Are You Thirsty? - The Dry Well
- Paul Downie
- Mar 23
- 13 min read
Isaiah 55:1-2 NIVUK
[1] ‘Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. [2] Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.
John 4:1-3 NIVUK
[1] Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptising more disciples than John – [2] although in fact it was not Jesus who baptised, but his disciples. [3] So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
I have a confession to make:
I am Scottish.
It’s not that we're cold-blooded. It’s just that our country is not well-renowned for its heat.
Rain? Maybe.
Wind? Almost certainly?
Fog? I would agree.
Heat?
Not a chance!
So you can imagine the lessons I had to learn for the very first time when I took a trip to Romania, in the summer, on the Black Sea Coast, where the temperatures often exceed forty degrees Celsius.
Or when I found myself attracted to the pretty Filipina who became my wife. It’s not just the heat that can be the enemy there, although I have to keep a close watch on that. It’s also the bright sunlight – anyone who has been to Scotland will know why. And it's the humidity.
British travellers who have been there have commented that it's a bit like walking around in a sauna. You have to get used to emerging from a cold shower and feeling like you need another one before your body is even dry.
But there is one thing you need to know in those conditions:
What things are good to drink.
You see, fizzy sodas dehydrate. Alcohol dehydrates. And for some people, those are the standby drinks when it comes to heat and humidity.
Adding ice to them doesn’t always help. I’ve tried that too.
What you have to do is find something that will quench your thirst. Because – and I can attest to this – you absolutely do not want to dehydrate.
Dehydration is really not fun.
Life us actually like that.
Often it’s not a case of dodging dehydration. Instead, it's a case of finding something that quenches our inner thirst, that satisfies our soul, that gives us a reason to live.
We have started this year with some quite dramatic posts on how we are never too far gone for Jesus to save us and what happens when religion causes harm. Those were necessary, but at times quite heavy, subjects to deal with.
For the next five posts, we will be heading for the far more tranquil climes of Sychar, a village in Samaria, where Jesus had an encounter with an unlikely woman that triggered a mini-revival. Quite simply, it’s one of my favourite encounters in all of Scripture. And its message of who Jesus is and what He can do is timeless.
We find the whole event in John 4:1-38.
But watch out: now and then there will still be a sting in the tail.
We begin this event with a journey that Jesus made from Judea in the south to His home in Galilee to the north. This journey took Him through Samaria, as John tells us:
John 4:4 NIVUK
[4] Now he had to go through Samaria.
But, as we will see later, this is puzzling. The most devout Jews didn’t pass through Samaria. They were afraid that the eclectic, syncretistic people there would contaminate them somehow. Besides, the level of hatred and distrust between them would mean that if a Jew needed help or hospitality, they would likely not receive it there. They would even at many miles onto their journey by passing around Samaria rather than walking through it.
So why did Jesus go through it?
That is a question we will consider later.
For now, we will consider an equally interesting, but often overlooked question:
Why did He leave Judea?
After all, He seems to have had a burgeoning ministry there. Leaving seems a strange thing to do.
Or does it?
I see three stages to what happened here. The first of these is Division.
Division
John 4:1-2 NIVUK
[1] Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptising more disciples than John – [2] although in fact it was not Jesus who baptised, but his disciples.
‘Are you Rangers or Celtic? Protestant or Catholic?’
That was one of the first question I was asked by some of the bigger kids in my Primary school when I arrived. They were not concerned about my name. Where I lived was not their first concern.
But which side of the poisonous divide I identified with the most – that was their issue.
Living in a divided society is not fun.
In the 1980s, divided societies were often split by fences and walls and barricades: the Berlin Wall on Germany, the so-called ‘Peace Wall’ in Belfast, every national border along the Iron Curtain.
All divisions designed to keep people apart.
The society in Jesus’ day was very much divided: between Jew and Gentile, Pharisee and Sadducee, Jew and Samaritan.
Jesus said something quite important about divided societies:
Mark 3:24-25 NIVUK
[24] If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. [25] If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
We have polarised our society.
Just think about:
Democrat and Republican.
Conservative and Labour.
Loyalist and Republican.
Brexit and Remain.
Anti- and Pro- Independence.
Left and Right.
But this is stupid. It is societal suicide.
Because a nation divided against itself is weak and cannot stand.
Look at Daniel’s vision of the Fourth Kingdom:
Daniel 2:40-43 NIVUK
[40] Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron – for iron breaks and smashes everything – and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. [41] Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. [42] As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. [43] And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
Is that not where our divided nations find themselves: on one part, strong and assertive, but on the other, brittle, flaky and weak, susceptible to totter and topple at any point, and therefore paranoid and defensive, constantly trying to shut others out so that they can’t discover our weakness?
