“CISTERN OR SPRING?”
JOHN 4:1-30
TREY HARRIS
I think we are born thirsty. That must be why they start babies out on a liquid diet. We come into a dry world after being surrounded by water for nine months and I think we must spend the rest of our lives trying to once again experience the safety of being totally immersed in the safety of the water of the womb. This desire translates, I think, into thirst.
Our bodies are approximately ninety-eight percent water. We get thirsty just walking around as we deplete our natural water supply. The human body can live for many days without food or water. But did you know that we begin to dehydrate, to loose our bodies’ natural hydrolytic state in just minutes after drinking water? The results of our constant state of dehydration can be catastrophic according to Watercure.com.
“Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, M.D. - Dr. B. for short - is a formally trained medical doctor who received his medical education and training at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School of London University. He has spent most of his scientific life researching the link between pain and disease and chronic dehydration.
Dr. B discovered the healing powers of water 21 years ago when he was serving time as a political prisoner in an Iranian jail. He successfully treated 3,000 fellow prisoners suffering from stress-induced peptic ulcer disease with the only medication he possessed -water. This is when he understood for the first time in medical history that the body indicates its water shortage by producing pain. Since his prison experience, he has focused his full-time attention on dehydration-produced health problems in the body. [The article I read on his website claims] his discovery has helped hundreds of thousands of people suffering from a variety of pains and degenerative diseases regain their health.”
Dr. B claims that dehydration of the human body is the cause of many of the common illnesses and diseases plaguing Americans today. He asserts that common ailments such as heartburn, arthritis, back pain, angina, migraine headaches, colitis, asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol can be traced to the body’s lack of water. He goes on to say that serious medical conditions such as depression, Loss of Libido, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy could be the result of prolonged dehydration of the human body. Dr. B makes the incredible statement that: “It is chronic dehydration that causes the pains and degenerative diseases of the human body.”
Jesus had traveled many miles before he stopped at the village of Sychar for a rest beside the well of Jacob. He was hot, tired and thirsty. Evidently, the disciples had gone ahead into the village to buy some food for their noonday meal. While he rested, a woman approached the well to draw water.
“Please give me a drink.” Jesus says to the Samaritan woman. His request is an imperative; more of a command than a request. “Give me some water!”
The woman was surprised. Jews and Samaritans didn’t speak to one another, much less share pleasantries or water buckets.
As is always the case, Jesus has more in mind than his simple request for refreshment. He sees in the woman her own thirst and offers to help her quench it.
The Samaritan woman’s situation illustrates for us our own propensity to seek fulfillment and acceptance in all the wrong places from all the wrong people. You see, we’re born thirsty and spend the rest of our lives trying to quench that thirst. While it’s true we’re born thirsty, it’s also true that only one water will satisfy our deepest thirst.
I want to share with you five “thirsts” the woman at the well was trying to quench with the wrong water from the wrong sources.
I) THIRST FOR ACCEPTANCE (V 9)
Cori Connors tells a story about acceptance from her youth. One Sunday afternoon our family gathered around our big oak table for dinner. Soon my daughter Kate’s laughter rose above the talk. “Gram, you’re silly!” she said. We all turned to see my mom delicately lifting to her mouth a small strand of peas on the blade of her knife. All but one pea made it, and everyone clapped. Then Mom told us the story behind her unorthodox technique:
“When I was little we didn’t have much. It was the Depression. But we did have a table full of food because my father grew wonderful vegetables. Lots of hoboes who had jumped from the train wandered onto our property, looking for a meal. More often than not an extra seat was pulled up to our dinner table.
“One summer afternoon I was sweeping the kitchen floor when my father’s voice came through the screen door: ‘Lizzy, set another plate. We have company tonight.’ Our guest paused in the doorway, and dipped his head in a gesture of gratitude. ‘Looks like he doesn’t speak much English,’ Dad said, ‘but he’s hungry like we are. His name is Henry.’
“When dinner was ready Henry stood until we were all seated, then gently perched on the edge of his chair, his head bowed and his hat in his lap. The blessing was said and dishes were passed from hand to hand.
“We all waited, as was proper, for our guest to take the first bite. Henry must have been so hungry he didn’t notice us watching him as he grabbed his knife. Carefully he slid the blade into the pile of peas before him, and then lifted a quivering row to his mouth without spilling a single pea. He was eating with his knife! I looked at my sister May and we covered our mouths to muffle our snickers. Henry took another knifeful, and then another.
