The Story of My Life: The Living Water: The Story of the Samaritan Woman

The Story Of My Life 4

The Living Water: The Story of the Samaritan Woman

by Daniel Carandang

written by Kathy Raga

That empty, vacant feeling

 You seem to be good at almost everything yet you feel as if there’s something missing. When everything you have done may not seem to satisfy your heart and mind, it’s quite unnerving. You try to reach your goals yet after succeeding you are still unfulfilled.

Ever felt this way?

You are not alone. Most of us have experienced the same feeling. We keep on searching for answers that are not easy to find. Then when everything seems quite bleak, we resolve to use the trial-and-error method in life. It’s quite the norm for us humans to keep on searching till we see the answer we want.

In truth, it is just within our grasp. It has always been there but we fail to acknowledge it, let alone believe it. It is there, right in front of us, written in the Bible- the Word of God.

The story of the Samaritan woman holds the answer to our question.

Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— ² although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³ So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

John 4:1-3

Jesus did not depart because He was afraid. He went to Galilee because a revelation was about to unfold before their eyes. It was the plan of His God, the Father.

Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

John 4:2-6

Now, Samaria was considered a  “cursed” place during those times. Pharisees despised the Samaritans. Even the Jews shared the same beliefs. There was a rule that Jews SHOULD NOT intermarry with foreigners for they are pagans. However, the inhabitants of Samaria disobeyed this rule and they started worshipping other gods. This caused the rivalry between the Jews and Samarians. The latter was always treated as an outcast in their society.

 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?”

John 4:7-9

This request was quite unusual because Jews hated Samarians. They would never go near them, let alone talk to them. Jesus was a Jew, so it was expected of Him to follow the belief. However, He dared to talk to the Samarian woman, proving a point: all of us are equal in our Lord’s eyes. The Samaritan Woman is perfectly aware of that rift. She was really baffled when the Jew asked her for water that she dared to ask Him.

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.”

John 4:10

The living water that Jesus was talking about is the Holy Spirit. He was giving the woman a hint of who He is. But apparently, the woman was quite confused with what He said.

“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?”

John 4:11

The Samaritan woman misunderstood Jesus. She thought that the “water” He was talking about is the liquid that we drink. She didn’t understand the metaphorical reference that Jesus used. Of course, the latter elaborated for her to understand the truth He was about to uncover for her.

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.” 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.”

Just like the Samaritan woman, we often miss the true message of the word of God. Sometimes, we don’t bother understanding it, leaving us with a shallow interpretation of it. This should serve as our reminder that simply reading the Bible will never be enough. What is the point of reading without digesting and understanding? We should study the Word and use what we learn in our lives.

¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

John 4:16-19

The woman was abashed that the Jew knew her life. All of those things that she did in the past were unraveled before her by a stranger. Because of her search for love and security, she jumped from one relationship to another, with the mentality that the current one will satisfy her. Amidst all that, Jesus revealed that she is lonely and unsatisfied. Something was definitely missing.

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

John 4:25-26

Jesus declared to her that He, the Jew who dared to cross the boundary, was the Messiah that will save all of us (even her) from eternal damnation in hell. He was the answer to the emptiness in her well of a life.

ARE YOU THIRSTY?

It doesn’t matter if you are successful in life- there will always be that void in your heart. Money, relationships, success and other materialistic stuff will never be enough to satisfy our emptiness- our thirst.  We think they do initially, but eventually, we realize that we are wasting our efforts and our time. Nothing on this earth can satiate our thirst.

The only thing that can satisfy us is a relationship with God. A relationship that can be attained by trusting Him completely. A relationship that can be attained by drinking the LIVING WATER, by living with the Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives is what we need in order to fill the gap. The story of the Samaritan woman proved this point.

Right now, we should realize that it’s pointless to keep searching the world for what we think we want. Jesus is all that we need. He is the Living Water, the One who can refresh us with His Word and His grace.