Are You Thirsty? - The Dry Town
- Paul Downie
- 29 minutes ago
- 16 min read
John 4:42 NIVUK
[42] They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.’
In the British archives is an old black and white photograph. It depicts a bunch of older men, some sitting, others standing, in the room of a quite splendid palace.
It doesn’t look like much. You might asume it’s the most boring, austere coach tour in history.
But this photograph is truly momentous, and absolutely pivotal in both European and world history.
Because this photograph contains three of the most important historical figures of the twentieth century: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill. It captures them after they agreed the deal that brought an end to the Second World War on European soil and carved up the continent between them, and even divided the German capital of Berlin.
While it ended the war, it placed hundreds of millions of people behind the Iron Curtain and under the Communist jackboot without giving them the choice.
And when Stalin broke his promise that those countries would be free, no-one could hold him accountable.
So that photograph might seem like nothing, but for the people of Europe it means a great deal.
Perhaps when we started to read this passage, you thought it was a case of, to quote William Shakespeare, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. It’s Jesus chatting with a woman. Big woop!
But I hope how you will see the deep significance of this event.
What happens here allows us to put our culture under the microscope. It allows us to see that our dry religion, our narrow-minded focus on nationality and identity and our absolute relentless obsession with love and human affection will never, ever satisfy us.
But what truly satisfies us is Jesus. What brings us joy and fulfilment is worshipping Jesus and bringing Him the glory He deserves. That is what makes the difference. That is what cures our emptiness and despair.
There is no more relevant message for our troubled times than that. And neither will there ever be.
There are three wonderful pictures that show us the difference Jesus made to this community, and can make to our lives.
The first of these is Water.
Water
John 4:27-29 NIVUK
[27] Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no-one asked, ‘What do you want?’ or ‘Why are you talking with her?’ [28] Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, [29] ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could this be the Messiah?’
Now, what we see in these verses tells us everything about one thing: priorities.
Firstly, the disciples’ priority.
Normally, the sectarian and misogynistic thinking ingrained in the mind of every first century Jewish male would have caused these men to question why Jesus was talking with a Samaritan woman in a public place. It just wasn’t the done thing. It was offensive to them.
However, they likely would have learned from Jesus that He simply did things like this – things that were right, but that no-one else would think to do.
And so the barriers and boundaries their culture had erected on its own, without any command or direction from God, were smashed to pieces by Jesus, but defending them was not their priority.
Look what Paul – once a staunch Jew – wrote later in His letters:
Romans 10:11-13 NIVUK
[11] As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.’ [12] For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, [13] for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
1 Corinthians 12:12-14 NIVUK
[12] Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. [13] For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. [14] And so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Galatians 3:28 NIVUK
[28] There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 3:11 NIVUK
[11] Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
There should be no barrier between us and other people, because there is no barrier except the barriers we ourselves have built. All are one.
There is much we can learn from this. The disciples had come a long way in a short time.
They had learned from Jesus that these traditions and man-made rules held no importance now.
Have we?
We also see the woman's priority.
And this is actually quite challenging.
She came to the well to get water. She came in the middle of the day to avoid the shaming glances because of her sinful life. She met Jesus.
So what did she do?
John 4:28 NIVUK
[28] Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town...
Think about this for a second. Water is an essential for human life. We use it for drinking, for cooking, for cleaning. Without it we die. She came to that well to get something that was essential for her survival.
Yet the moment she realises who Jesus is, she abandons her water and runs to tell other people – the same people who likely treated her with disdain and disrespect over her lifestyle.
She wasn’t a theological expert. She likely had a lot wrong in her thinking about God and about what the Messiah would do.
But she got one thing right that we so often get wrong:
Her enthusiasm.
Her message is so incredibly simple:
John 4:29 NIVUK
[29] ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could this be the Messiah?’
‘Come... see...’ We see this simple message elsewhere in John:
John 1:37-39 NIVUK
[37] When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. [38] Turning round, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’ They said, ‘Rabbi’ (which means ‘Teacher’), ‘where are you staying?’ [39] ‘Come,’ he replied, ‘and you will see.’ So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
John 1:45-46 NIVUK
[45] Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’ [46] ‘Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?’ Nathanael asked. ‘Come and see,’ said Philip.
It’s so straightforward. So unsophisticated. And yet in these three words we see the very essence of evangelism: come and see Jesus for yourself.
We often make an industry of what should be simple. Accountants and lawyers are experts at doing this because it means their services will always be retained. But Christians do it too.
We make evangelism and mission so incredibly complex because it makes us look good if we can do it and discourages others from taking our place.
But it is the wrong thing to do.
Evangelism is simple. It is just that simple summons to come and see for yourself. That’s all. It needn’t be any more complicated than that.
What this woman got right – and so many of us get wrong – is that, for all her lack of knowledge, she put Jesus first. Consider this verse:
Psalms 63:1 NIVUK
[1] You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.
David was in a desert at the time, but it was not water he longed for, but God.
