Coming to the Lord for the first time, or returning to the Lord after a season of walking away is difficult. There are reasons why you decided not to consider what Jesus offers. There are reasons why you have drifted from your faith in Him. But perhaps you are sensing a stirring. Perhaps it is time to come closer to hear what Jesus might want to say to you. Let’s consider together the pathway of a potential returnee by looking at the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman as recorded in John 4.

This encounter reveals that Jesus knew the stirrings and longings that lay below the surface of this woman’s heart even before she recognized them in herself.

She is thirsty. 

Coming to the well in the heat of the day was a demanding chore, but physical thirst and the need for water compel her. Jesus’ request for water opens a discussion that speaks to the reality that thirst and water are not merely physical. Isn’t the need to draw water emblematic of something more? Aren’t the needs of her soul and spirit crying out to be quenched as well?

“Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.’” John 4:14,15 

Jesus, seeing her physical thirst, appeals to her thirsty soul, thirsty for truth, thirsty for belonging, thirsty for love, thirsty for God. 

She is thirsty for acceptance.

Why is she at the well in the heat of the day? Because she would rather endure the harsh midday temperatures than the harsh taunts of the other women who came to draw water in the cool of the day. She is an outcast among her peers. Did that matter to Jesus? No and yes. 

“Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband.’, for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.’” Jn 4:16,17

Not only is she rejected by the women of the community for her disreputable lifestyle, but it appears that she is rejected by men as well. In Samaritan culture at that time, women did not divorce men, men divorced women. Why did five men divorce her? And who is this sixth man with whom she is living? We do not know, but does it matter? She is continuing to thirst after belonging and acceptance from sources that will never truly satisfy. 

But why would Jesus ask her this embarrassing question? Is he trying to shame her or guilt her by exposing her past and present indiscretions? Jesus is the truth therefore coming to him in pretense never works. But just as he did with this woman, he meets us and engages with us in truth, even in the midst of our mess and mess ups, not to shame us, not to coddle us, not to humiliate us or vent his anger upon us, but to lead us to repentance, forgiveness and freedom. It is his love for this woman that would expose this uncomfortable truth in order to set her free from rejection, free from guilt, free from shame, truly free. 

She is thirsty for true worship. 

Confused and backpedaling, sensing that she is in the presence of a holy man, perhaps even a prophet, she shifts the conversation toward the proper place to worship. While this may seem like a diversion from focus on her past and present, Jesus perceives something else, her desire to be in a right relationship with God.

“Dear woman, the hour is coming and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.” Jn.4:23

Undoubtedly these words brought the true thirst of her heart to the surface. Father God? Seeking people? Spirit and truth? Could I, in spite of all I have done, be one for whom Father God might be seeking? 

It is all a bit too much to take in. Who is this man? How does he know all about me? Why is he offering me living water? Why is he speaking to me about God as a Father who isn’t concerned about the proper location of worship but the heart, spirit and truth? There is only One who can make sense of all of this.

“The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called the Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.”

Her thirst for truth, for acceptance, for being reconciled to God is now evident even to herself.  “My hope is in Messiah who can redeem a life like mine and make me into one of those worshipers that the Father is seeking after”, was undoubtedly what she was thinking.

“Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am he.’” Jn.4:26

And what is this woman’s response? She left her water jar and ran into town telling people, the very people who shunned and rejected her, “Come and see, could this be the Christ?”

A shift has already taken place. Physical thirst and thirst for belonging and acceptance have inexplicably been satisfied by her encounter with the man who gives living water.

How can we summarize the pathway that Jesus guided this woman on as she turned to God?

• Jesus helped her recognize that she is physically, emotionally and spiritually thirsty.
• Jesus identified himself as the one who could satisfy that thirst.
• He unmasks the truth about her past and present life.
• He speaks about God as the Father who is seeking people to worship him.
• He discloses his true identity as the Messiah, the One for whom she has waited.

What a beautiful encounter. Tender and yet truthful. 

How might this relate to your journey? 

Do you recognize that your soul and spirit are thirsty ?

Have you gone to well after well to try to satisfy that thirst?

Is there something in your life that keeps you from coming to Jesus?

Can you let Him tell you what he already knows about your life?

Are you afraid that he will condemn you or reject you?

Have you tried to please God by being a good person, by going to church, by doing good deeds to make up for what you wish you hadn’t done?

Do you know that the Father is seeking people to worship him? He is seeking you?

Do you believe that Jesus is waiting at the well to talk to you about the gift of God, about himself as the Messiah who gives living water?

Are you willing to leave your water jar behind – whatever that water jar might represent in your life?

Are you willing to risk rejection and bring to the very people who have rejected you, the Messiah who has “told me all that I ever did”? 

This is one among many pathways to return to Jesus.

“In returning and rest you shall be saved In quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” Isa.30:15