Are You thirsty? – 5.28.2022
This blog is going to be blunt, unapologetically and straight to the point… to the heart of the matter.
Lately, I have been hearing people saying that they are “thirsty”. I heard it so often until I realized that what I thought they meant was quite different from what the word actually means.
In today’s vernacular, thirsty is being used as a slang. It means they want a booty call, a quick roll in the hay, to get laid, down and dirty, wham, bam, thank you ma’am.
I listened intently to the “heart” of the matter and recognized their cry. I am thirsty. Can you help?
There is a l-o-n-g-i-n-g deep within each heart to be loved and accepted. It burns with an intensity which can not be quenched by material things or a warm body which quicly turns cold.
Isaiah 55:1 puts it this way – ….”every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
Verses 2 and 3 continue: “2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. 3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”
Isaiah spoke these words around 538 BCE after the children of Israel had been in exile, when times were hard and seemed hopeless. People were discouraged and depressed and were doing things to fill that void.
Centuries later, sometime between 30 Ad and 33 AD, Jesus stopped at a well. We find this event unfolding in John 4:4-26.
Jesus was on a journey from Judaea to Galilee which is a 70 mile walk that took about two and a half days considering having to stop during the night. The most direct and quickest route was to go through Samaraia. Keep in mind that there was a racial divide between Jews towards the Samaritans so most so that they avoided Samaria altogether, taking another longer route.
But get this, Jesus chose to go through Samaria, the reason known only to Himself. Verse 4 states, And he must needs go through Samaria.
Halfway on his journey to Galilee, after traversing desert and rocky terrain, Jesus was tired, actually wearied, perhaps drained and exhausted. He sat down at the well after sending His disciples to get food. It was extremely hot.
While waiting at the well, Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman and He initiated a conversation with her in verse 7, give me to drink.
She was astounded that He even spoke to her and told Him as much. Jesus got right to the heart of things and their conversation still rings down through the ages, given all people hope despite race or gender. Jesus forever lifted the status of women with His unrandom act of kindness in the midst of a patriarchal and religious system.
10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
(Sidebar: being thirsty, as in today’s slang is not a new concept. There is nothing new under the sun.)
Wow!
Can you hear the hunger and thirst in her voice for so much more than a warm body? She was tired of her current situation, of being rejected, used and abused. She recognized that her moment of change had arrived.
Not only did Jesus initiate a conversation with her as a woman and a Samaritan, He proceeded to tell her of her life’s story, He “read” her, told her about herself and about her past five husbands and the current man she was with was not even her husband.
Rather than get offended, her encounter with Him was life changing and she went immediately to where she lived and brought back the men to Jesus. She brought back the men.
29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? 30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. 40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his own word; 42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
Are you thirsty? Are YOU thirsty…. No shame.
Come see a Man and watch how He will change your life, making you a new Creature. Like the Samaritan Woman, you too will have no need return to the well to do what you used to do.