My friend hates drinking water.

To be fair, being unhoused for years meant he had little access to water, and as a result when people would offer him water he would decline it, as he had survived without it.  A soda, however, would catch his attention; for him, drinking wasn’t about necessity but enjoyment, and he would gladly consume whatever had that effect.

After his second time in the hospital for passing out from dehydration, I impressed on him that his body actually needs water.

I explained that while soda and other drinks are technically liquid, the sugar and caffeine can have an adverse effect on your hydration, and definitely on your body.  I made it clear that hydrating your body is vital — especially on the hot summer day we were experiencing — and dehydration could be more destructive than he realized.

I’ll be honest, I’ve had periods of my life where I drank too little water.  I didn’t realize the importance, and would only sip when it came to mind.  When I began to keep a water bottle with me, I not only consumed more, but saw unexpected positive impacts on my body, including weight loss, energy and focus.  Water is not only vital to life, but can help you thrive.

When the Samaritan woman journeyed to the well during the hottest part of the day, she understood the importance of water; this is why an exchange with a strange man confused her:

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

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.)

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.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
John 4:7-15

The woman had no idea what “living water” was, but knew how water worked: someone skilled finds one of the rare places where water exists and digs a well, the community goes to that well with buckets, and everyone uses their gathered water until the buckets are empty.  The water itself was straightforward, used for drinking, cooking, and cleaning.

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The first part of Jesus’s response made sense — we’ve all eventually become thirsty again after drinking water — but the idea of never thirsting again was supernatural.

Here we find something amazing about the woman, which Jesus saw from the start: she was willing to trust Jesus’s foolishness.

Imagine a stranger came to you and said, “Hey, I’ve got a drink that if you drink it, you’ll never be thirsty again!”  How would you respond?  You know that thirst is a perpetual part of the human experience; what would you say to his impossible claim?  And what if this was not only a stranger, but someone you were told was an enemy; would you trust him?

This woman had no clue what Jesus was talking about, but said, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”  She knew what the man offered would lead to a fuller life than she could ever achieve on her own, and if there was a chance he was legitimate, she was in.

He quickly proved his legitimacy by naming her deepest secrets, and she suddenly became aware this was not mere water he offered.

How do we know?  Look at verse 28: she left her water jar behind.

In one encounter with Jesus, this woman went from knowing what she needed and how to get it, to leaving her understanding and literal provision behind because Jesus was all she needed.

How often do we ignore or avoid Jesus in our pursuit of what we think we need?  How often do we hear his offers but see them as insufficient?

The invitation of scripture is to have the trust of the Samaritan woman, who left not only her beliefs but her means of survival behind as she chose to live for Christ.  You may not have a water jar, but you do have other things you count on — your paycheck, your bank account, your reputation — that you would never leave behind unless you encountered a sure-thing that was better.

Jesus is both; believing that can be difficult.

That step of faith, however, is worth it not just for us individually, but for those around us:

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.

They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
John 4:39-42

This woman could have continued to lead a self-providing life, where her needs were hard to meet and community distant.  Jesus came that she — and we — “may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10) that extends beyond us into our community.

This story is for you, and it is for today: Jesus knows what you are thirsting for, and knows how to quench it.

Are you willing to drop your water jar to receive it?