Living Water of Christ
As I gazed at the intricate etching Christ and the Woman of Samaria by Dutch artist Rembrandt, two interesting details caught my eye. The first was Jesus’ humble pose—leaning over, with His hand over His heart—as he addressed the Samaritan woman. Due to centuries of hostilities between the two groups, Jews typically didn’t “associate with Samaritans” (John 4:9). Yet Jesus reached out with respect and dignity to a woman considered an outcast (vv. 17-18).
Jesus knew the woman’s struggles and offered “living water” (v. 10) to satisfy her deepest need—the gift of cleansing and life-giving grace available through a restored relationship with God.
The second detail that caught my eye was the dark shadow covering the woman’s face, symbolizing her initial struggle to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, or Israel’s promised rescuer. When the woman told Jesus, “I know that Messiah is coming” (v. 25) and He responded, “I am he” (v. 26), her eyes and heart were opened (v. 29).
As we encounter people who are spiritually thirsty, Jesus’ example reminds me to speak with humility and kindness, praying for God to remove the shadow that “has blinded the minds of unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 4:4) so they can fully understand Christ’s life-changing offer of living water.
By: Lisa M. Samra - Our Daily Bread Ministries
John 4:7-8, 13-18, 21, 23-26
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 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.”
15 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.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
