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John 4:13-14  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.”

Yes, Jesus was thirsty, and tired.  When the Eternal Son of God became a man he shared in all the ongoing persistent needs of life in our time-bound, demanding and decaying world.

But he also knew the reality of a blessed spiritual satisfaction and fulfilment that comes from a peaceful relationship with the God who made us, and who is able to provide for all our needs.  When we turn our focus away from the things of this world and their demands upon us, he promises us a satisfaction and sense of fulfilment that we can experience in no other way.

The contrast between the very best this world can offer us, and the contented life that we can experience in union with him is as significant as the contrast between drinking the ‘dead’ stagnant water we might draw from a well on the one hand, and savouring the oxygenated ‘living water’ of a bubbling brook running rapidly over rocks on the other hand.  Once we’ve had the experience of tasting the latter we might wonder why we can be so easily lured into longing for the former (I do).  “I heard the voice of Jesus say, ‘Behold I freely give the living water; thirsty one, stoop down and drink, and live.’  I came to Jesus, and I drank of that life-giving stream; my thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in him”  (Horatius Bonar).

While Jesus had been conversing with the Samaritan woman at the well, his disciples had gone into the town to buy bread.  On their return they were worried that he would be hungry.  In the same vein as his word to the woman, he said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” (Verse 34).  He summarised all this at the end of his Sermon on the Mount: “But seek first [the Father’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”  (Matthew 6:33).

I must keep reminding myself: “I’m feeding on the living bread, I’m drinking at the fountain head; and who so drinketh, Jesus said, shall never, never thirst again.  What, never thirst again? No! Never thirst again.  What, never thirst again? No! Never thirst again.  And who so drinketh, Jesus said, shall never, never thirst again” (Anon); and learn to appreciate more and more, and day by day, just how refreshing the ‘Living Water’ and ‘Bread of Life’ really are.

– Bruce Christian