Episode Transcript
Well, welcome back to The Defined Podcast w/ Dr. Jon et al., a Bible study in which panelists from a variety of backgrounds, including coaching, education, management, ministry and psychology, seek hope and truth in what some would call austere times. My name is Chris. I'm your host once again. We're joined, of course, with Dr. Jon and also Christina Konrad, LMHC and aspiring author, Pastor Jim Beirne and Robyn Nelson, special education teacher. Welcome back, everybody.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We are still in the book of John. We are now in chapter 4. And reading out of the ESV, we are at the part where Jesus meets with the woman of Samaria at the well.
I'll just read the first 10 verses here of chapter 4, and then we'll begin with opening thoughts around the table.
"Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink.' (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, 'How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?' (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and 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.'”
So, today we're focusing on the word gift or give or given. Kind of a variation of those words. All three appear in the same verse there in verse 10. I'll just read that one more time.
"Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and 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.'”
And so, it's interesting, I think, that that word is used so often there. And of course, in Romans 6:23 out of the ESV, it says,
"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
So, Jesus is using this occasion, being at the well, being near water, to convey the imagery of what this gift is, living water.
So anyway, that's just a overview there of the verse and we'll circle back and talk more about it. But just opening thoughts so far on the, on the topic there of the gift and living water and so forth.
Yeah, well, I love the fact that the scenario where this all takes place, it wasn't just happenstance. And so, I guess my kind of top line thought is, I suppose you can almost say the length that Jesus went to, to go after this one Samaritan woman. And it reminded me of Jesus leaves the 99 to go for the 1. And it sure seems like, it doesn't say explicitly, but it sure looks like it's a one-on-one conversation. And he had been with disciples up to this point, so he left them, went to find her, and then that created the scenario for him to offer her the gift of eternal life. And so, I think that's just a great reminder that Jesus comes after us, he's intentional and because he wants to give us this gift, he wants to give us this living water. And he won't let us slip by because he notices and he knows all of us. So just, yeah, he was just intentional about setting up the scenario to offer this woman the living water that she actually wanted and needed.
I think to piggyback off of what you're saying is, I'm just so grateful that God gives us what we need and not what we think we want a lot of the time. Which is also a chapter in my book.
Shameless.
Sometimes when we, we think we want something or we think it's what we need, it's not actually God's will or God's best for us. And God sees beyond those circumstances and has our eternal best interest in mind. So, he's always working on our behalf to unfold what is best for us.
I love this story. It's one of my favorite stories in the whole Bible, actually. This great gift that Jesus brings us, part of that gift is to be known and to be loved. And those are the greatest gifts that God brings us through Jesus Christ. And this example of this woman who was known as something else. Jesus enters the scene and shows her respect and shows her love and shows her that she's worth more than what everybody else knows her as. And it just brings to light that one of God's greatest gifts is he knows us, yet he loves us and he's always drawing us to redemption. And so, my opening thoughts are just, I'm so glad that we serve a God who wants to love us, who knows us and knows our good, our bad, our ugly, but yet still is always reaching for us, still always loving us, still always redeeming us.
I think sometimes I read this, and I read Jesus' interactions with people and like, they're just talking about water. And then he's like, oh, but if you had known, you, like, he makes it about something that it wasn't actually started to be about.
And I think it's interesting that he says,
"'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, "Give me a drink," you would have asked him,'"
like, but how would she have known otherwise? And I just, I wonder that too, in my own, like, interactions with the Lord, is there something I'm missing because I just didn't know or, like, I'm not asking for his perspective on it? I guess. So that's the short summary of. I can unpack that a little bit more as I dive more into it, but.
Yeah, later on in their conversation, she does say, you know, I know that the Messiah is coming. I know that the Christ is coming. In a way that, she was expecting that, him to show up. She didn't recognize who it was at the time, you know, but in her heart, in her anticipation, she was, look, she was actively kind of looking or awaiting or expecting him to come at some point. And so, in some ways she was ready to receive the gift.
Right.
Not everybody is, I suppose, in a sense, but she was kind of prepared in that way for that, so. There's an interesting commentary, I think, from Matthew Henry on the location, just kind of the whole scene here. Later on, the woman says that, or Jesus actually says, you've had five husbands and the one you're with now is not your husband. And this commentary just notices that,
"This woman’s meeting with Christ at the well may remind us of the stories of Rebekah, Rachel, and Jethro’s daughter, who all met with husbands, good husbands, no worse than Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, when they came to the wells for water."