Why?
Because he knew that if is sought water, he might not find it, but if he sought God, he would find God and water, as Jesus taught us:
Matthew 6:31-33 NIVUK
[31] So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” [32] For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. [33] But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
And Paul:
Philippians 4:19 NIVUK
[19] And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
This woman realised that Jesus was the Messiah and valued her salvation more even than her sustenance.
She also (likely unconsciously) copied what Jesus did. He had smashed down barriers just by asking her for a drink. She now goes back to the townspeople whose negative opinion of her has caused her to need to collect water in the midday heat, and she tells them about Jesus.
Incredible!
This Samaritan woman knows more about practical theology than most so-called Christians.
But we then move from the picture of water to the picture of Food.
Food
John 4:31-34 NIVUK
[31] Meanwhile his disciples urged him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ [32] But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you know nothing about.’ [33] Then his disciples said to each other, ‘Could someone have brought him food?’ [34] ‘My food,’ said Jesus, ‘is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
These are verses that are often misquoted.
They cannot mean that Jesus would work so hard that He did not eat. Look at what was said about Him by His Jewish detractors:
Luke 7:33-34 NIVUK
[33] For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, “He has a demon.” [34] The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”
And again, what He said about fasting:
Luke 5:33-35 NIVUK
[33] They said to him, ‘John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.’ [34] Jesus answered, ‘Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? [35] But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.’
So this was absolutely not Jesus telling us to work ourselves into the ground and not eat. On another occasion, He even told His disciples to eat (Luke 10:7).
So let us be absolutely clear on this: Jesus did not, and neither would He ever, commend the workaholic practice where Christians push themselves needlessly to exhaustion in ministry to appear more spiritual. That is against the clear Biblical principle of loving God, others and yourself. It is a perverse form of self-worship and is wrong. Categorically wrong.
But we must also understand the context. It would not have been easy for the disciples to obtain food in a town that was not on the border of Judea, and where they were having to purchase food from people they hated, who also hated them. They would have stood out. Their clothes, their dialect, even their physical features, would all have been distinctive.
The Samaritans would have known they were Jews.
So it would not have been easy to obtain food.
And I believe Jesus would have known that. There is no way He would have devalued that effort.
So why did He say what He did?
Because His sustenance – the thing that gave Him energy, that put fire in His belly and have Him vigour and drive – was doing the Father’s will. It was obedience.
It was ministry.
As Jesus said about Himself:
John 8:29 NIVUK
[29] The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.’
Now, I would like to ask you something.
Do you have a duty in your church? You know, like stewarding or cleaning or technical or catering or teaching Sunday school or taking care of young children?
The kind of role that isn’t always noticed, but without which a church cannot function.
How do you react when it’s your turn on the rota? Do you get up in the morning, shake your head in sadness, moan about how ‘it’s always me’ or ‘they never help’, complain throughout the day with a heavy heart and then perform your service grudgingly?
Or do you perform your service enthusiastically, with joy and a real sense of fulfilment, because today you get to do something for God and for His people, and you count it a real privilege?
We see this command in the Bible:
1 Corinthians 10:31 NIVUK
[31] So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Ephesians 6:7-8 NIVUK
[7] Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, [8] because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.
Colossians 3:23-24 NIVUK
[23] Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, [24] since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
So tell me: what is your attitude when you serve the Lord's people? Is it with joy or duty?
When Jesus did the Father’s will, He knew it would result in the cross, yet for Him it was what sustained Him.
Your service for Christ and His people will likely not end there.
Do you serve Him with joy and find your purpose there?
After water and food, the last picture is really precious. It is of Harvest.
Harvest
John 4:35-42 NIVUK
[35] Don’t you have a saying, “It’s still four months until harvest”? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. [36] Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. [37] Thus the saying “One sows and another reaps” is true. [38] I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.’ [39] Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I’ve ever done.’ [40] So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. [41] And because of his words many more became believers. [42] They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.’
I have friends in Romania whose parents owned a smallholding in the countryside. Romania is a very rural country. Of its 19 million occupants, only 1.7 million live in the capital, Bucharest. The rest are scattered around much smaller cities and in villages, so their link to nature is very strong.
This creates an interesting phenomenon around harvest time. Even people with good, well-paid jobs will jump into cars or public transport and will head to the countryside to bring in the crops before they spoil. And, in true rural fashion, they will help each other and share in the fruits of their labour.
However, unlike crops like rice, which can be harvested two to three times a year, and at varying times of the year, crops are generally harvested in Europe towards the end of the summer and the start of autumn/fall. So it really is a case of ‘all hands on deck’ to bring it in before it spoils.
Jesus uses a very interesting metaphor here. It seems that the time of year when he was in Samaria was not the time for harvesting – that it would happen in another four months. So the fields or the fruit on which their local economy depended were not ripe for harvest; the crop had not yet matured. And Jesus knew it.
So what could he be talking about?
Perhaps this could give us a clue:
Luke 10:1-3 NIVUK
[1] After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. [2] He told them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. [3] Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.
