Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” — although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— he left Judea and started back to Galilee. But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
John 4:1-15
When we visited Jacob’s Well in Nablus, it was raining. We were in raincoats and jackets as we walked down the stone steps to the entrance of Jacob’s Well.
As you walk in through the doors, you enter into the ornately decorated church. Overhead in the dome is a beautiful painting. Chandeliers and lights hang all around the room.
Towards the back of the room are two small entrances leading down to the well. It is a small room – much too small for our group, although we crammed in to share a moment of scripture together.
In the video below if you listen ever closely, you can hear the water as it hits the bottom of the well.
As we were all crammed into this small room to listen to scripture and drink from the well, it felt like we were in this moment – in this scripture.
More and more of us crowded into the room and the temperature started to rise. Coats were shed – but I was sweating! When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well it was about noon. While this is not the heat of the day, it was probably starting to get hot and Jesus had been traveling and had not eaten yet.
Jesus offered the woman living water, telling her that whoever drinks the living water will never thirst again. By the time we had read scripture and reflected on the story, it was very stuffy in the room and I was thirsty.
As we exited everyone was given the opportunity to drink from Jacob’s Well. I often think back to this moment. Drinking from the well. Being thirsty.
Have you ever felt like something was missing from your life? Like you were longing for something? Maybe even thirsting for a relationship with God?
And then do you take a sip of the living water? Do you say a prayer or two? Attend church? Read scripture? Worship and praise?
At this point, do you feel like you’ve found what was missing? Do you feel that you were thirsty and longing for a relationship or more in your relationship with God?
Jesus says:
“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.”
But one sip of the living water is not enough. One prayer, one Sunday in church, one Bible story, one song, one moment of worship is not enough.
Jesus offers us to drink of the water. It’s something we’re supposed to regularly do. To maintain, to keep up with.
The more you drink of the living water – the more you pray, spend time in church, read scripture, worship through song and community, serve others and share God’s love, you will not thirst. If you regularly spend time with God and love and serve his people, you won’t be searching for that missing thing in your life and you won’t feel like something’s missing. You won’t be thirsting for a relationship with God, because you will be growing and maintaining your relationship with God.
We are called to drink from the living water. Are you?
Lord, let us drink the living water You have offered us. Let us never thirst again. Amen.
Abbey Jo
Adventures with Abbey Jo 
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