Can you recall a time when you were really thirsty? Can you recall a time when you needed to guzzle liquid? I remember such a time, and I wrote about that occasion years ago after hiking on the Appalachian Trail in 1990.
“Heat continued to be a factor as I hiked. Coming to a stream in the afternoon, I lifted my shirt right over my head. Dunking it in the stream, I then placed it over my torso. My whole body seemed to contract, and I made a noise of surprise. Letting water flow into my plastic water bottle, I then poured the quart of cold water onto my head. I put an iodine tablet into the water bottle after a second filling. I sat on the dirt ground and watched the tablet bubble on the bottom of the bottle, slowly dissolving…..After a period I figured to be about fifteen minutes (the minimum amount of time one was supposed to wait for a purification tablet to dissolve), I put the cap on the bottle. After shaking the bottle, I poured the entire quart of water down my throat in one consecutive drink.”
Today my pastor gave a wonderful sermon where he cited some Bible passages where Jesus offers to satisfy the thirst of a willing person. Now the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:10-11 asked where Jesus was going to get the living water told of by Jesus. The first time I ever read this passage, my question was: What is this living water? The term as the Samaritan woman probably first understood it referred to water from a flowing source, not stagnant. A flowing spring, stream, or river was a source of living water. Judea is a desert climate. Water was of primary value. “The Jordan flows all year round, fed by snow from Mt. Hermon. But this is exceptional. Most streams flow in sudden spates, followed by months when their beds are dry. So, from earliest times, the towns and villages of Israel have relied on wells and springs for their water supply.” (1)
Flowing water is less likely to be contaminated with germs. Contaminated water was a huge problem 2000 years ago in Judea and may have contributed to the reason goat’s milk, wine, and juice was so prevalent in that culture then. “In Roman times when water was brought to the towns by aqueduct (as it was to Caesarea and Bethlehem) or by pipeline (as it was to Jerusalem), the water was still not fit to drink. For this reason other liquids made better drinks.” (2)
Living water was fresh. Yet Jesus was not talking about H2O. Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit, using living water as a metaphor. All of us need God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for life. There is a need, a thirst, by the spiritual heart we all have inside our soul. God, who is love (I John 4:16), is who our hearts need.
I spoke to a youth group on Valentine’s Day of 2000. I said a key thing about love is you cannot see it, yet you can see the results of it. Jesus loves everyone, and He died on a cross for the forgiveness of sins of anyone. Jesus was God; He could have prevented His own death. Instead He was obedient to the Father, being the atoning sacrificing for the penalty of sin, which is spiritual death. If you believe in Jesus, you will be saved from the consequence of sins, and you will have eternal life. You will be baptized by Jesus with the Holy Spirit. Then you can be sustained by the living water of Christ, which is available daily. And you can live by the Holy Spirit to do what Jesus commanded us all to do; to love God and to love people. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of true Love!
Hunter Irvine
(1) Pat Alexander, ed., Eerdmans’ Family Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1978), 5.
(2) Pat Alexander, ed., Eerdmans’ Family Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1978), 219.
