A truly astonishing gift

Hi there,

It's easy to "take sides" when we read Scripture.

I do it all the time.

Invariably taking the "right" side of any discussion or lesson. Imagining that if I had an encounter with Jesus, rather like the one we are overhearing this week, I would ask better, more spiritually-rich questions and wouldn't be nearly as obtuse as the Samaritan woman.

As if!

Jesus' offer of water that "will become in them a spring of water" is astonishing. And its importance isn't lost on the woman. An ever-sustaining spring of water means one less chore each day.

Result!

As C.S Lewis famously noted;

"We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Today's text is John 4:10-15

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “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.”

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Encouragement

As I was copying this out, I tripped over the phrase, "the water I give them will become in them..." but the clunky phraseology created enough friction for me to genuinely consider what this means.

It's a truly astonishing gift.
​

Andy

I published an overview of all Jesus' quoted words from the New Testament on my substack. If you'd like to learn a little bit more about the origin of the red letter Bible and how many of Jesus' words are captured in each Gospel, then you can read about it here.