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The search for truth

Text: John 4:1-45

THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH

The Samaritan woman was intrigued! The words of Jesus were new but exhilarating. Could they be true? There was only one way to discover the truth. She must ask further questions. She must find out just Who this Person was who spoke to her.

“The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, You have nothing
to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You
get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us the well, and drank from it himself,
as well as his sons and his livestock?'”
John 4:11-12

She did not take up the subject of “The Gift of God” with Jesus. What she began with was to seriously question Jesus as to His true identity! She already knew in her heart that Jesus was not an ordinary Jew. But who exactly was He?

Her point of reference was Jacob. She hailed him as a great man. Could Jesus be compared to Jacob who had given them this well at Sychar? This well had provided water for living for millennia! This well had sustained life of both men and livestock! It was hard to imagine that anyone could top what Jacob did! Could Jesus actually do better? What could He do? He didn’t even have anything to draw water from Jacob’s well!

THE QUENCHING OF SPIRITUAL THIRST

How would Jesus be able to help the woman of Samaria to switch her thinking from the physical realm to the spiritual? In this respect, Nicodemus did not fare much better. He too had thoughts that were earth-bound!

Jesus needed to open her understanding to the realization that there was another realm of thought and reality!

“Jesus answered and said to her,
‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him
Will never thirst.
But the water that I shall give him will become in him
A fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.'”
John 4:13

Once again, we see the Master-Teacher at work. From that which is familiar, He introduces that which is new and spiritual. The Samaritan woman would have no difficulty in understanding what it means to need water in the physical and natural realm. Wasn’t it because of a physical need that she would trudge to Jacob’s well almost daily to fetch water? Water was needed for so many things. It was needed for survival purposes! When one is thirsty, water must be found! Yet, no matter how much one drank, thirst returned relentlessly again and again!

Sometimes, the search to quench one’s natural thirst can be so tiresome! Sometimes it makes one think about other things. The realm of the physical seems to lie adjacent to the spiritual. Sometimes, there was a deep spiritual thirst for God. Didn’t one of the Psalms address the problem of spiritual thirst?

“As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…”
Psalm 42:1-2

Would anybody understand her deep spiritual needs? She may be a woman, and a Samaritan at that – but she had both physical and spiritual needs! Who would understand that? Who could help her to meet the deep needs of her soul?

Then came this Man out of nowhere! What did He say? Did He speak of water that could quench so deeply, that there would never be thirst again? If only that could be possible. But how could that be possible? And why would this truth be revealed to a Samaritan woman of all people?

However, what Jesus said was so arresting! Could He indeed be greater than Jacob their forefather? Could He really be so kind as to teach her how to find this fountain of water springing up into everlasting life? Was she allowed to have eternal life?

AN ANCIENT PROPHETIC PROMISE

Of course Jesus was creative enough to introduce the subject of eternal life using the illustration of water. That was both natural and striking as well. Did Jesus also have in mind what Isaiah said concerning what God would do when He sent forth His Messiah to minister?

“The poor and needy seek water, but there is none,
Their tongues fail for thirst. I, the LORD will hear them;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will open rivers in desolate heights,
And fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
And the dry land springs of water…”
Isaiah 41:17-19

“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth,
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert…
I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert,
To give drink to My people, My chosen.”
Isaiah 43:19, 20

Jesus brought to life this word of promise from the prophecy of Isaiah! More than that, He brought with this word of promise a new perspective. He could offer that promise to whomsoever He wishes – even to a woman of Samaria! “But we see Jesus…”