The Source of Our Thirst

Philadelphia “Thirst Again”

The Story

Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” He was alone a the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food. The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, “ you are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?” Jesus replied, “if you only knew who you were speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

The Story“But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?” Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” “Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.”

The Woman: An Unlikely Scene

• Jesus and the Samaritan Woman– Eugene Peterson: “It is not difficult to conjure a

scenario of serial rejections, multiple failures, year by year accumulating wounds and scars in mind and body. For her, to be a woman is to be a victim. To be near a man is to be near danger. What is this stranger going to do next, say next? Her guard is up.” (Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places)

The Woman: An Unlikely Situation

Peterson: “Maybe she is on the hunt. Maybe she used up the five husbands, one after another, and is now working her seductive ways on this sixth. Maybe she sees men as opportunities for gratification or access to power or advancement and when they no longer serve her pride she dumps them.”

Where are you putting your bucket?

• Christianity deals with the source.

• Argument• Offer• Challenge

Jesus

• Argument: “You are made heaven, too.”– “You are thirsty.”• If I was just dating…When I just start that job…If I could

just get that promotion…If these kids would just behave.”

Jesus

• Argument: “You are made heaven, too.”– “You are thirsty.”• If I was just dating…When I just start that job…If I could

just get that promotion…If these kids would just behave.”

– Sinclair Lewis: “We’re both desperately unhappy with something and we don’t know what it is.”

Jesus

• Argument: “You are made heaven, too.”– “You are thirsty.”• If I was just dating…When I just start that job…If I could

just get that promotion…If these kids would just behave.”

– Sinclair Lewis: “We’re both desperately unhappy with something and we don’t know what it is.”

– This generation: “moralistic, therapeutic, narcisstic, deists” (Christian Smith) jaded but dissatisfied

Deep Thirst

• Offer:– Water = Eternal Life – Quality • Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon

become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

Deep Thirst

• Offer:– Water = Life in the Desert

Persistence of Spring

• Spring vs. Well– Hope bubbles through– “Yet in the wizard’s face he saw at first only lines

of care and sorrow; though as he looked more intently he perceived that under all there was a great joy: a fountain of mirth enough to set a kingdom laughing, were it to gosh forth.” (Tolkien The Return of the King)

Take away

• New Spring: Jesus to the Center– “I don’t know what it looks like but Jesus show me

how to bring you to the center.”

Take away

• New Spring: Jesus to the Center• Hope – Persistence– “How are we polluting this stream?”

Take away

• New Spring: Jesus to the Center• Hope – Persistence• True Human: “I thirst”