John 4:13-15 -- 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
Quick recap of where the journey in this conversation has been.
- Jesus asks the Samaritan woman for a drink. Turning culture and religion upside down just by doing so.
- The woman is surprised and calls out surface level things, "You a Jew", "me a Samaritan".
- Jesus redirects her by responding, "If you knew…", talks of God, Himself and Living water. He piques her curiosity.
- She then responds to say, "You have nothing to get water out of this well.". She even brings up the past by asking Jesus, "are you greater than Jacob?". She's again looking at the surface level, just as Nicodemus did.
So, today we find Jesus responding and explaining deeper about this Living Water and what it can do.
The one thing that jumped out today is how Jesus keeps talking about things that appear to be just one step out of reach of the person's understanding. He talked to Nicodemus this way. Now, we see Him talking to the Samaritan woman this way too.
If you've read the Gospels, you know Jesus taught a lot through parables. However, what hit me today was how Jesus turns people's brains on!
Just yesterday was a recap of all Jesus' interactions so far in the book of John. When you look through each of those encounters you see over and over what Jesus did or said required people to stop and think. It required them to process words and actions, then come to their own decision or understanding.
Why am I following Him? What is He talking about? If He's not going to do a miracle, should I leave? Do I really care who this guy is? Follow Him when I don't know where He's going? Why did He say this to me? How did He know this about me? What does He mean Living Water? On and on and on...
I had a science teacher once who left the room every time we had a test. She also left her teacher's copy with answers on her desk. So, you'd better believe the ENTIRE class got an A+ on every test ever taken. However, ask me how much I learned or remember. It's a short list… I remember everyone making an A+ on the tests and playing hacky sack in the back of the room the last ten minutes of each class. My hacky sack game improved, but with zero challenge to my brain over science, I can't even recall what type of science class it was.
We see Jesus over and over challenging peoples boxed in beliefs, traditions, and understanding. Could you imagine if Jesus said to Nicodemus right out of the gate, "What you believe and teach is wrong. Your Jewish heritage isn't enough. Here is the truth." This approach would've immediately thrown Nicodemus into defense mode. Ready to battle it out. Instead, Jesus speaks to Him one step above where He's at. It requires Nicodemus to stop and think. To start connecting the dots. It draws Him deeper into Jesus and further outside his own box.
Now, don't get me wrong as we've seen with Jesus already sometimes action, direct confrontation, or just direct commanding is necessary. However, when we see the deep conversations so far Jesus really leads to put your thinking cap on.
Christian, have you slowed down, talked with the Lord (pray), read His Living Word (Bible), and really thought through what God has done, what He has to say? Have you taken His words and actions and processed them yourself?
Now, I realize we all have a million things going on and there just isn't enough time in the day to barely even breathe sometimes, but if we shut our minds off and rely only on other people's direction, understanding, interpretations, preaching, words, devotionals, then can you really say you have relationship with Him? With Jesus? Tough question I know.
My grandfather, we called him Papa, had a saying that I heard many times growing up myself, and then many, many more times as we raised our three boys in the same home with him.
"Think boy. Think."
Beloved, I know I bring up 1 John 2:6 all the time, but it's important. If you profess Jesus, you wave the Christian flag, you say you abide in Him, you owe a debt to walk as He walked. How can you do that if you don't slow down and spend time with Him? How can you do that if you don't put on a thinking cap and really think through what He says? How can you do that if you don't see for yourself how He walked, what He did?
I close with this: "Think beloved. Think."
Don't take my word on this stuff. This is just where my time with Him went today. Get into His Word and search it out. Listen to His truth. Watch His love unfold. He's waiting for you.
You are loved. You are prayed over. You are not alone. Please, reach out if you need to chat or pray.
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