“My father, taking note of the glances we were exchanging, firmly set down his fork. He looked me in the eye, then took his knife and thrust it into the peas on his plate. Most of them fell off as he attempted to lift them to his mouth, but he continued until all the peas were gone.
“Dad never did use his fork that evening, because Henry didn’t. It was one of my father’s silent lessons in acceptance. He understood the need for this man to maintain his dignity, to feel comfortable in a strange place with people of different customs. Even at my young age I understood the greatness of my father’s simple act of brotherhood.”
Mom paused, looked at her grandchildren, and winked as she plowed her knife into a mountain of peas.
The Jews and the Samaritans hated each other, but the Jews hated the Samaritans more than the Samaritans hated the Jews. There were age old prejudices between these two peoples that caused deep pain and division.
Where did these prejudices come from? Samaria was a region between Judea and Galilee where Jews of “mixed blood” lived. In Old Testament days, when the northern kingdom of Israel, with its capital at Samaria, fell to the Assyrians, many Jews were deported to Assyria. King Sargon of Assyria repopulated the northern kingdom with captives from other lands to settle the territory and keep the peace.
These captives eventually intermarried with the few Jews who remained in the land to form a mixed race of people who became known as Samaritans. The Jews hated the Samaritans because they were no longer “pure” Jews. The Jews who lived in the southern kingdom felt these Jews had betrayed their people and nation through intermarriage with foreigners. And the hatred continued down through the years.
The Samaritans were never accepted as real people because they were different. All human beings have a need within us to be accepted just the way we are, no strings attached. God accepts us just the way we are. He loves us enough not to leave us the way we are, but God does not require anything us to receive His acceptance, that’s offered to us unconditionally.
II) THIRST FOR CONNECTION (V 12)
And besides, are you greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his cattle enjoyed?"
The Samaritan woman wanted desperately to be connected with some family group. She identified herself with her “ancestor” Jacob as a way of doing so, even though she was obviously not devout in her beliefs. She needed to sense some familial connection.
Cornell University’s Urie Bronfenbrenner cites nine specific changes that have taken place during the past generation which have increasingly separated children and youth from the world of adults, especially the adults in their own families:
1. Fathers’ vocational choices which remove them from the home for lengthy periods of time.
2. An increase in the number of working mothers.
3. A critical escalation in the divorce rate.
4. A rapid increase in single-parent families.
5. A steady decline in the extended family.
6. The evolution of the physical environment of the home. (family rooms, playrooms and master bedrooms)
7. The replacement of adults by the peer group.
8. The isolation of children from the work world.
9. The insulation of schools from the rest of society.
This last factor has caused Bronfenbrenner to describe the current U.S. educational system as “one of the most potent breeding grounds for alienation in American society.” When he wrote these words in 1974, this trend toward isolation was in full swing, and it has not been significantly checked since that time.
The result has been a loss of connectedness.
When God put humanity together, he made us with a need to be connected to others. Friends, you and I can’t change what’s happened to families in this world. What has happened has happened and despite all the good works of folks like James Dobson and Focus on the Family, the decline in society’s interest in preserving the family seems to persist more now than ever before. We don’t live in Pleasantville, never have, never will.
But what we can offer to the world is the church. You and I can do our best to be a place where people can connect to a family, a place where we can be sisters and brothers for each other, a place where we have each others backs, and stand up for each other. We need each other.
III) THIRST FOR LOVE (V 17, 18)
Jesus said, "You’re right! You don’t have a husband--for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now."
Dave Barry, in his “Book of Bad Songs” writes: Love can be wonderful, but it also can be very destructive. It can cause people to lie, to cheat, to commit murder, and—worst of all—to write lyrics like these: Why do birds suddenly appear, Every time you are near? These lyrics are of course from the Carpenters’ huge hit "(They Long to Be) Close to You," which received a solid vote in the Bad Song Survey. You frankly have to ask yourself: "Do I really want to be near somebody who causes birds to appear suddenly? Didn’t Alfred Hitchcock do a horror movie about this?"
While I agree with his sentiment, I must disagree with Dave Barry’s assessment of love. Love is not destructive. Misguided attempts to be loved or twisted substitutes for real love can be destructive.
Early in the 20th century, two young medical school graduates and their father started a small sanatorium for mental patients on a farm outside Topeka, Kansas. This was a time with the "rest cure" was in vouge in psychiatry, and patients were sent to impersonal institutions to life out their days.
This father and his sons had a different idea. They were determined to create a loving, family atmosphere among their patients and staff. The nurses were given special training and were told "Let each person know how much you value them. Shower these people with love."
