Water of Life

John 4:13-14 “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.””

What Does Eternal Life Mean to You?

This is an oddly difficult text.

What is it about these words that sends the Samaritan woman running back to tell everyone in her town about the incredible things Jesus said?

As I’ve pointed out on other occasions, there are passages of scripture that are so powerful that we naturally take them to heart: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”; “‘I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord”; “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son....” John 4:13-14 is not one of those passages. Does “The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” stir your heart in the same way? Does it inspire you at all? Is it an idea that gives you hope or comfort?

Let’s cut to the heart of our challenge with this text: What does eternal life mean to you?

These verses aren’t completely without significance. If you have a loved one who has died, then this could be a comforting statement of Jesus. Those you love who have died in the faith are not lost and gone. They have eternal life.

But is that all that these verses mean to you?

Is this promise from Jesus just a vague assurance that, when you’re done playing around here in this world there will still be something more?

If that is all that this promise of eternal life means, then the woman’s reaction— running to tell her whole town about the incredible things that this stranger at the well just told her— seems really odd.

What if eternal life means more than just a spiritual life insurance policy— just making sure you’re covered if something unexpected happens?

That’s why it’s, arguably, so important that this reading from John 4 is paired with an Old Testament reading like Exodus 17. When Jesus promises a spring of water welling up to eternal life, it isn’t just off in the future. It is a river in the desert.

You’ve been thirsty before, I’m sure. But you’ve never looked at a drinking fountain the way that the Children of Israel looked at the rock that Moses struck and it poured out water. It’s not only a question of the miracle involved. It’s also because of their need.

As much as we look down on the Children of Israel in the wilderness for their lack of faith, they did face very real and present dangers. They were in the wilderness. Where in the world were they going to get food to feed themselves and their children? Or, more immediately, where were they going to find water for themselves and their children in the desert? Criticize their lack of trust all you want, but you don’t have the sun beating down on you like they did. You aren’t feeling the desperate thirst.

The relief that the Children of Israel felt when water gushed out of that rock is the same sense of relief that the Samaritan woman at the well felt. The relief that the Samaritan woman at the well felt when Jesus offered her “living water” is the relief that He would have you feel, as well.

This seems to me to be one of those passages that are difficult for us as American Christians. How excited can you get for the prospect of eternal life when you’ve got your new fifth wheel? How excited can you get for the promise of eternal life when you’re headed up north to your cabin next weekend? How excited can you get for the promise of eternal life when you’re headed to Florida for Spring Break?

I suspect that those are the things that make it a difficult text for us to grasp. And yet, even we American Christians must feel the thirst, as well.

The camper has to be stored away at times. Life isn’t all lived up north. You can go to Florida, but you’ll have to come back. As fun as they are, those are momentary distractions from real life.

So much of our time and energy is spent on things that seem urgent— and are, in that moment— but really don’t matter, in the end. How much of what you do will need to be done again tomorrow? The clothes always need to be washed; the house always needs to be dusted; the oil always needs to be changed; the snow always needs to be shoveled. If not, just give it a moment and it will.

Are the distractions in your life enough? If they were taken away from you could you survive? And how long will they be enough?

I remember a story that a comedian shared about how quickly we become jaded to the things we have. He described a flight that he was on back when the airlines were just starting to offer in-flight Wifi. The passengers all were seated and settled in and, after the usual announcements, when they were underway, the flight attendant announced this new thing that they were offering: free in-flight Wifi. The passengers could now use their devices during the trip. They all logged on excitedly and everything was great for about 15 minutes until it crashed. The flight attendant came on the p.a. again and apologized because they couldn’t get the Wifi working. The passengers had to settle back in for the rest of the flight without Wifi, but the passenger next to him immediately started cursing out the flight attendants, the airline, and anyone else he could think of because he no longer could use this thing that he didn’t even know existed half an hour earlier.

How long with those distractions be enough?

You and I work hard to build something lasting in this world. Then the honest, hardworking business owner loses everything through no fault of his own. Innocent people suddenly find themselves the victims of senseless violence. Far too many have their lives completely uprooted and upended by war, ending up as refugees who are scraping to try to stay alive.

If life were neutral, then the monotony might be acceptable. But it’s not. This world is full of suffering. Is life really worth it? Is it worth the suffering?

Even the best things that you build in this world are fragile and fleeting.

Death is not just a ‘someday’ thing. Death is now, too. It’s what makes it impossible to do anything truly meaningful, truly lasting in this world.

