Water
Forty some years ago, Keith Green sang a medley ending with a joyful shout
from John 4:
I’ve got a river of life flowing out
of me! Makes the lame to walk, and the blind to see.
Opens prison doors, sets the captives
free! I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me!
Spring up, O well, within my soul!
Spring up, O well, and make me whole!
Spring up, O well, and give to me That
life abundantly.
Water. Water is life. Without water, we die.
In October 2003, Lois and I drove from Johannesburg, South Africa to
Windhoek, Namibia, passing through the Kalahari Desert in Botswana – normally
about a 15-hour drive. On the third morning of what should have been a two-day
trip, we left a Rest Stop named Kang, hoping to reach Windhoek. (Yes, there’s a longer story here, which I won’t tell now.)
An hour later, we sat by the road with general electrical failure. October
is the hottest month of the year in that part of the world, and we were broken
down in the desert. A passing motorist picked me up and took me back to Kang,
where I found an auto-electrician, who took me back to our car. He found four
blown fuses in the car and bridged them with copper wire so that we could drive
again.
While I was gone, Lois and our sons waited in the 40-degree heat. They
kept all of our water as well as the water that the people who picked me up
were carrying. They used most of that water by the time we got back, and we
finished it by the time we reached the next rest stop in Namibia. That night,
as we sat around our supper, we reflected on waiting in the hot sun, with only
the water that we carried. Nevin spoke up and said, “You know, when Jesus talks
about the water of life, I think I understand him better now.”
Water is life. Without water, we die. We are in the season of Lent, and
often people fast – perhaps giving up chocolate or coffee for Lent. Some years,
I have fasted for a day a week through Lent. I would eat breakfast on Thursday,
fast for lunch and supper (using that time for prayer), and then eat breakfast
on Friday. But you don’t fast from water for extended periods of time. Water is
life. Without water, we die.
John 4
That’s why the woman came to the well. Evidently, she was something of an
outsider in her village Sychar. Our text tells us that she came to the well at
noon – the hottest time of the day. Most people came to the well in the morning
or evening. It seems she was trying to avoid other people, perhaps because she
had been in so many bad relationships that she no longer trusted anyone.
She certainly responds to Jesus’ request for a drink of water with
suspicion. “Why do you ask me for a drink? You’re a man; I’m a woman. You’re a
Jew; I’m a Samaritan. What are you trying to do?”
Well, what was Jesus doing? He was walking from Judea to Galilee, a
journey of about 100 miles. Sychar was about halfway along, two or three days
walk from Jerusalem. Walking is hot work, and, when they got to Sychar, the
disciples went into the village to get some food. Jesus was waiting for them
when the woman showed up. So his request for a drink of water makes a lot of
sense.
The woman’s response also makes sense. She is used to being shunned; she
is not used to a Jewish man treating her with respect. Then the conversation
took a surprising turn. Jesus tells her that she should be asking him for a
drink of living water. “I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me!” You can
also almost see her ears perk up as she tries to figure out what he’s talking
about.
She asks, “Is your water even better than this amazing well, dug by our
ancestor Jacob?” He replies, “Jacob’s well gives you physical life. My water
gives you eternal life!” He redirects her from the physical to the spiritual.
Jesus does this often. The wine at the wedding in John 2 becomes a sign,
explained in John 15, “I am the true vine.” The bread at the feeding of the 5,000
in John 5 becomes living bread, “I am the bread of life.” In chapter 7, John
explains this water of life as the Spirit of God, which Jesus gives to those
who believe in him. Life by God’s Spirit. Eternal (or abundant) life.
The woman responds with real interest. This sounds great! I’m in! Give me
this living water! Jesus says, “Bring your husband [so he can receive it too].”
,Crestfallen she says that she has no husband. Her status as an outcast in her
village rises up before her. Jesus makes it clear: “You’ve had five husbands
and now live with someone who won’t even marry you.” These are the words of a
prophet, who can see clearly into people’s hearts.
