"But whoever drinks
the water I give him will never be thirsty; no, the water I
give shall become a fountain within him, leaping up to provide
eternal life." John 4:l4
The
woman at the well had come to draw water at an odd hour to avoid the
other townspeople. Her lifestyle made her unacceptable to
them, a topic of gossip, so she kept to herself. She had
married five times, possibly as a way of satisfying her own inner
needs, but each time she found the relationship unfulfilling. Continually relying upon others to provide her with a sense of
self-worth had left her lonely, ashamed and an outcast among her own
people.
Then on the very day when
there seemed no way left to improve her situation, she met Jesus,
there beside the well. He was a stranger, not even of her
kind, and yet he spoke to her respectfully. He refrained from
mentioning her obvious feelings of inferiority and focused instead
on the person rather than the problem. As the woman began to
recognize Jesus' attitude of acceptance and how different he was
from anyone she had ever met, she became more at ease and better
able to listen to his words.
Only then did he speak
about her lifestyle, but there was no condemnation in his remarks.
Jesus' words opened her mind to understand how futile were her own
outward attempts at finding fulfillment; and gave her the
grace to recognize him as her real source of fulfillment. The
trust relationship Jesus offered gave her the courage to accept
herself and trust in him for the answers to her problems.
She had come to the well
to draw water for a day and found acceptance for all her days. She had given Jesus a cup of water to drink and he had given her a
sip of Living Water that restored her dignity to wholeness and gave
her the freedom to live again. What a joy it is to find
someone willing to love us in spite of ourselves. The
remarkable effect Jesus had on the woman at the well instilled in
her the desire to share with others the compassion and acceptance
she had received.
Immediately she went to
the very scoffers she had felt compelled to avoid only minutes
before and said to them, "I have met a man who told me
everything I ever did. Come and meet him". The
townspeople could not help but notice the marked changes in the
woman's attitude and demeanor. Shame had been replaced with
self-respect; self-pity and loneliness had been transformed
into compassion. Her remarkable transformation had opened the
door for others to meet Jesus for themselves.
We each have a
fountain of Living Water within that daily transforms us. Jesus' love fills us with personal dignity and compassion so that,
like the woman at the well, our lives too might express the
invitation to, "Come and meet Him".