On that occasion, the harvest field was very much among the Jews (Matthew 10:5-6).
But now, it was a different harvest field:
It was the Samaritans.
Now, the passage tells us that the disciples had gone into town to buy food (John 4:8). It doesn’t tell us that Jesus sent them. The implication of verses 31-34 is that the disciples were hungry and they decided to get food, while Jesus remained at the well and took care of more spiritual matters. As a result, they missed the entire conversation with the woman, and did not contribute at all to the interest in Jesus that was stirring up in the village. This explains what Jesus said to the disciples:
John 4:38 NIVUK
[38] I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.’
But there is something quite striking here. Compare the reaction of these syncretistic Samaritans to people from Jesus’ home town:
Matthew 13:54-58 NIVUK
[54] Coming to his home town, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?’ they asked. [55] ‘Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? [56] Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?’ [57] And they took offence at him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honour except in his own town and in his own home.’ [58] And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
This is often the way. People are dismissed because who they were when they were growing up (Isaiah 53:2 tells us that Jesus grew up as a regular, pretty insignificant, almost invisible child), or what they did before God transformed them, and it blinds those who judge like this to what God is doing now.
It is striking, but not entirely unexpected, that Jesus’ own people rejected Him, despite having the Law and the Prophets, and unexpected strangers in Samaria accepted it.
As John said:
John 1:11-13 NIVUK
[11] He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. [12] Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – [13] children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The point of this passage is that these Samaritans believed. They believed! Those who were dismissed as idolators, as fakes, as pagans, as Gentiles, those whose very existence for the Jews was a stone in their shoe and a thorn in their side because it bore witness to their moral failures in history – these are the people who believed and accepted a Jewish Messiah.
Hallelujah!
Imagine, just imagine, that a farmer tried to harvest a wheat field in March. Or an apple tree in February. Or grapes in April. What would he get?
I’ll tell you: a ruined crop and not a thing to show for it. No gain. Only loss.
Could it be that we, as a church, see so few converts because we are harvesting in the wrong field? Could we be spending our time reaching out to people who are not ready yet to follow Jesus because His work in their lives hasn’t reached that stage yet? Could there be other people – Samaritan-like people – whom we fear talking to, but who might be much nearer to the gates of Heaven?
May God lead us to those who are willing to hear the call of the Kingdom and follow the Saviour.
Whoever and wherever they are.
Conclusion
John 4:13-15 NIVUK
[13] Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, [14] but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ [15] The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.’
Dehydration is not fun.
It’s not something that ordinarily we have to think about in Scotland. Given the amount of rain that falls in our country, we are more likely to drown than be dehydrated.
But for those in hotter climes, it is a serious issue.
I know. I have been in hospital for dehydration. It’s not a nice situation at all.
There are those who live dehydrated lives.
Now, I know what you're thinking: raisins are dehydrated grapes, prunes are dehydrated plums. They're good for you. So surely a dehydrated life isn’t that bad?
But life is not a fruit. A life of thirst for something when you don’t know what it is and is always just out of reach is a life of existential despair, of angst, of nothing ever quite being good enough. You might settle for it, but you will always have that nagging feeling that your life could have been better. That feeling, that inner frustration, will permeate every aspect of your life, leading to fractured relationships, anger and a total lack of peace.
Yet it does not have to be that way.
Because better is possible – with Jesus.
This conversation is a lot more than idle chit-chat. Jesus takes all the dry things of that town – their focus on identity and history and religion and even human relationships – and He gently shows the sinful Samaritan woman that every one of them is empty. They are like being in a desert, dying of thirst and being offered alcohol or soft drinks. They might seem to quench your thirst for a while, but by their very nature are designed to make you long for more of them by dehydrating you further.
But Jesus – ah, Jesus! – He is the cure. He takes a thirsty soul and makes streams of living water gush from within. He quenches our thirst like no other.
Examine this world. What do you see? Do you not see a world that rushes towards identity and nationality and history and territory and religion and, yes, human interpersonal relationships, because they believe that they will find satisfaction in them? But do they work? Have they ever worked?
What happens as a result of this? Do we see more happiness? More joy? More thankfulness? More peace?
Of course not!
Because these things are like narcotics. The more we seek after them, the more we want.
But the more we have, the less happy we are.
These Samaritans, so far from grace and from the Old Covenant, found satisfaction and happiness and joy and peace in Jesus, when they realised He was their Saviour.
Maybe it’s time you did too.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, this world has left me thirsty. It has not satisfied me at all. I turn from it now. I want You to be my Saviour. Come into my life. Take over. Satisfy my every thirst. Lead me in Your ways, I pray. Amen.
Questions
Why did the woman abandon her water? Why is this significant? What does this sat about her priorities?
What did Jesus mean when He said that doing the Father’s will was His food? What does this mean for you?
Who was the harvest Jesus talked about? Why is this important? Will you be part of this harvest?
Comentarios