And we have this imagery of Christ being the groom and the church being the bride. And so, in a way, there's kind of this imagery of her meeting her husband, like her true husband in Christ. Right? Later on, in the book of Revelation, it actually says in chapter 22 verse 17,
"The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price."
Or as the King James says, "let him take the water of life freely."
So. Anyway, there's that wording there again about the Bride, the Spirit, and then this imagery at the well where that's where like this marriage in a sense kind of takes place historically in those other cases as the commentary says. So, another context there that's kind of interesting to look at, I think.
Which would be interesting because every time that she went to the well, like, she probably had that in the back of her mind, perhaps at least every once in a while, because that was what she said to Jesus. Like, one of the first things that she talked about was, well, this is Jacob's well. And to that point about all the lineage and all the, quote unquote, success, like the greats in the Old Testament, so to speak. And she's like, well, who am I? I mean, I've got, you know, six husbands now. Or five and the sixth one isn't hers. And I wonder if her walking to the well, like, would bring certain amounts of shame every time that she was reminded of what she, quote unquote, was or what she wasn't. And then Jesus just meets her exactly where she was. And so, probably it was like a doubly, like, significant moment for her, I would think, because, like, you were saying, yeah, it's like the new, the new marriage, the new, the new relationship. And he chose her to be like one of the first people that he revealed himself to. And that's huge.
I don't know where I heard this. It might have been something I read or a sermon, but because she was married five times and then with another person and she was a Samaritan, an outcast. What I remember being told or reading somewhere was that she would have had a lot of shame. And so, people typically would have gone to the well at like dawn and dusk. Not the hottest part of the day, but she went at the hottest part of the day because of the shame that she carried, to avoid interacting with all the people who would have been mean or condemning to her. And Jesus still met her there, which is such a beautiful picture.
That's really cool. Yeah, it was so hot, even God was like, man, this is hot. Even I'm weary. That's hot.
I think we have to sort out a little bit the tone that Jesus speaks to this woman in. I've—depending on which camp you're in, sometimes the tone was either, hey, you have five husbands, you're terrible. You know, six. But you have to understand the character of Jesus through the whole thing. I don't believe he was pointing his finger in her face saying, hey, you have five husbands. He's trying to call her out. What he's doing is he's speaking the truth in love and showing her that that doesn't matter, that he's still always about redemption. And I've heard many sermons preached on this, some with a real negative tone of this whole condemnation of sin. And Jesus came and he was calling people out everywhere. But as I read through the whole New Testament, that's not the tone of Jesus. Very seldom is his tone high. I think his tone was completely out of love. And so, he spoke to this woman in a way that obviously was different than anyone else had ever spoken to her before because her life was completely changed. And I think there's a really good lesson in there for all of us in the tone. And it kind of takes me back to whoever hasn't sinned, throw the first stone. Our tone means everything to people. And the tone of the gospel as we share it with others is everything. Because we all. Nobody likes fear, nobody likes shame, Nobody likes that.
Right.
It's terrible. But we respond so well to love. We respond so well to caring. And so, there's this great lesson in there of tone and caring. And also, later on in the conversation, he says, you're going to drink this water and you'll be thirsty again, but you drink this living water, and you'll never thirst again. And that's an important part of that message, is that this great gift is this living water in Jesus Christ. And we won't thirst again when we follow Jesus. When we lean into what the world has to offer us, it's so easy to come up empty every time you try and try and try again. But when we lean into God, it doesn't mean we still don't come up empty sometimes.
Sure.
But there's this deep hope in there that there's something that God, he's going to reveal this over time, that Jesus is going to reveal these things to us over time. And so, I just, again, I love this lesson.
Yeah.
So important.
Yeah. I think with tone kind of leading up, like you were saying Christina, about, like, the shame and the reasons why she was there at the time that she was. We can, I think, completely conclude that the tone was soft because in therapy, when I've worked with people who are dealing with a lot of shame, you start—I mean, it's just, it's natural—if you speak harshly to someone who's dealing with shame, they're going to retreat. They're not going to open up.
Right.
She had a conversation with Jesus after him saying these things about her that were true. And so, the natural response with shame would be to reco—, recro—, what is it? Recoil. Recoil. Yeah, recoil. There we go.
I was waiting for you to get it. You were going to get it.
Don't help him. Don't help him. He can do it. He can do it by himself.
Sorry.
I like look around. Come on, guys. Somebody? Anybody?
I said it.
