God, but she didn't have the tools to understand who He was. She probably knew that, for all her fighting, she was still dying inside. Since the Jews held onto the holy scriptures and were unwilling to share God's word with this woman, God Himself came to her and gave her a word. Though she was cautious and probably a little surly at first, she softened when Jesus revealed what He knew about her supernaturally, proving He was sent from God.

As she suddenly understood Jesus' identity, the woman responded in a beautiful way.

So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" (John 4:28-29)

Because she had a sudden revelation of Jesus' identity, the woman abandoned her precious water jar without a second thought, fleeing from the well that was both a source of physical life and a source of condemnation for her. In her excitement, she forgot that she was thirsty. And she went to the very people who had rejected her to offer them the acceptance of a Savior.

Jesus desires not only that we would have eternal life, but that we would have the infinite joy of becoming like Him, so full of water that we would share it generously with all who thirst.

"Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:13-15).

People who are dying of thirst will be unwilling to share even a sip of water from their jars. They find Jesus' request too demanding. But everything changes when you realize that He is a God who wants to take your rejection, exhaustion, condemnation, and hopelessness in exchange for a life that lasts forever. Give Him your water jar, your life, today.

"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food" (Isaiah 55:1-2)