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.” Today's episode talks about how God chose an unexpected person to be the first person to share his identity with. It also talks about how God has a purpose for you life. He wants to use you, even if you don't know why. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The Outcast of the Outcasts
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.”
A friend suggested I talk about the woman at the well today as it was the Gospel for mass yesterday. For those of you who are not sure which story I am talking about let me recap quickly. Jesus stopped by a well outside of Samaria. There was a woman who was getting water at the well and Jesus asked her for a drink. This was strange for her as Jews did not use anything that Samaritans used. They kept their things separate. This was also strange for a Jewish man to be talking to a Samaritan woman. However, Jesus asked her for water again and then told her the verse above. Jesus said, “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 asked Jesus to let her drink of this water so she wouldn’t have to keep coming to the well for water. You see, most woman came to the well first thing in the morning when it was not so hot. However, this woman did not want to be seen by the other woman as she was an outcast. She had already have 5 husbands and the man she was living with at the time was not her husband. What is really interesting is that this Samaritan woman is the first person that Jesus offered the living water too. He had not spoken of this before, He had not revealed who he was to anyone before this encounter.
The Jews and the Samaritan had a feud going on, so they did not associate with one another. The Samaritans were basically outcasts to the Jews. This woman was an outcast to her own people. So she was an outcast to the outcasts and yet Jesus chose her to reveal His identity to. I learned something new during the sermon at mass today too. The priest said Jesus specifically sent the apostles to look for food while he waited at the well so that he could be alone for this encounter. He did not want the apostles there to judge this woman. He wanted it to be just Himself and this woman so she would feel comfortable. Isn’t God so good. He takes into account our feeling, our wants and needs. He arranges our circumstances with such detail.
The verse above talks about living waters. What does that mean? Actually it says the water Jesus gives will give them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Jesus told this woman that whoever drank of this water would not thirst again. I wanted to know what this actually meant, so I looked for an article. I found an article that talked about how we all have an ache in our heart that only Jesus can fill. We don’t always understand this at first. We know we have this ache, as I am sure this woman did. I am sure this woman was missing something in her life and she did not know what it was. She kept searching for it in various men, but what she was really searching for was God.
I have heard people say we all have a “God size” whole in our hearts and only God can fill it. I think this is so true and I wish it were easier for us to realize this. I know people who have had to take the really long road around to realize that Jesus was what they were searching for. I know plenty of people that were searching in all the wrong places for this water that Jesus is talking about. Some have turned to alcohol or drugs to find this water. Others have turned to other relationships, other people, or sex to find this water Jesus is talking about. Others have turned to self harming behaviors, stayed in abusive relationships, gone back to unhealthy relationships, just to have what Jesus is offering this woman.
In the article I read it said, “Only Jesus can supply the water that our thirsty souls desire. Only he can fill the emptiness and the ache.” I love how this is worded. Our souls are thirsty. We are constantly searching for what will quench our thirst. It is more money? Is it having a spouse? Is it having kids? Is it having the right car, the right house, the right job title? What do you think will make you happy? What have you been telling yourself will make you happy? A lot of us think, I will be happen when… What is your when? What are you waiting for before you can be happy? Only Jesus can quench our souls. Without Him we will keep searching for that next best thing that will make us happy. We will keep searching but never finding.
Another thing I thought of when I was thinking about this verse is the fact that Jesus chose this particular woman to reveal his identity to. I have mentioned this before but did you notice God has a pattern of using those who by human standards, don’t really deserve it? Moses was brought to my mind first after this woman. I was thinking about how Moses had killed a man and then ran away from Egypt. This is who God decided to use to save the Jewish people. Think about all the truly amazing things Moses did. His life did not start off in an amazing way. His mother had to put him in a basket in a river when he was a baby to avoid him being killed. She gave him up so that he could have a life. Then he wasn’t even raised in the Jewish culture. He was raised as an Egyptian prince. This is who God used to save all of the Jewish people from Egypt.
We often think God can’t use us and we come up with all the excuses in the book. I am too old, I am too young, I am not from a religious family, I am not as “holy” as other people in my family or in my friend circle. We are super great at coming up with reasons why God won’t use us. Sometimes those things are our tendency to sin. For instance we think God can’t use me because I have sinned in my past and I continue to sin. Guess what? Murder is a sin and yet God used Moses. Adultery is a sin and yet God used David. We all sin, God doesn’t need us to be perfect.
God has a purpose for each one of us. I was going to say, “If God wants to use you, He will.” However, I don’t believe it is a matter of “if”. God definitely wants to use you, He wants to use all of us to help Him build up His Kingdom. Whatever you feel God putting on your heart know that He chose you for a reason. Maybe that thing you feel is a weakness is the exact reason God chose you. Maybe He is going to use that weakness to help you talk to others with that same weakness? Maybe your addiction or alcohol makes you perfectly suited to bring his good news to others with an addiction to alcohol. God will use all our mistakes, all of our pain, all of our sins, for good if we let Him. Don’t listen to that inner voice that tells you God wouldn’t use you. That is the voice of the enemy trying to keep you down because he knows God has powerful plans for you and the enemy is worried about what will happen if you step into those plans. God knows you are not perfect and that is exactly why He wants to use you. Let Him. Say Yes. Surrender to God and He will use you. You are exactly who He wants.
Dear Heavenly Father I ask you to bless all those who are listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to drink of the living waters, please help us. Lord, give us this wellspring of water inside of us. Help us to say yes to your call on our life. Help us to see that you use imperfect people all the time. Help us to see we are exactly who you want to use. Please help us to stop listening to that annoying voice of the enemy telling us you would never want to use us. Please Lord, make your voice so much louder than the enemies. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you here again tomorrow. Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!