John continues to show that Jesus is greater than the symbols of Israel today when He meets the Samaritan woman at the Sacred Well. Having traveled through Samaria, the center of worship for Israel back in the days of Ahab, He stops at one of the sacred wells that Jacob dug. Here He meets a woman and teaches us through her His supremacy over this powerful symbol of God’s provision.
In an arid land where water is hard to come by, the wells dug by the Patriarchs were not just watering holes for people and livestock but were symbols of God’s provision. Jesus comes to this sacred well and tells the woman He meets there that she can drink from this well and will thirst again. However, if she drinks from the water Jesus can give her then she will not only never thirst again, but will herself become a stream of living water. This intrigues her and so she presses on the conversation.
This image of water is a fitting one for Jesus. When we are spiritually thirsty, we try to quench that thirst with all sorts of things. We try to ignore it with distractions like media or busyness or addictions. We try to find other water that will quench it in things like human wisdom, philosophies, unhelpful relationships, “religion” or “spirituality”. But Jesus makes it clear that none of these things will work. The only thing that meets our spiritual thirst is a relationship with Jesus Himself. But more than that, He will not only quench our thirst but will give us all we need to help others find this solution to their thirst as well.
Jesus is enough for us, and a relationship with Him is the only cure for our thirsty souls.
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