Recoil, recoil. Recoil. And she didn't. So, she was opening up more, the more that it was revealed what was truth. And Jesus wouldn't go against his own word either. Speak truth in love. So that would be something also. So, 100% agree.
I think it's like, it's hard to know—like, you're saying—like, the tone of something because we're just reading it. And we might even be reading it how we would interpret this conversation if we were in it. Like, we put, like, that's why conversations over text messages are hard. Or email, you know, like, you don't always get someone's tone there. But I think that with Jesus pointing out the five husbands, it, like, could I be wrong in assuming that he was just trying to point out, like, I see your need. Like, there's a need here for, like, this love and this validation and relationship, et cetera, et cetera. Like, people don't do that for no reason. And for him to point that out, like, it's like, I see your need here, and also, I have what you need. Like, that need can be filled with me. It's not pointing it out for the sake of, like, to cause shame, but to. And I see for exactly who you are. I know who you are. And, and in that I love you. And here's how I can, you know, provide for that sort of thing. Like, it's not. Is never, like, we use the term, like, reveal to heal. And I think that's exactly what was happening there. It wasn't to bring shame at all. It's to bring healing for her.
Right.
So.
And also indicated that he, at least up to that point, it revealed that he was at least hearing from God. Because she said, well, I can see you're a prophet right now. She didn't yet know that he was the Messiah, but at least then there was a connection was made where, okay, I can see that you hear from God now. I know that much. So.
Right.
And she was definitely open to hearing from God because she was, she had a lot to say about worship, you know, she was not a novice completely on history and where she was coming from.
Yeah.
As a Samaritan.
So, I love how he like picked out like the, like the least likely, like he always seems to do. Right? It's like, like wasn't the right race or culture, wasn't the right, you know, marriage, wasn't the right, like anything. And Jesus is like, yep, she's the one I want.
Yeah.
Shows his great power.
Yeah.
Even that he chose a woman.
Right.
What was radical in those days.
Yeah.
Well, Jesus later on—just kind of skipping all the way ahead to John chapter 7—he talks about the water again. And in verses 37-39 out of the ESV, it says,
"On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, "Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."' Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."
So later on, it provides a little bit more explanation of what the water is. It's the Spirit. So, any thoughts on that? Later on in Galatians, Paul will say,
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
That's Galatians 5:22. So, these are the things that bubble up within the one who believes. Right?
I guess in my mind, maybe I'm a little bit off here, but the comparison or how she brought up, she's well-versed with worship. And so, the temple. And when can we worship as well? And not too long after that, the temple is going to be the individual who has Christ living in them. And so, the Spirit. To then to clarify, the living water is the Spirit, and she's already minded towards worship and has a temple kind of a mindset. She's going to learn soon that she is the temple. Like the Spirit will live in her. Now, I don't. Maybe that's too far of a stretch. I don't know, but that's kind of what came to my mind when you started talking about the Spirit and her talking about the temple.
I don't think that's a stretch. I agree with you. I really, you know, as we come to Jesus Christ and we begin this, like, amazing journey, walking with him, and the Holy Spirit reveals these things to us as we continue the walk and as we continue to immerse ourself in God's word, and I just think that it's so, so important to recognize what spirit and truth is, what it meant to worship in spirit and truth. And so many younger Christians, like, younger in their faith, they tend to look at worship as something that we do on a Sunday for a certain period of time, instead of looking at worship for what it's truly supposed to be. It's everything that we are. It's the way that we live. We live lives of worship. We don't just pick a time and go, okay, now it's worship time. Walking with Jesus who loves us so much, we begin to see that love. And it's so attractive as we see it that we want more. And so, we live these lives of worship where we start to recognize that all, even the small things that we do, they're all acts of worship to this, like, awesome God who loved us so much. And when we start to grab ahold of that, no one's 100% for sure, but when we start to grab ahold of that, it really is life changing. It really is life changing to understand that what we do means something to someone and we're known. And being known is to be loved. Like, wow, the greatest love ever. To have somebody know you for all of your, you know, wow. And still be like, I love you so much. I don't know. It makes me want to worship more. It makes me want to live more because I'm like, wow, I want to lean into this.
Yeah. I mean, it sure seems like to me, like, again, the story, like, of the prodigal son, I know I brought that up, and it's probably going to be brought up a lot of times moving forward is just the father knew what his son did, and he was waiting for him to return, arms wide open. And so, it's such a powerful story and reminder of that's how God sees us. Arms wide open. Yeah. Scott Stapp.