Is it any wonder that, after decades of weak, self-serving, brittle leadership, a majority of young people said that my nation, the UK, would be stronger if it were led by a dictator?
Yes, it’s shocking. Yes, they show by this that they have no knowledge or appreciation of the darkness of European history. Yes, they are badly mistaken.
But we have to understand their point of view.
Even if it is offensive.
Maybe they are just fed up of division.
Maybe they just want a strong leader behind which they can unite.
And they see the psychopathic, paranoid leaders of our day in other nations and see their nations uniting behind them and think, ‘Oh, I could do with some of that.’
It’s disturbing.
But when we have divided the nation, maybe all they are trying to do is undo our failings.
Because let me tell you: as a generation we have failed.
What makes matters worse is that the same brittle, divisive mindset has influenced the church.
We have become divided over the pettiest of issues into denominational ghettos. We have defended theological minutiae as if they were life and death. We have allowed secular politics to split the Body of Christ.
And that is wrong.
That is anything but Christian.
But do you know something?
It isn’t new.
Because what happened in these verses, around two thousand years ago, is so strikingly similar.
You see, with the benefit of Christian hindsight, we know how the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus dovetailed together. John was the forerunner. He prepared the way (Matthew 3:1-3; Mark 1:1-4; Luke 3:1-6). When Jesus appeared last, his ministry would regularly disappear into the sunset. He even said as much (John 3:22-30).
But the Pharisees had turned the beautiful act of baptism into a tawdry competition. They reduced the wonder of lives being changed for the better into a scoreboard.
It was pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.
Grossly immature.
But that immaturity has not stopped. More than once, I’ve been in churches where reports from church plants and missions gave been reduced to numbers on a spreadsheet.
Where missionaries and pastors have been made to feel inadequate if others have led more people to the Lord and they have led less.
Where the beauty of soul-saving has been reduced to nothing more than a spiritualised sales call.
And that is wrong.
Competition is for games nights and sports days and quizzes. It should never be part of the spiritual life of a church.
We are in the Body of Christ to cooperate, not compete.
And since Jesus wanted none of this then I don’t believe He wants any of it now, because move from divisions to Distance.
Distance
John 4:2 NIVUK
[2] although in fact it was not Jesus who baptised, but his disciples.
I find this interesting and not a little ironic.
The Pharisees have a pathetic little scoreboard going between Jesus and His cousin John. In a more secular society, they may well have taken bets. It’s all a little petty and puerile.
But, and this is the important thing, Jesus was not involved. He wasn’t even the one doing the baptising!
He was distant from the whole tawdry affair.
We see here a massive difference between Jesus and the Pharisees: they were petty; Jesus was perceptive. He seems to have known precisely what would happen and deliberately delegated the responsibilities to baptise to His disciples so He would not be drawn into this stupidity.
That, however, teaches us something very important:
When we hold our silly spiritualised competitions, Jesus is not in them.
When we divide ourselves along party lines and argue over who is the best (see 1 Corinthians 1:10-17), Jesus is not in it.
When we debate or argue, regardless of who wins, Jesus is not in it.
When we compare ourselves to others, favourably or unfavourably (2 Corinthians 10:12), Jesus is not in it.
And if Jesus is not in all of these things, then should we be?
Look again at Paul’s teaching about the church as a body (1 Corinthians 12 and 13). Tell me: in any of that, did you see anything where it says that the body parts should compete with each other? Is competition an aspect of love? Did Paul say that ‘love wins every argument’?
No!
Because competition has everything to do with human pride and nothing to do with Godly character. For that reason, when it comes to spiritual matters, there should be no competition or rivalry among us. Such thinking is entirely worldly and has no place – no place at all – in the Body of Christ.
And if there should be no rivalry or competition among us regarding spiritual matters – the highest and most important matters of all – how much more should there be no competition or rivalry on earthy matters?
Such behaviour is utterly unspiritual (Galatians 5:19-21).
Look in Philippians 2:1-5. We are called to be of one heart, one spirit, to value others ahead if ourselves, to look for other’s interests ahead of our own, to have the attitude of Christ towards each other.
How can we do that and compete with each other at the same time?
We simply can’t!
The Bible says this:
Matthew 18:19-20 NIVUK
[19] ‘Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. [20] For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.’
Jesus is not in our arguments and our rivalries, but He is there when we gather together and agree.
So let us be done with arguments over politics or economics or sport or any other such subject. Be done with them!
Because when there is such behaviour, Christ is not in it!
But there is something else too – something even more striking: that of Departure.
Departure
John 4:3 NIVUK
[3] So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
This doesn’t read like it, but it is quite a startling rebuke for the Jews in Judea.
Let’s play back what’s happening.
