...that's what King Jesus was...and is.
Can you imagine being evangelized by the Evangel of evangels? That's
exactly what happened to an unnamed lady who sought to fill life's void
with human relationships. Having requested a draught from the community
well - the woman was taken aback by the King's forwardness - "how is it
that YOU, being a JEW, ask a drink from ME, a SAMARITAN WOMAN"? Emphasis on
the capitalized words explain her shock. Religious first century JEWS
discriminated against the Samaritans. Her description of "ME" identifies
further strikes. Yep, she was a SAMARITAN alright. But she was also a
WOMAN! Ritualistic pious first century Jewish males just didn't engage in
informal discourse with the opposite sex, especially Samaritans.
But King Jesus was no ordinary ritualistic pious male.
"If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a
drink', you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living
water", He cleverly deflected the cultural prejudice of first century
Palestine. Instead, He positively enticed her with life-transforming
possibilities - "the gift of God" and "living water" while simultaneously
raising personal intrigue with the Man with whom she was speaking - "If you
knew...Who it is who says to you, 'give Me a drink', you would have asked
Him...". She was not speaking with just any ordinary person. No,
unbeknownst to her, she was engaged in a conversation with the Creator of
all...her Creator. Can any of us imagine personally discoursing with the
Creator of the universe?
Yes, the omniscient King went out of His way to speak with this lady for,
"He needed to go through Samaria". But why?...
...because He was needed. She needed Him. In fact, all the Samaritans of
her town needed Him.
Like all of us, she had been seeking to satisfy her heart's thirst with
something. For her, it was someone or more like, someones. The
all-knowing One revealed to this unnamed lady that she had had five
husbands and the one with whom she was cohabitating was not her husband.
None of the men of her life satisfied the deepest yearnings of her heart.
She went through them like the water she'd daily fetch at the local well.
Ho-hum, mundane, discontent, labor intensive, best describe both her
external and internal worlds as she repeatedly frequented the well only to
be* temporarily* satisfied of her thirst. Lyricist Clara Williams perfectly
captures the Samaritan women's sentiment in her 1857 hymn, "Satisfied"...
"All my life long I had panted
For a draught from some cool spring,
That I hoped would quench the burning
Of the thirst I felt within."
Intentionally evengelistic, the King offered her thirsty soul, permanent
satisfaction...
..."whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of
the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I
shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into
everlasting life."
Yeah buddy, that's the water she longed for! - "The woman said to Him,
'Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw'".
Intentionally evagelistic, that's what the King was and still is today. He
pursues each of us to enjoy an intimate, satisfying relationship with Him
knowing that only He can fulfill the deepings longings of our broken
hearts. After further discourse with her Creator, the Samaritan woman
would recognize the identity of He who spoke with her and turn evangelistic
herself- "the woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and
said to the men, 'come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did.
Could this be the Messiah?'" She would exclaim, in the words of Ms.
William's hymn...
"Well of water, ever springing
Bread of life, so rich and free,
untold wealth that never faileth,
My Redeemer is to me!
Hallelujah! I have found Him
Whom my soul so long has craved!
Jesus satisfies my longings;
Through His life I now am saved."
And, as result of this woman's conversion, the entire town was turned
upside down, "and many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him
because of the word of the woman who testified, 'He told me all that I ever
did'".
So what about us? Are we intentionally evangelistic? Truth is, many of us
have no good-news to tell. Perhaps we've never drank from the King's well
and continue to thirst. The King invites us to enjoy His "fountain of
water springing up into everlasting life". Are we willing to drink from His
well?
As for the permanently satisfied among us, like the Samaritan woman, what
an absolute privilege to jubilantly share the very message that has
permanently quenched our thirst with those around us who continually, "pant
for a draught from some cool spring".
"Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the
water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall
give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into
everlasting life." - King Jesus
