In the peace that Jesus is, there is a fully faceted truth to be found. When speaking to the woman at the well, he promised living water which would guarantee no further ‘thirst.’ What thirsts would be slaked? Well, her desperate need to have a man, which savaged her through the humiliation of five divorces. And now she had to settle for a living situation with a man who would not marry her! She ‘thirsted’ for fellowship and community which now were unattainable due to her stained life. She thirsted for much more than her religion, which failed to provide her with the essentials for which she longed. She thirsted for belonging, for family, for being known and accepted – all of which were denied her. She thirsted for an end to shame, this debilitating weight on her shoulders. She thirsted for forgiveness, for an end to her sin-laden reputation. She thirsted for the return of childhood’s innocence, those carefree days when living held simplicity, long before the nightmarish, dead-end existence she now knew. And Jesus, looking her in the eyes, not grimacing, not condemning, but straight into her heart, promised her she would ‘never thirst again!’ Then, his promise was fulfilled immediately upon her return to her village, where she became the first Samaritan to announce the Gospel! So alluringly powerful was her fresh testimony, that the entire village rushed to the well, to the water, to Jesus and his disciples, begging them to stay and fill them in on more details of this wonderful news that was for them, too!
I picture this living water, not as a lovely, quiet stream, but more like Niagara Falls, where the thundering of 6,000,000 cubic feet per minute is memorable as felt as much as heard! This image, when aboard the boat, Maid of the Mist, going under the falls, brings this even more vividly to bear. No small, insignificant thing, the presence of this Living Water!
Jesus is powerfully present peace! Now! Today! So ‘no thirst’ means not only a cure for our dryness but it is the entry point to the pathway to wholeness, to shalom, to ‘all shall be well’ and in the end ‘all shall be well.’ Words to live by. And to think our Samaritan friend first thought Jesus was the seeker, only after a few ounces of well water, while he himself was not only the water, but the well! I’ll hazard a guess he wasn’t tired either. PD
