John the evangelist's account of the real meeting and conversation of the Lord Jesus Christ with the Samaritan woman near Sychar also turns out for the reader to be a parable full of deep meaning, in which, as in a drop of water, some important things related...
John the evangelist's account of the real meeting and conversation of the Lord Jesus Christ with the Samaritan woman near Sychar also turns out for the reader to be a parable full of deep meaning, in which, as in a drop of water, some important things related to any person's meeting with Christ can be seen.
In folklore, "living water" usually means a kind of magical remedy that prolongs or restores life. The Gospel, however, speaks to us about something entirely different. The point is that the quality of water in wells and springs can vary greatly, and in the everyday speech of the ancient Near East there were different terms for water more or less fit to drink. The purest and best of it was called living water. This concept is closer not to folkloric living water, but to what we call life-giving moisture. At hot noon, when all respectable women (not women married five times) had long since stocked up on water, such water was, of course, greatly desired by the Samaritan woman.
But for us, the point is still not this. We cannot fail to notice that in the Bible there is a long-standing tradition of comparing pure water with faith and personal communion (or, if you like, "personal acquaintance") with God. The Lord speaks to the Samaritan woman about water that will become in a person a spring flowing into eternal life. The apostle James writes in the General Epistle that bitter and sweet water cannot flow from one spring, comparing the flow of water with the flow of truth. At the end of Revelation the evangelist John quotes the Lord's words: "To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment." This image was known already to the prophets: Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Joel all use it.
Therefore Christ's words about living water can be applied to the gift of faith that He gives us. The water of Christ's teaching is called living by Him, that is, clean and unclouded - unlike water from other sources, not dangerous for a person's spiritual health. On the contrary, this water becomes a source of life in the person himself. Only Christ can give it to us, and if we were able to understand this (if we knew the gift of God), we would ask for this water as the most important thing.
And, of course, we cannot help thinking that in the barren desert that human spiritual life becomes without this gift of God, Christ's word is truly like a drink of clean cold water on a hot day.
4
4:27 His disciples marvelled that he talked with a woman - Which the Jewish rabbis reckoned scandalous for a man of distinction to do.They marvelled likewise at his talking with a woman of that nation, which was so peculiarly hateful to the Jews. Yet none said - To the woman, What seekest thou? - Or to Christ, Why talkest thou with her?
4:28 The woman left her water pot - Forgetting smaller things.
4:29 A man who told me all things that ever I did - Our Lord had told her but a few things. But his words awakened her conscience, which soon told her all the rest. Is not this the Christ? - She does not doubt of it herself, but incites them to make the inquiry.
4:31 In the meantime - Before the people came.
4:34 My meat - That which satisfies the strongest appetite of my soul.
4:35 The fields are white already - As if he had said, The spiritual harvest is ripe already. The Samaritans, ripe for the Gospel, covered the ground round about them.
4:36 He that reapeth - Whoever saves souls, receiveth wages - A peculiar blessing to himself, and gathereth fruit - Many souls: that he that soweth - Christ the great sower of the seed, and he that reapeth may rejoice together - In heaven.
4:37 That saying - A common proverb; One soweth - The prophets and Christ; another reapeth - The apostles and succeeding ministers.
4:38 I - he Lord of the whole harvest, have sent you - He had employed them already in baptizing, Joh 4:2.
4:42 We know that this is the Saviour of the world - And not of the Jews only.