Living Water

Darling River

The Barkindji people come from an area in the Far West New South Wales.

They refer to themselves as the Paakantyi, which translates in their language as the River People. The Paakantyi dwelt on a river they called the Baaka, but we more commonly know as the Darling River.

And the town in the heartland of the Barkindji people, is Wilcannia.

For the last three years, the Darling River at Wilcannia has not flowed.

Now it’s not the first time this has happened. But when it doesn’t flow, it has a real impact on these people.

About a week ago, though, the dry river bed started flowing. You see, there was significant rain in Queensland, in the catchment that flows into this river.

Now I just love this photo which I’ve sourced from the ABC website. You see, this photo is taken just a short period of time before the river was due to flow again from the flood waters of Queensland.

What you can see is the dry river bed - but the smiling faces of the people in anticipation.

A Barkindji elder told the ABC about how the full river would transform the local community. He said that they’ll be camping on the river and that people would take their kids and go fishing.

A local school teacher spoke about how you could feel the energy and positivity around town and at the school.

The fact is, before this recent flow, their water supply situation was desperate. They were trucking in water. Some families were reportedly spending $60 per week on bottled water.

With this new flow, a local council expert suggests that their water supply should be secure for at least twelve months.

You see, it is bringing a sense of life to this town. It is lifting them up in a special way.

So you can well imagine how this would translate to excitement. But as vital as the water supply is, I think there is a sense of life that the water in this river brings. It brings hope. It brings joy. It brings people together.

The water we need

In the passage that we’re going to look at today, we see Jesus introducing the concept of living water. I’ll explore what Jesus means by this term, but I think it is no surprise that he has used water in this way, because the physical property of water is so life giving.

You see, we all need water. We need water to drink, and water to wash, and even water to have fun with.

When it is absent, or we are faced with big restrictions, we really notice.

Well, I’m going to suggest that there is a close parallel with something spiritual in our lives.

Unlike water, it’s a little harder to figure out what it is, but it is just as real.

When this spiritual something is missing, our bodies ache. It is as though our life is sapping away.

We look for meaning, but we can’t find it. We try to quench this thirst with things like career, or splashing out on luxuries or on friends. But whatever it is, it always disappoints. People let us down. Careers end in frustration. Our cheap thrills become empty.

We want… we need something more. Something different. Not just a variation on what we are already doing, but a big shift.

We need the water to start flowing, but in our life - what does that water look like.

This morning I want to consider two big questions.

Firstly, what is that water that we so desperately need?

And secondly, what do we do once we receive that desperately needed water?

Woman at the Well

So, let’s look at this passage to help us answer these two questions.

It starts with Jesus moving north, starting in Judea and going to Galilee.

Historical setting

Now, the history of this part of the world has a big bearing on this account, so it’s important we set the picture right.

Without going into all the detail, but way back in the Old Testament you might recall that the mighty kingdom of Israel under the leadership of King David went through some hiccups at the end of his son, King Solomon’s reign, after which we saw the kingdom split in two, a northern one and a southern one.

Over time, both kingdoms were wiped out by various world super powers. The Northern kingdom was taken by Assyria and the southern by Babylon.

The Babylonians allowed the southern kingdom to keep their identity, and so when they were eventually allowed to re-enter the land that had been taken from them, they took pride in their pure heritage. It is these people that we refer to as the Jews.

By contrast, the Assyrians essentially forced the people of the Northern Kingdom to be scattered, and they intermarried with other nations.

While some of these people found themselves back on the land they had previously occupied, their religious practice looked quite different. These people were known as Samaritans, and the Jews in particular looked at them with much scorn. They had polluted the Word of God. They were not clean.

Geographical setting

Well, that gives you a bit of the historical context. Geographically, we also get a slightly odd situation. You see, the Jews were mostly located around the region surrounding the city of Jerusalem. But there were also Jews further north in the region around the sea of Galilee -albeit, the Jews from Jerusalem did have their suspicions about the Galilean Jews.

But between these two groups of Jews, falls the area in which the Samaritans lived. And so when a Jew travelled from Judea (in the south) to Galilee (in the north), they could choose to go a long route which would scoot around the edges of Samaria, or a shorter route that would take them through the land of the Samaritans.

