John 4 records the meeting of Jesus and the woman from Samaria (the woman at the well).
In verse 10, Jesus offers the woman “Living Water”.
I don’t know about you, but this concept of “Living Water” never sat concretely in my mind.
I often came away from this story wondering what was the difference between the water she was drawing in the well, and “living water”.
(NOTE: I know Jesus is the Living Water, but why would He give Himself this name? What’s the big deal?)
Last week, a heard a speaker call the well a cistern! All of the sudden, the picture of Jesus as LIVING WATER became crystal clear!
A cistern is a plastered hole in the ground that collects water. There is no natural source to fill this well; it is solely dependent on the weather (rain). A cistern has to be cared for constantly! If the plaster walls crack, the water the cistern collects drains out making the well useless! (Other than a prison…remember Joseph? I digress, back to the cistern…)
The “well” from which the woman was drawing water, was an old well that had been cared for for generations! It was a deep well, so it could hold a lot of water, but there was no underground source from which the water came, there was no living source.
Jesus comes and tells her HE IS THE LIVING WATER!
Living water comes from a natural spring that never runs dry.
1 John 5:11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
It needs no upkeep, no work on our part (unlike the old cisterns).
Ephesians 2:8, 9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
It continuously gives fresh, clean, new water (unlike the old cisterns).
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
It is free (unlike the cisterns that were controlled by tribes).
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It takes little to no effort to collect (unlike the cistern where one had to haul heavy buckets up and down the deep pits).
Romans 10:13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Jesus, our LIVING WATER!!
Isaiah 55:1a “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters…”
