Living Water

“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.”

—John 4:10

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, we are going to read about Jesus’s interaction with a Samaritan woman. Mother Nina will preach on who the Samaritan woman was, and how Jesus knew her. But what is he talking about when he offers her “living water”?

In the ancient world, the term “living water” could simply refer to running water, such as a spring or river. This is what the Samaritan woman initially thinks Jesus is talking about. She asks, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?” But Jesus answers her that the water he gives is different—that whoever drinks of that water “will never be thirsty again,” and it “will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” What could Jesus mean by this?

In my sermon last Sunday, I talked about baptism, and how the water that flows from Christ’s side is the “living water” of baptism, which causes us to be “born again.” When we enter the waters of baptism, we die and are reborn to new life in Christ. This “living water” that Jesus promises is more than just physical water. It is the Holy Spirit! When we seek Christ in baptism, we receive living water; we are transformed by God’s love and grace, and made new. And throughout our lives, anytime we seek God, whether it’s in the Eucharist, in confession, in prayer, or in our neighbors, God continues to give us that living water, constantly renewing and transforming us. This water, as St. John Chrysostom says, “makes the willing soul like a kind of garden, thick with all kinds of fruitful and productive trees.” The living water of the Spirit gives us new life, and we receive it anytime we ask for it. Anywhere we need renewal, grace, or new life, the Spirit of God comes to us as the living water we need.

So as we continue our Lenten journey, think about where in your life youneed God’s grace, where you need new life. And know that as you seek God in your Lenten disciplines, in worship, in confession, in prayer, and in service to your neighbor, you can always find living water.

Blessings,

Father Jacob+