Verse 4 just says that Jesus “had to” go through Samaria, although it doesn’t elaborate on why he “had to”, but there’s probably not much point in speculating too much on this.

What we do know, is that as he traveled through this land he came to a place called Sychar which we’re reminded in the account has some important Old Testament significance. It was the place in which Jacob, one of the patriarchs, had a well.

The meeting

Now Jesus is tired from his travels - which on a side note reminds us that though Jesus was God, he was also human. And so Jesus sits down by the well, while his disciples go off to the town to buy some food.

We’re told that it is about noon, which is significant because it’s the hottest part of the day, and the time you wouldn’t expect locals to be accessing the well.

The Woman

But nevertheless, along comes a Samaritan woman. The fact that she comes at this time of day quite likely indicates that she is somewhat socially isolated.

Now if you were here last week, I looked at the time when Jesus met Nicodemus in . Well, the person he is about to have an encounter with now is almost as opposite as you can get.

Nicodemus was a well respected male Jew.

This woman is a socially isolated, female Samaritan.

Now one of the great things about Jesus is that no matter who he is talking to, he is able to speak the words they need to hear in the manner they need to hear it.

He doesn’t get frightened by social conventions, but breaks through them with love and dignity.

The request

And so as the Samaritan woman approaches, Jesus opens the conversation with a simple request for some water.

It’s simple enough. They’re next to a well and she has the means to get it.

But as comfortable as Jesus is, the Samaritan is taken by surprise. She immediately recognises him as a Jew, and she knows that it is just not the done thing to ask such a question.

But Jesus, a master at conversation, is not bothered by her surprise, instead, turning the situation into a perfect opportunity to speak words of life into her.

Living Water

He says (in verse 10): “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water”.

Not surprisingly, the woman doesn’t quite understand what’s going on.

Now before we become too critical of the woman’s ability to catch on, it is worth realising that the term “living water” can be understood in two different ways.

A fresh spring

The first way, which the woman would most likely have first thought about, the term “living water” is a term that could be given to fresh flowing water from a spring. You could say that it is in contrast with say, stale or stagnant water.

In one sense, you could think of the water that the people of Wilcannia welcomed, as it flowed down the dry river bed was living water.

Metaphorical meaning

But the second way, is that it could be understood in a metaphorical sense. This metaphorical understanding draws on various Old Testament allusions. Take for example which pictures a future time when “living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea”.

The picture of not of a literal spring of water, but of the Spirit of God that will pour out.

Now for the woman to understand this metaphorical sense, she would have needed to be familiar with the scriptures. The Samaritans however, only recognised the first five books, known as the Pentateuch as Scripture.

Well, in verses 13 and 14, Jesus makes it clear that this water is not natural water. You can drink the natural water, but it won’t be long and you’ll be thirsty again. But not with the living water he provides.

He is talking of a different nature, but it’s just as real and just as important - or from an eternal perspective, you could say it is far more important.

Well I don’t think the woman properly understands - she just hears the idea of not being thirsty again and she thinks that it sounds pretty good.

Her husband

But then we get this somewhat bizarre conversation, at the end of which, you would have to say that she is a changed person.

Jesus asks for her husband. ‘Why?’, You might ask...

Well, good question, but it would seem that as Jesus looks into her heart, he can see where some of the dissatisfaction is coming from.

And from this question and the little interaction that follows, she concludes that he must be a prophet.

A question of worship

We then get another bizarre switch in topic. This time instigated by the woman. She questions whether the centre of worship should be Samaria or Jerusalem.

Now some people have suggested she is just trying to change the topic because the last one was a bit embarrassing for her. But I think there is more to it.

You see, with the recognition that Jesus is a prophet, she wants to go deeper. She’s interacted with Jesus. Now she wants to worship.

But… unfortunately we have this uncanny ability to put barriers up stopping us doing the thing that comes naturally.

And for both the Jews and Samaritans, they had strict ways of worshiping - of which included the place of worship. This was one big difference between the two. And if the woman recognised Jesus as a prophet and as a Jew - this suddenly caused a conflict she needed resolution for.

But Jesus doesn’t get sucked into this debate. His eyes are fixed on something bigger. Jesus speaks of a time coming when the place of worship is not important.

A new way to worship

But then notice what he says in verse 23: “Yet a time is coming and has now come...” In other words, while this future time when the place of worship is not important is still to come, in Jesus, it has already come.

