Week 2 - The Living Water
What we talked about In youth on Sunday
Have you ever wanted something so badly that you felt if you could somehow get it you would never need anything else again? For some that thing might be a new phone. For others of us maybe it’s a new house or a new car. Or perhaps it’s having a child. And yet, for any of us who have wanted something badly and then had the privilege of receiving said thing, we know it doesn’t really ever satisfy. Eventually there’s another thing we want just as badly and the cycle of discontentment begins again.
The people at the time of Jesus had similar longings. Many of them wanted a life free of Roman oppression. Others wanted wealth, societal status, or a new spouse. And yet, those who received what they desired eventually were left wanting more. The question for us, then, is who or what could satisfy us in such a way that we would never want again?
John responds to this question in his Gospel, telling us that there is such a person who could satisfy us in this way and his name is Jesus. In particular, John shows us two characteristics of Jesus in chapter 4, verses 1 through 30. First, that he is the living water that satisfies our deepest longings, desires, and physical needs. And second, that he is the Messiah who brings salvation to all people: women and men; Jews and Samaritans; enemies and friends.
In John 4:1-15, we meet Jesus and his disciples as they are on their way north to Galilee from Judea. In order for them to get to Galilee they first had to pass through Samaria. The issue was that Jews and Samaritans hated each other, so Jews would most often take a longer journey around Samaria rather than go through it. Jesus and his disciples, however, chose to go through Samaria to save time.
As they entered Samaria, they were tired from their journey so the disciples went into the nearest town in search of food. Jesus, on the other hand, stopped at a nearby well to find water. While at the well a Samaritan woman approached to gather water. Needing assistance, Jesus asked if she might fetch him a pail of water.
However, confounded by this request the Samaritan woman asked Jesus what he was doing asking her—a Samaritan—for water, when Jews and Samaritans do not speak to each other. Jesus then responded, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water… Everyone who drinks of this [well] water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again” (John 4:10, 13-14).
Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that he is the living water who satisfies our deepest longings, desires, and physical needs. Though she came looking for well water that would never fully quench her thirst, she instead found the Living Water who could satisfy both her spiritual and physical needs and desires.
And yet, Jesus reveals himself to her as more than just living water.
In John 4:16-30, Jesus begins by telling the woman to get her husband, knowing full well that she has had five husbands and the man she is presently living with is not her husband. Jesus had never met this woman, but knew everything about her. Astonished, she exclaims that Jesus must be a prophet. But Jesus tells her he is no mere prophet for he is the Messiah.
At this point, Jesus’ disciples come to the well and are shocked to find Jesus speaking with a Samaritan woman. The woman, however, does not stick around but runs to the city to tell the townspeople about this man Jesus who must be the Messiah.
Jesus reveals to the woman that he is the Messiah who brings salvation to all people: women and men; Jews and Samaritans; enemies and friends. On account of being a Jew, Jesus should not have been talking with this Samaritan. And on account of being a man, Jesus should not have been talking with this woman. Yet, Jesus turns our presumptions upside down and speaks to this Samaritan woman with dignity and respect, and offers her the salvation and hope that no self-respecting Jew would ever have offered to a Samaritan. In so doing, Jesus proves to be greater and different than any expected him to be—to the point of shocking his disciples.
Continuing the conversation at home
At the end of our lesson, I asked the students the hard question we have to ask ourselves after reading such a passage: “Do you believe that Jesus alone can satisfy your deepest longings and desires? And if so, how has that changed the way you live?” As parents you have the difficult and special opportunity to model your answer to this question to your kids. Do you find contentment in Jesus? Does that show by the way you speak and live? Take a moment this week to take stock of your own answer to this question. Ask how your kids might answer this question for you. Think about how you might live differently or parent differently if you truly found contentment and satisfaction in Jesus, rather than looking to other things to satisfy you.
Look for opportunities in the following weeks and months to remind your kids that the things of this world cannot satisfy them or bring them the contentment they can find in Jesus. Help them see this by modeling it for them in your own life. In so doing you will teach them that only Jesus can bring them the satisfaction and contentment they are searching for.