Come Thirsty
If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said,
“Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
John 7:37–38
It was probably a hot, dry, dusty day when Jesus passed through Samaria. “Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour” (John 4:6).
Because it was about noon, most people weren’t out in the sweltering heat. Except one. A woman from Samaria. And as she came to the well, Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink” (v. 7).
The fact that Jesus spoke to her was shocking for several reasons. Not only were there major cultural barriers between Jews and Samaritans (v. 9), but she was probably the type of woman the other ladies (even Samaritan ladies) whispered about or avoided altogether. But not Jesus. Rather, Jesus goes out of his way to meet this woman.
But why?
Perhaps it was not because she was righteous or that she was worthy, but simply that she was: thirsty. Thirsty for more than what she could haul home with her own feeble hands. A thirst that was deeper than Jacob’s well could ever go, deep down in the parched places of her heart.
Jesus said to 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” (v. 10).
The woman is sceptical; she thinks Jesus is talking about drawing from the well right in front of them. “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?” (v. 11). Jesus adds, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (vv. 13–14).
What she needed was living water. And she finds herself at the well, suddenly face-to-face with the Saviour of the world (v. :42), who knows all that she ever did (v. 39) and yet still bids her to come and drink. Freely.
He asks her for a drink, but then he quenches her. He quenches her deeper longing for a Saviour, for the Messiah (vv. 25–26). What soothes and satisfies her thirsty soul is him.
Christ.
She had come for water she could carry ina jar; she left with streams of living water pouring from her soul.
Forever.
So come, all who are thirsty, and drink of Christ. He knows everything you ever did. And still he bids you come and drink. Freely.
For one greater than Jacob is here.
And he says,
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to meand drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heartwill flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37–38)
