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February 24, 2008 - 3rd Sunday in Lent
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."
(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him,
"How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?"
(Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her,
"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."
The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep.
Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob,
who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" Jesus said to her,
"Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the
water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become
in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." The woman said to him,
"Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here
to draw water."
-- John 4:7-15
Mayoclinic.com tells us that thirst is a sign of mild dehydration, part of God's
creative design for our bodies to be sustained in good health (I added the last part -
Mayo Clinic didn't say the God part.). Living in the arid climate of Samaria, thirst was
something the woman at the well could understand. She was thirsty, but Jesus illuminated
a deeper thirst that lived within. The Samaritan woman was spiritually dehydrated.
Just as our body needs a daily dose of fluid, our spirit needs a daily dose of God's
love and forgiveness. Every day our spiritual thirst needs quenching through prayer and
God's word. In this week of Lent, for what does your spirit thirst?
We pray: Merciful God, the fountain of living water, you quench our thirst
and wash away our sin. Give us this water always. Bring us to drink from the well that
flows with the beauty of your truth through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, Amen
Lessons for the 3rd Sunday in Lent:
- Psalm 95
- Exodus 17:1-7
- Romans 5:1-11
- John 4:5-42
Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible,
copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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