December 19, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY: JOY

“O LORD, I will praise You. Although You were angry with me, Your anger has turned away, and You have comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust Him and not be afraid. For the LORD GOD is my strength and my song. He has also become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation, and on that day you will say: ‘Give praise to the LORD; proclaim His name!’” (Isaiah 12.1-4a)

“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)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD during the Third Week of Advent 2024:

Jesus is no ordinary “drink of water,” tall, cool or otherwise. Jesus wasn’t like the water which sprang from the rock in the desert near Rephidim where the Israelites complaining in the wilderness of being thirsty were camped. It was water enough to satisfy their thirst but it certainly didn’t change their attitude. They were, understandably so, more concerned about survival than arrival. It would not be the first time for such complaints to be raised. I believe it illustrates how contextual our complaints can be. It also shows the contentious nature of the Hebrews themselves who were often called a “hard headed” people, stubborn and set in their ways. I heard an old preacher say “I am not sure that they would be happy even in Heaven!” That’s extreme! I would love to believe that if they had meet Jesus at “Meribah,” The Place of Contention, as the woman from Sychar had met Him at Jacob’s Well, then things would have been different.

On that hot and dusty day when Jesus and the disciples were headed back to Galilee via Samaria, the scene was set for a “survival versus arrival” teaching moment. Most of these kinds of encounters between Jesus and those who were burdened by the world’s problems can be placed in the same category of “survival versus arrival.” Here, the disciples left Jesus as the well of Sychar. Undoubtedly the well was fitted with a type of pergola which gave shade for those who came to draw water. I am not sure why the city of Sychar wasn’t built around the well, but “oh well.” Leaving Jesus to rest in the shade with a source of water, the disciples went into town to get food because they were hungry but not thirsty. I am confident they passed by the woman on their way to town. They probably passed by on the other side of the road (as did the Priest and Levite when they came upon the man beaten, robbed and left in the ditch on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho) when they saw her because she was a Samaritan. (The juxtaposition of those two parables is astounding.) Having avoided her, they went on their way as did she. She “arrived” at the well only to be confronted by another Jew. He did not hesitate with small talk but asked directly, “Give Me a drink of water.” She had become accustomed to being ordered to do things. She had surrendered her survival to meeting the needs of others; in particular, husbands of which she had had five and the man she lived with was not one of them. Her only hesitancy was based on the fact that this request came from a Jew and she was a Samaritan. It just wasn’t done! Jesus replied, “If you knew who asking you for water you would instead be asking Him.” She laughed because while there was a rope for lowering a skin for water or a bucket, Jesus had neither. Maybe she was thinking, “Good trick, sir, I would love to see you try.” It was from there that the conversation changed from “survival to arrival.”

You see, she not only “arrived” at the well, but she was on the cusp of “arriving” at the Kingdom of God. Her real thirst for life was about to be met. Looking for an authentic life which she may have had with a first husband became a search for resignation by marrying again and again ultimately giving up on marriage and settling for being a maid servant. Certainly that would have been the extent of her identity. She was an outsider even to the citizens of Sychar. We know this because of when she came to draw water from the well. It was noon and nearing the heat of the day. Only the desperate would visit the well at that time. Others would have come in the cool of the day. She was either avoiding them or having to make numerous trips to the well to draw water for others as her livelihood. That would mean the man she was living with was not truly supporting her but “taking her in.” Notice that after the conversation about “living water” and salvation, she no longer worried about literal water. We don’t even know if she carried the skins, flasks or buckets back to town where she poured out the good news which had been given to her. We don’t even know what happened after those moments of evangelistic witnessing. Where did she go? How did she live? Did she become one of many who formed a greater entourage of followers of Jesus surrounding Him and the disciples? What we know is that her life changed joyfully because Jesus was no ordinary “drink of water.” She became an example of what Isaiah was declaring would happen on “that day” when the Messiah would come and set the records straight, alleviating the burden of injustice which fell upon the people by their own choice replacing it with God’s choice to be merciful, forgiving and saving.

Mighty ones, when we come to the “well of Christmas,” what is it that we expect? Are we simply drawing out things to sustain us and our image of “happiness” and conditional love? Or are we ready to arrive and ask for the gift of spiritual fulfillment? Are we ready to sing for joy about the good news which is being offered to us that will forever change our lives or will we give momentary praises which sound like “thank you” and then move on to the next gift or activity until we meet again. In our Advent preparation for the Christmas celebration are we ready for the eternal or the infernal? I believe it is something to think about because Christmas day should be like no other just as Jesus is like “no other drink of water” we will ever taste. Our faith should not be about survival but arrival.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.