Jewish society is very fragmented and divided. The Jewish leaders – in particular the Pharisees – are projecting that division on to Jesus and His cousin John the Baptist, even if there is no division, and Jesus isn’t even participating.
So what happens next?
Jesus leaves.
Where does He leave to?
For home, certainly, but look where He ends up on the way:
John 4:4 NIVUK
[4] Now he had to go through Samaria.
Right into the hands of their rivals.
Now, there is an extra spin to this. Ultra-Orthodox Jews hated the Samaritans so much, and cared so much for their own ceremonial purity, that they would travel around Samaria, extending their journey by tens of miles on foot.
But Jesus simply dispenses with that madness and walks straight into the middle of Samaria!
In two stunning gestures – His departure and His arrival – Jesus demonstrates to Jewish society what He thinks of their petty divisions.
And the answer to that is: very little.
As much as some of our more proud brethren might not like it, unity and love are subjects that Jesus spoke about with strong convictions:
John 13:34-35 NIVUK
[34] ‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. [35] By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’
And, as we saw in an earlier post on the Parable of the Good Samaritan, we don’t get to pick who it is we should love (Luke 10:25-37).
John himself picked up this theme in the first of his three letters:
1 John 4:7-8 NIVUK
[7] Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
We can’t love one another, and yet at the same time be disunited. That might explain why Jesus prayed very specifically that those who believe in Him would be united:
John 17:20-23 NIVUK
[20] ‘My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, [21] that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. [22] I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – [23] I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Do you see the implication here? When we are united, the world sees Jesus as being sent from God – the Messiah.
But what message do we sent out when we are disunited?
Do you see now why Jesus walked away from petty competitions and divisions?
The Bible teaches that we ought to be different, that, when society is fragmented and divided, we Christians ought to be the antidote.
And sometimes we are. There have been stunning examples of this in the Balkans, for example, where the Evangelical church is the only place where the three people groups of Bosnia can meet peacefully.
But oftentimes we are not. And that is a severe problem.
Conclusion
Jeremiah 2:13 NIVUK
[13] ‘My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
Maybe this post has confused you slightly. After all, I titled it ‘The Dry Well’, and in all this time we have not yet discussed a well at all.
Imagine, if you will, the importance in the first century of a well – not just in terms of a water supply, but for a weary traveller. Later on in John 4 we will see this said about Jesus:
John 4:6 NIVUK
[6] Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
Imagine how it would feel, after travelling in the heat and the dust, to reach one of these wells, let down a bucket and then realise that it was dry.
It might be frustrating. It might be an inconvenience.
It could be life-threatening.
I don’t think there is any doubt that our culture has become very dry. Divisions and dissentions have turned it into a very unpleasant place to be. Anyone turning to that culture won’t just be left dry, they will also be left with a very bitter taste in their mouth.
Modern culture, in any of its guises, cannot quench thirst. It cannot satisfy. Like those sweetened, sugary, carbonated drinks I referred to earlier in this post, it promotes much, but only leaves you more thirsty, more empty than you were before.
Someone seeking satisfaction might well turn to religion. Religion always promises much: with its fine architecture and ancient customs and wisdom. But it cannot satisfy either. It just leaves us dry and dusty, with the vain promise that someday there might be water.
Church culture can be the same. It promises so much. But then, when we come into fellowship, we realise that the same vain, and sometimes frankly idiotic, divisions are present in the church as are present in the world. And we believe that church is not any better.
So we leave.
And the question has to be asked: how can our thirst be quenched? How can we find something that really satisfies?
Then we see what Jesus will say later on in this passage:
John 4:13-14 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.’
This is what we want.
This is what we need.
So yes, I believe that our divided culture is nothing more than a dry well for a weary traveller: it promises much, but delivers nothing.
When this culture is allowed to imprint itself on the church, then the same thing happens.
Only this time it is even more disappointing.
But when we find Jesus Christ, then we find something that really satisfies.
In these few verses, I see a stern rebuke for God’s people. We cannot allow the divisive culture of our world to influence the church. Jesus plays no part in it. We will not find Him there.
But I also see a message for those who do not yet believe. Even religion cannot give you what you need – only Jesus.
So if you have tried numerous wells and they have all run dry, come to Jesus, bring all your disappointment and your despair, and drink deep of the Water of Life.
Nothing else is quite like it.
Nothing else can satisfy your thirst.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me to hear this rebuke and to play no further part in divisive behaviour in Your Body. Help me to realise that only You satisfy and to give my life to You. Amen.
Questions
What did three Pharisees do that was so wrong? Why was it wrong?
Why do you think Jesus played no part in this and kept His distance?
Why is it so striking that Jesus left Judea and travelled through Samaria? What does this tell us about how He perceived the divisive behaviour of the Jewish leaders?
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