DEVOTION
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
GUSHING UP
John 4:1-14
4:1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more
disciples than John, 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his
disciples. 3 When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once
more to Galilee. 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in
Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son
Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey,
sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 When a Samaritan woman
came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you
give me a drink?" 8(His
disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to
him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a
drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered
her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is
that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you
living water." 11
"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the
well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our
father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his
sons and his flocks and herds?" 13 Jesus answered,
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever
drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him
will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
NIV
Having considered drinking from the same glass, let us now look at the
words of Jesus, and the context of his words. Having asked her to give him a
drink, and the woman being surprised that a Jewish man would even make such a
request from a Samaritan woman, Jesus tells her about the living water he has
to offer. Again, like many people, she was only thinking in the physical sense,
of water, even living water which would be coming from Jacob’s well. Jesus
makes it very clear to her that he has water available which is not about satisfying
thirst, but that the living water he has to offer will actually become within a
person a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The Greek word Jesus used
translated welling up actually means more like gushing. This would be much like
the Old Faithful geyser in Yellow Spring National Park. This is not just a
little bubbling up, but a welling up, a gushing up all over so everyone can
stand around and watch and if they get too close they will get soaked by all
the living water that is gushing up from within us. That also makes us think
that it has to almost be impossible for us to keep this spring of living water
contained within us, that has to spring up, it has to well up, it has to
gush up and out of us so people can see the living water, in fact, they will
come just to see his spring of living water gushing up from within us.
Drinking at the springs of living water, Happy now am I, my soul they
satisfy; drinking at the springs of living water, O wonderful and bountiful
supply.
This is the chorus to that wonderful song about springs of living
water. Indeed it does bring us eternal life and the song reflects an inward
approach to this water, that is for us, but we still cannot help to think that
we are now to a geyser of this living water. We cannot afford to be so
conservative in our life, so sedate, as if we are unaffected by this spring of
living water gushing up within us. We have to be full of this spring of living
water, bubbling up within us, gushing up, flowing all over with the enthusiasm,
the excitement of having eternal life. We cannot afford to stand still as
though we are statues, even in the church, we have the spring of living water
welling up within us. Should that not get us excited? Should that not be
shaking within, just wanting to flow up, gush up, like that Old Faithful
geyser? We will see just how excited this woman becomes when she realizes she
has drunk from the spring of living water. Should we not have that same
response? We have drunk from the spring of living water, how happy now am I.
But we cannot keep it buried down inside, it has to gush up.
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