If Jesus is a prophet, she thinks, he can tell her how to come back to
God. She has been cast out of her own community; perhaps Jesus can tell her
where to go. Jesus brings the scene to a climax: “Samaritans worship here at
Mount Gerizim; Jews worship in Jerusalem; but real worshippers worship God in
spirit and in truth wherever they are.
The woman recognizes that he is now speaking of the coming of God’s Reign
and of the Messiah. Jesus says, “I am he.” I am – the title that signals the
presence of God; I am he – I am the Messiah.
Out of this amazing story I lift one basic fact: Jesus uses the woman’s
physical need to help her recognize her spiritual need. She needs water to live
here and now; she needs God – made present in the person of Jesus – to live
here and now and forever.
Maslow’s Hierarchy
This is, I believe, a basic rule of life: Our physical needs point the
way to our spiritual needs. You may have run across this idea in your own
studies or reading in psychology in something called “Maslow’s Hierarchy”. About
80 years ago, an American psychologist named Abraham Maslow proposed a
hierarchy (or pyramid or ladder) of human needs. He first suggested five
levels: physical needs (such as for food and water); the need for safety and
security; the need to belong and to be loved; the need for self-esteem; and the
need to be fulfilled (what he called “self-actualization”). Maslow suggested
that we are driven to meet the basic needs (food and drink and safety and so
on) first, and when they are met, we turn to what we might call higher needs
(for belonging and developing ourselves to reach our full potential).
Originally, Maslow ended with self-esteem and self-actualization. As he
worked with his model, however, he concluded that there are more than five
levels and suggested a fuller pyramid (or ladder) with eight levels, thus: 1) physiological;
2) safety; 3) belonging and love; 4) esteem; 5) cognitive (the need to think
through and try to understand what happens to us); 6) aesthetic (the drive to
create and to find beauty in life); 7) self-actualization; and finally 8)
transcendence (which describes what we call our relationship with God). [I take this information from Wikipedia. My own study of this material was many years ago!]
I’m not interested in endorsing or critiquing the theory of personal
development found in Maslow’s hierarchy. I note simply this one point – that
meeting needs on lower levels points us to meeting needs on higher levels. Once
you have eaten enough, you can and should begin to reflect on who made the food
you ate. Both the human cook preparing it, and the divine Creator who made it.
When you have a home and a safe place to sleep, meeting that need opens your
eyes to God who has provided for you. When you get sick, you become aware of
Jesus, who is the great physician. When you experience the loss of a loved one,
that loss stimulates a deeper awareness of how important family is – both our
human family and the family of God.
In short, I believe that our experience of physical needs prepares us and
stimulates us to become aware of our deeper spiritual needs.
Jesus
Jesus said something like this when he taught his disciples to pray. “Our
Father in Heaven, hallowed by your name. Your kingdom come; your will be done
on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread – meet our physical
needs. And forgive us our sins – meet our spiritual needs.” That is the
pattern. Physical needs draw us to God for healing or help or food or
companionship, and then God in Christ directs our hearts to our spiritual
needs.
As we noted above, Jesus uses this same pattern in John’s gospel. He is
the true vine, and we are the branches (Jn 15). He is the bread of life (Jn 5).
He gives living water (Jn 4). Wine, bread, and water – staples of life in his
day – all direct the people’s attention to him to discover the Messiah, the one
sent from God with life that satisfies forever.
What Does This Look Like in Real Life?
You have to be careful with this sort of thing. The movement I am
suggesting is that experiencing physical needs can be the door to meeting our
spiritual need for God. I believe that is true, but you have to be careful not
to suggest that when someone faces a physical need, God is trying to teach them
a lesson. When something bad happens to us, we don’t need to say, “Obviously,
God did this for my good!”