And that’s the best case. Sadly, it’s the things you’d rather forget that have a tendency to go on and on and on.... How many people have you hurt years ago— sometimes decades ago— and that pain is still as fresh as ever?

These are some of the reasons why the author of the book of Ecclesiastes decides that the day of death is better than the day of birth.

You and I live in a spiritual wasteland. A spiritual desert. By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for you are dust and to dust you shall return (Gen. 3:19).

Streams of Living Water

Seeing their need, God sent Moses to the least expected place to find water: a rock. And the Children of Israel drank from that rock.

They saw, there at Massah and Meribah, that the Lord was with them in the wilderness. They drank from streams in the desert. They tasted and saw that the Lord is good.

He sends you to an unexpected place, as well. Seeing your need for life in this spiritual desert, He sends you to a place of death. He sends you to the cross of Jesus Christ.

The eternal Son of God had stepped forth from His place in eternity and was born into this dying world. He grew up here like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground (Is. 53:2).

There on the cross, all of His efforts looked like they had come to nothing. He was a teacher whose students abandoned Him. He was a king who was crowned with thorns. His 3 year ministry had now come to an end with His brutal death. He didn’t even leave behind a wife to remember Him or children to carry on His name. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed Him not (Is. 53:3).

There, the Son of God was poured out like water; His heart melted like wax; His strength was dried up like a potsherd, His tongue stuck to His jaws, He was laid in the dust of death (Psalm 22:14).

But, three days later, a river of the water of life from the rock of His empty tomb. The sin that brought death to this world and makes this world a spiritual desert had been placed upon Him. He had borne your griefs and carried your sorrows. He was pierced for your transgressions; He was crushed for your iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought you peace, and with His wounds you are healed (Is. 53:5).

The blood and water that flowed from His side when His body was pierced by the soldier’s spear point to the life that flows from Him, making streams in the desert of this world.

Daily Eternal Life

That living water is just as precious to you, as the physical water was to the Children of Israel or Jacob’s well was to the people of that Samaritan town.

For a few centuries, God’s people tried to produce something lasting with their lives. They tried to do that by locking themselves away from the mundane needs of this world. They became monks and nuns and they claimed that their prayers, their penance, their daily lives were more holy than anything normal people could achieve, with all their concerns about spouses and children and the futility of daily life. But consider what Luther said about that.

115 [L]et us learn this at last: placing all other things out of sight, let our youths look [to the fourth] commandment if they wish to serve God with truly good works. Then they may do what is pleasing to their fathers and mothers, or to those to whom they may be subject instead of parents. For every child that knows and does this has, in the first place, this great consolation in his heart. He can joyfully say and boast (in spite of and against all who are occupied with works of their own choice): “Behold, this work is well pleasing to my God in heaven, that I know for certain.” 116 Let them all come together with their many great, distressing, and difficult works and make their boast. We will see whether they can show one work that is greater and nobler than obedience to father and mother. For to parents God has appointed and commanded obedience next to His own majesty. For if God’s Word and will are in force and being accomplished, nothing shall be valued higher than the will and word of parents, as long as that, too, is subordinated to obedience toward God and is not opposed to the preceding commandments.

117 Therefore, you should be heartily glad and thank God that He has chosen you and made you worthy to do a work so precious and pleasing to Him. Only note this: although this work is regarded as the most humble and despised, consider it great and precious. Do this not because of the worthiness of parents, but because this work is included in, and controlled by, the jewel and sanctuary, namely, the Word and commandment of God. 118 Oh, what a high price all ...monks, and nuns would pay if in all their religious activities they could bring into God’s presence a single work done by virtue of His commandment, and if they were able to say with joyful heart before His face, “Now I know that this work is well pleasing to You!”

Just as death was a daily reality, the eternal life Jesus promised is a daily reality for you, as well. Not only will you find that everything you have done that has caused lasting pain to others has been washed clean by the blood of Christ and will be remembered no more, but He will look at the fruit of your life— the fruit of the long days you spent doing the same things again and again and again; the fruit of all the moments when your best plans utterly failed; the fruit of the (imperfect, faltering) acts of love that you’ve done for whomever God has led into your life— He will look at that fruit and He will say to you, “Well done.” Those are the deeds will follow you.

“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.””

It’s not an easy passage. But if we’re willing to give real thought to what eternal life means, we’ll discover more blessings than we could have imagined, both now and for eternity.