Jesus then says in verse 24: “God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth”.

Now lets not get confused. I heard people try to differentiate between what it means to worship in spirit and what it means to worship in truth. But these are two aspects of the same thing. You can’t worship in truth but not in spirit, or spirit but not in truth.

The point is, when we respond to the living water of Jesus, the place and the means are not important - what’s important is that we are worshipping God who is both spirit and truth.

Jesus the Messiah

Well the conversation reached a climax in verses 25 and 26.

The woman acknowledges that there is a Messiah coming, and Jesus unambiguously identifies as this Messiah.

The strange thing is, during this early phase in the ministry of Jesus, when he is in Jewish areas he is very coy about revealing his identity. He knows the chaos it will cause. But when he is not in Jewish areas, he doesn’t have such apprehension.

After the conversation...

Well, in verse 27, the disciples return and they’re surprised but refrain from asking too many questions, they seem to understand there is something different with Jesus.

But the woman - well, she has now tasted this water.

Now the thing with water is that it flows. That’s what the people of Wilcannia saw as the waters that fell in Queensland flowed into their region.

And that’s what happens with the living waters from Jesus. You see, once it starts flowing it moves.

And this living water flows through this woman, and into the people of the town in which she lives.

The harvest

We’ll see the result of this flow in just a moment, but as the returned disciples and Jesus have a short conversation, the metaphor changes.

You see, Jesus starts talking about the harvest that is to come.

But in some ways, the metaphor isn’t that different. You see, the metaphor really expands on the natural consequence of the living water that is being used.

We see it with the farming communities. They receive water, but it takes time for the harvest to come.

When the living water of Jesus flows, people will receive the life changing benefits immediately, but the ongoing changes in the lives of others will take some time.

Samaritans witness

We see the start of this harvest in verse 39 when the Samaritan woman allows this living water to flow. The towns people believe. But they want to see the source of this living water for themselves.

They urge Jesus to stay with them, which he does for two days.

They not only taste the living water. They have the absolute privilege of dwelling in it.

Finding the water

Earlier I suggested I wanted to answer two questions.

The first question was to figure out what our real thirst is. You see, we have this spiritual something that is missing in our lives.

Well, as this Samaritan woman found, that satisfaction can only be found through Jesus. Jesus brings life. He brings a spiritual refreshment that flows from him like water.

Now, if you’ve never experience Jesus, then that probably sounds like a whole lot of sentimental rubbish.

But ask those who have experienced Him. Because it is not sentimental rubbish. It is real. It may be supernatural, but it makes a real difference.

You see, when you experience Jesus, that spiritual hunger becomes satisfied.

And so I would urge you to seek Jesus. That can start by simply asking Jesus to reveal himself to you. Seeking him in the Bible. Fixing your thoughts on him.

It also helps to hang around people who know him well.

As you seek him out, you will notice a difference. Not necessarily an end to all your problems. But a sense of satisfaction, like when you have a drink of cold water when you’re thirsty.

What we do next

But I said there was a second question I wanted to answer. And that was what we do after we’ve tasted that water.

Well the Woman at the Well gives us a good example.

Let the water flow!

That might mean what we classically think of as evangelism - that is, when we tell others the good news of Jesus Christ.

But it can also just mean being Jesus to others. Obviously we’re not Jesus in the sense that we’re not the ones that bring salvation. But we can speak words of life into others. We can encourage others. We can help the vulnerable.

As Jesus said in the parable of the sheep and the goats, feed the hungry. Give water to the thirsty. Invite the stranger. Visit the sick and the prisoners.

Let the living water flow. Let people know that they don’t need to live with the sense of dissatisfaction. Because there is something better.

If you’ve tasted it, then let others have it too.

Conclusion

I look at that picture I showed at the start and see the excited faces of the Barkindji people waiting for the water to arrive.

They new the difference it would make. They were desperate for this water.

Unfortunately, there are many people out there who are desperate for the living water, but they don’t even realise what it is that they are missing.

But we have tasted it. And we have an opportunity to share it with others.

If you’ve never tasted it then allow this time to seek after Jesus. Because in him you will find living waters flowing.

And if you have tasted it, then let it flow.

Because this water is the best thing we can ever hope for.

Let me pray...