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The Upload

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I pray that you have had a blessed week.

This Sunday, March 23, we will read the story about the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:5-42). You know the story, where the disciples leave Jesus alone while they go into town to get some food, and Jesus waits for them at Jacob’s well. While Jesus is waiting there, a Samaritan woman comes to the well at noon, a very hot time of day, to get some water. This is an odd time of day for a woman to come to the well; all the other women would have come early in the morning when it was cool. So when she shows up expecting no one to be there, she finds a man sitting there, Jesus, and he does what any thirsty male would do, he commands the woman to get him a drink. The woman is shocked for a few reasons: First, men were not supposed to speak to a woman they did not know directly in public; secondly, Jesus is a Jew, she is a Samaritan, and Jews do not speak to Samaritans; and lastly, if Jesus had come to the well for water at noon, he should have brought a bucket to get water, because he should not have expected anyone to be there to help him.

When this woman challenges Jesus, he says to her that had she asked him, he would offer her “living water.” This perplexes the woman even more, and it is at this point that she responds with a statement that really makes me think about my life, too. “Sir,” she says, “you have no bucket, and the well is deep…” Jacob’s well was a deep well and, to get water from it, one needed a bucket.

This is a statement I think of often when I am facing a situation that exceeds my human abilities. I hear this statement when I think of all the building issues we have to deal with here at Salem. As I think about how we will get all these things fixed, I think, we have no bucket and the well is deep. I hear this statement when I am meeting with someone who has just been diagnosed with cancer, or any other disease that seems impossible to face; I have no bucket and the well is deep. I hear this statement when I meet with an addict who feels helpless to get out of his/her situation; I have no bucket and the well is deep. Don’t all of us feel this way at times? Don’t we feel like this when we think about all those who are suffering in our own communities, or when we hear about abused children, or people without healthcare, or the homeless? The well is deep and we have no bucket.

We are faced with so many issues and challenges in life that seem to us to be impossible to overcome; yet, Jesus always stands beside us. When the well is deep, he has promised to be with us. He is the living water that we so desperately need as we stand beside a deep well with no bucket.

After a little more conversation, the Samaritan woman finally says to Jesus, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water"(4:15). That is the prayer we all need to pray every day, and it is a prayer that Jesus has promised to answer before we even say it. As you stand at your deep well with no bucket, remember the words Jesus uttered at the very beginning of this encounter: "If you knew who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water" (4:10).

No matter what your story is, no matter how bad things look in life, no matter how deep the well is that you are standing before, Jesus says to you, ask me and I will be your bucket, drop me into your well, and I will get you “living water.”

Pray for the “living water” Jesus offers; you need only ask for it.

Have a blessed week.

Shalom,

Pastor Dave

Tags: Weekly Word