Today’s Old Testament lesson comes just after the Israelites had literally received ‘bread from heaven’.  At the beginning of chapter 16 of Exodus they had been whingeing big time to Moses and Aaron, saying that it would have been better to have died by God’s hand in Egypt than to put up with starvation in such a barren place.  And so God provided quails in the twilight and manna in the morning and the risk of starvation abated.  That might have been expected to bring forth gratitude but it seems it did not!

As they travelled on so water became the next problem.  Much of the wilderness was like desert and in often hot temperatures water was a constant concern.  Hunger is a problem but not immediately life-threatening but lack of water particularly in hot sunshine can quickly make people ill.  So the concern of the Israelites was not unreasonable. However I suspect the way in which they approached Moses was not particularly gracious as it seems that by this time most of them thought it was Moses’ fault they were in the Wilderness at all!  Certainly they had remarkably short memories about how life had been for them in Egypt.  But of course as soon as Moses turned to God the problem was solved:

God said, and so it did.  Unfortunately even this does not seem to have extracted gratitude from the people of Israel.  Moses renamed the place in recognition of their behaviour with words which mean ‘testing’ and ‘quarrelling’.  How very sad and very appropriate!

In the Gospel reading Jesus too was thirsty.  He and the disciples were journeying from Judea to Galilee and they had chosen the most direct route which went through Samaria.  The disciples had gone into Sychar to buy provisions but Jesus was weary in the heat of the noonday and he sat down at Jacob’s well which was outside the town. Unfortunately he had nothing with which to draw the water so he just sat and watched. And somewhat unexpectedly at this time of day, a woman appeared with a bucket to draw water.  What was the woman doing there?  Certainly there was a well, and a very good, established well at that.  But why was she coming out of town, where surely there would have been a water supply, and why was she collecting water in the heat of the day?  It rather suggested that she was an outcast for some reason.

No doubt Jesus realised that but he just asked for some water, because he was thirsty. In doing so, according to the protocol of the times, he broke every rule in the book.  As a Rabbi it was forbidden that he greeted a woman in public and a strict Rabbi wasn’t even allowed to speak to a female relative or his wife in public.  None of this made any difference to Jesus as he spoke to this Samaritan outcast and asked for her to care for him by providing him with water.  But not surprisingly she was very taken aback. She knew about protocol even if he seemed to have forgotten!  But more than that, as we learn later in the story, her experience with men had not been good.  It may be that she had been widowed five times, although that seems extraordinarily unfortunate, but in any case the man she was now living with had not married her, and in the eyes of the Law and her community, this would have made her a social pariah. However, Jesus saw beyond this and took the opportunity to talk about more weighty matters, to talk about God’s provision for her and for all, presumably after drinking some water that she had provided for him. 

For Jews, for whom John was writing his gospel, the concept of ‘living water’ was one that they would have understood on two levels: living water was ‘running water’ as opposed to stagnant water, and it would therefore be safe to drink.  But there was also the image of the soul thirsting for God, such as in Psalm 42:

The theme of living water in the Old Testament was therefore seen as an image of salvation.  The Samaritan woman’s first response, of wanting an unending supply of water, was understandable, as she must have found the chore of daily collecting water for her family in the heat of the day, a gruelling one, but later in the passage she seemed to have understood something of what Jesus was telling her.  After Jesus had explained a little more of what he meant, she hurried off to be one of the first Christian missionaries.  On one hand she didn’t fully understand about living water but on the other hand her encounter with Jesus changed her – she ran back to the village where she was an outcast and told them what she had learnt from talking to Jesus. She didn’t stop to consider whether anyone would listen to her, she just needed to share the good news.

When the disciples returned with some food and encouraged Jesus to eat something, they seemed to be mystified by his words about sustenance from above.  It would seem that the woman had taken on board more of what Jesus had said than the disciples were able to do! 

So what does this have to say to us?  Are we spiritually dry, in urgent need of refreshment?  How do we know and what do we do about it?  Are we like the Israelites or are we like the Samaritan woman?  Are we constantly complaining or are we desperate to learn more about God and sharing His love with others? 

We should be spiritually thirsty because it is when we have this thirst that we are drawn to spend time with God, to begin to relieve our thirst.  The more time we spend with God, the more living water will run through our veins and the more those we meet will develop a thirst for the things of God.  If we are spiritually thirsty we will drink of that living water that we heard about in today’s Gospel.  And that spring of living water will come bubbling out of us.  People will know that we have something special in our lives and they will want to know what it is so that they can experience it too.  It was the living water of love that flowed from Jesus that brought him down to Earth from heaven to redeem us. It was the living water that flowed out of him that drew him to the Cross to die for us all.  

If we are plumbed into God that living water will flow through us and to others.  William Barclay reminds us God is relying on each of us to spread His Good News:

We all have many encounters with others as we live out our lives.  We have no way of knowing what impact we may have on someone in either a positive or negative way. For most of us coming to faith was a gradual process with help from many along the way.  If we tap into God we will be given the ability to show others God’s love. It may be in small practical ways, such as giving someone food or drink, or it may in more spiritual ways. God knows the needs of those with whom we have contact and if we listen to Him, we can begin to help others to find the living water that they are thirsting for.

To be equipped for this we each need to spend time with God.  There are many ways in which He can speak to us, and as individuals our needs are different.  I hope and pray that this Lent will be a time when we all grow spiritually and that this spiritual growth will draw others to the God who, because of His great love for all, spent time on earth learning what it was like to be human.  As the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews wrote:

What a privilege and a joy it is to be able spend time that high priest.

Amen.