The doctors were Karl and William Menninger, and the Minninger Clinic, with such "revolutionary" methods, became world famous and has helped countless numbers of people. Karl Menninger said, "Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it. This intangible thing love...enters into every therapeutic relationship. It is an element which finds and heals, which comforts and restores, which works what we have to call for now, miracles."
After bantering about buckets and water, Jesus cuts right to the chase, “Go and get your husband.” It seems like an odd request in the middle of a discussion about wells and life-springs doesn’t it? But Jesus saw through the woman’s veneer and sensed her deep need, the need to experience love.
The thirst for love had caused her to go through five husbands and to shack up with the man she was currently with. Please notice Jesus didn’t have to belittle her or berate her, he simply pointed out the obvious.
Friends, the world will tell you that all sorts of things will satisfy the human need for love. The world says sex will satisfy your deep need. If that’s the case why did the woman go through five husbands? Were they all bad lovers?
While it might be true that finding the right person to fall in love with and marry is extremely important, even finding the right person won’t satisfy your deepest love need. Only a relationship with God will do that. Which brings me to our next point.
IV) THIRST FOR GOD (V 20)
So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?"
One of the world’s most loved comic strips is Hagar the Horrible. In one strip we find Hagar kneeling in prayer. "It’s not easy to believe in you God. We never see you. How come you never show yourself? How do we know you even exist…" Next we see:
• a flower springing into life beside Hagar,
• a volcano erupting in the distance,
• an eclipse of sun turning the sky black,
• a star shooting across the stratosphere;
• a tidal wave rushing over Hagar,
• lightning flashing,
• a bush beginning to burn,
• a stone rolling away from the entrance to a tomb.
Hagar pulls himself from the mud, dripping wet, surrounded by darkness. "OK, OK. I give up! Every time I bring up this subject, all we get is interruptions."
Many biblical scholars have postulated that the woman’s sudden interest in religion is a veiled attempt to draw attention away from her painful past. I disagree. I think she realized Jesus was a prophet, he knew things no else could have possibly known. She knew he knew the real answers about God without any interuptions.
Jesus’ response might seem abrupt, but as always he refuses to beat around the bush when dealing with someone’s need for God. “Listen,” he says, “All this mountain stuff doesn’t really matter. What matters is what’s in your heart. If you worship God truly seeking Him with your spiritual self, then you will find God.”
Which brings us to our past point…
V) THIRST FOR JESUS (V 25)
The woman said, "I know the Messiah will come--the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
The Samaritans had adopted the Pentateuch as their Scriptures and set up a place for worship on Mount Gerizim using for their guidelines. Although they knew about a coming Messiah, they were far from having an accurate knowledge of the truth.
The image of missionaries trekking through deepest, darkest Africa to share the Christian gospel with the indigenous peoples is one of the most enduring in Christendom. On these trips the missionaries met with varying successes. One of the groups they sought to "convert" were the bushmen of the Kalahari desert. But even to this day the bushmen of the Denui village steadfastly refuse to become Christians in favor of maintaining their traditional religion.
At night the women and children sit around the fire clapping, while the men shuffle around in a dance. The rhythm gradually picks up and a chant grows. The resident shaman wears a headband with an ostrich plume rising from it. He eventually falls into a trance, and during his trance the people believe he makes contact with the world of spirit.
During the year 2000 a reporter from National Geographic spent some time among the bushmen, and here’s what the village leader at Denui had to say about their religion.
"We are traditionalists here" he said. "We are not Christian. But we can talk to whoever Christian talk to. It is all the same God. There are just different ways of talking to him."
Is he right? What should we think of different religions and their attempts to access God?
Allow me to share some Scriptures with you.
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)
For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else! There is no other name in all of heaven for people to call on to save them.” (Acts 4:11-12)
For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and people. He is the man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5)
Friends, just as our physical bodies must have a water source to survive and thrive and fight off disease, so must our spiritual lives find their source.
Jesus said: “If you are thirsty, come to me! If you believe in me, come and drink! For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water will flow out from within.” (John 7:37, 38)
Life for the woman at the well had become a cistern. Yours can become a spring of life giving water.
Are you thirsty today? Come and drink.
NOTES:
1) http://www.watercure.com/Topics1.htm
2) Contributed by Cori Connors, of Farmington, Utah, to Guideposts, March 1997, p. 36
3) Mark DeVries, Family-Based Youth Ministry, (Downers Grove, IL, InterVarsity Press, 1994, p. 37