I think of a couple from my first pastorate in Pennsylvania. They had
been trying for some time to have children, and then the wife conceived
triplets. All three died within two weeks of their premature birth. Now, 36
years or so later, they might be able to reflect on God’s work through that
experience, but our first task together was just to grieve their loss. It hurt,
and we should not pretend anything else.
Even with that caution, however, I believe the point stands. God uses our
physical needs to draw us closer to God and meet our deepest needs.
The experience of a church in Ukraine is one example. The most recent Christianity
Today tells the story of some of the churches in Kherson. The city was
occupied by Russia until recently, when Ukraine retook the city. While Kherson
was occupied, many people fled the city, and those who remained lived under
terrible danger. The pastor of Calvary Baptist Church was one of those who fled
when his life was directly threatened. After Ukraine recaptured the city, the pastor returned. He found his
apartment just as it had been six months before. He found that three-fourths of
his 400 church members had scattered throughout Europe. Of their six pastors,
he was the only one able to return. The article continues:
And yet. Throughout
the occupation, the remaining church members of Calvary still came together
every morning at 10 to pray. Like the early Christians in Acts 2, they gathered
daily to break bread, share food, and praise God. …
Today, 300 new faces
have become regular attenders at Calvary. It’s going to challenging when
leaders and members come back to an unfamiliar church body …, but it’s a happy
challenge ….
The writer of the article interviewed several pastors in Kherson. He
asked another pastor, nicknamed James (who had stayed in Kherson), “Don’t you
ever regret staying in Kherson?” “Regret? No! No! Never! We are on God’s
frontlines. We are ready to meet God at any moment.”
Timothy Keller has noted a similar phenomenon in the way Paul prays for
the churches.
It is remarkable that in all of his
writings Paul’s prayers for his friends contain no appeals for changes in their
circumstances. It is certain that they lived in the midst of many dangers and
hardships. They faced persecution, death from disease, oppression by powerful
forces, and separation from loved ones. Their existence was far less secure than
ours is today. Yet in these prayers you see not one petition for a better
emperor, for protection from marauding armies, or even for bread for the next
meal. Paul does not pray for the goods we would usually have near the top of
our lists of requests. … Rather, in them he reveals what he asked most
frequently for his friends—what he believed was the most important thing God
could give them. What is that? It is—to know him better. (Keller, Prayer,
p. 20)
Conclusion
We are in a much less tense situation in Steinbach. We deal mostly with
personal problems – health loss and the deaths of loved ones. They are enough! As
we experience the physical needs of living in this world, Jesus gently takes
our hands and leads us to meet the deepest needs of our lives, to find life
with him.
It’s not an easy straight line. You can’t say, “This bad thing that
happened to me is good, so I’m just happy.” Or at least not right away. I have
been in that space when God’s absence is the only answer to my prayers. I know
what that darkness feels like. But I know also that Jesus is with me. When I
feel the weakness of this physical body, I hear his voice calling me to go
deeper and find him. Like James, the pastor in Kherson, we are on God’s
frontlines, and we are ready to meet God at any moment.
Steinbach Mennonite Church
12 March 2023
Focus Statement: Thirst speaks of longing and serious need. Without water, all living
things, including humans, die. In both Exodus 17 and John 4, thirst is the
driving need and becomes the central metaphor for the heart-need of humans,
created in the image of God—a relationship with the living God.
Text:John 4: 5-42
Thinking Ahead Question:
Have you ever experienced acute physical need? How did the
experience affect your relationship with God?
Going Deeper Questions:
1. I know that you have a story about your longing for God. Could you
tell us a bit about it?
2. How did your spiritual thirst come to be satisfied? How much was a
result of your hard work, and how much was because of God’s providence?
3. How do you experience Jesus daily as your living water?
My Questions:
1. Why are we so ready to ask God for help when we are in acute physical
need?
2. What do we do with God’s response when we “run out of water”?
3. Are there any personal stories you are willing to tell the class?
4. How does God’s
presence help us deal with God’s absence?
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