For a lot of people who don't have, like, a healthy, balanced, loving earthly father, that concept is so hard to grasp. And then if you pile on, like, maybe growing up in a church that is legalistic and focuses on the wrath and hell and all of that scary stuff, like, for me, that's, those are two pieces of my own story that I had to make sense of in my young adulthood and come to grips with, like, learning the true character of God and how he really does love us so, so much. So, I think that can be like such a block for people. And it's one of the reasons people don't come to Jesus because they don't understand his just infinite love for us and that there's grace and we don't have to be perfect and all of that stuff.
I think that even with what you're saying, like that's very much part of my own story as well. And then that like the word today is give or gift or given. And I just keep thinking on the nature of a gift is that there's no expectation of return. And I'm like tracking with so many times in my own life where I've been given something, but it's been used to manipulate later down the road. Like, and it's hard to accept, it's just hard to accept gifts. It's hard to think that like God is blessing us or that he loves us that much, that he's not expecting anything in return and then it's not for manipulative gain for his own, you know, like, and I think that you come to a place where you're in this relationship with the Lord and I, like, I have to separate what I've known from some humans, not all, but some humans, to how good and vast and immeasurable God's love is that—because it's not like it's not a worldly love that we've ever known, but.
Right. Yeah. Well, it's kind of like around Christmas time if ever, like, you know—and maybe this happened, you know, more recently in this past Christmas—but it's like, but you get a gift for somebody and then you're like, now I gotta get them something.
It's like, okay, so. Right? But it's not like that. It's not like that expectation that you have to then do something in order to pay God back. Because that's not what it's all about.
Yeah, so I think I've shared about this maybe before, but I'm a DIYer and a little bit of a woodworker and a painter and artist and crafter extraordinaire, which is not on my byline for other things, but. I found a table that was like free one time and it was, it looked great from the pictures and I picked it up and I was going to bring it home and I was going to make it into my kitchen table and when I started cleaning it, it was the grimiest, most disgusting, like just, I think only 3-year-old children ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at that table for 27 years. It was so gross.
They like never grew up.
It was, like, really gross.
Sounds gross.
And I was like, you know, carving out all this gunk and grime and just. It was a lot of work. And I had this epiphany while I was working on this table, and I was like, this is what God thinks of us. Not in, like, a shameful way, but, like, he sees us with all our gunk and grime, like the woman at the well. And he says, I see your potential. I see what I created you to be. I see that I've given you a name and a purpose. And I just think that's so powerful. I don't have that table anymore, but every time I, like, looked at the table, I kind of remembered, like, God did that work for me too. And I think that's really powerful.
Yeah, that is. And the gift of. Yeah, like a renewal and, like. Yeah, absolutely. That's good. There's something called the Benjamin, The Benjamin Franklin Effect where you ask somebody for a small favor, and they're more likely to like you afterwards.
I've heard of this.
So, where the suggestion is, if you're new to the neighborhood, ask your neighbor to help you out with a very small project or a small favor, and then they're more likely to like you for that. And so, I just think it's interesting that one of Jesus' first things that he says to the woman at the well is, can you give me a drink? And I wonder if that was psychological. Like, this is something where she gives him something, and then that opens up the doorway to like him more. If that's, if that was. Yeah, if that's something that maybe he was thinking.
Yeah.
So, then it wouldn't be the Benjamin Franklin Effect. It was the Jesus Effect.
I had a similar thought. I didn't know the name of it, though.
Yeah.
I've never heard of that. And I used to be a history teacher.
I've heard of this, not in historical sense, but in, like, the psychological sense. If you have, like, an enemy or someone just doesn't like you, it's a weird thing that happens, but you just ask them for a small. Or ask them for help. It kind of endears them to you. Like, you, oh, I just needed this. And I've done it.
Which culturally, they would have been at odds with each other. So, another way that that would have kind of made sense.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Benjamin Franklin. I'd be like, anybody got a kite? Is that what.
Anybody got a key?
Is that where that started?
Can I borrow you for your house key?
I'm actually gonna try that on my neighbor right away.
Is that right? There you go. Can you help me help you move?
You have done that a few times?
Yeah. Yeah, I've helped people move.
Yeah. It's true.
Well, that's interesting. I wonder if there's any other examples in the Bible of asking, is this an isolated incident? I wonder if it happened again.
Right. If that was something that happened kind of like a few times where the first interaction was asking for a small favor.
Interesting.
Not sure.
I have one quick thought.
Yeah.
I don't know if it'll be quick, just that we need to be shown love. We can never understand it. So, we can read through Scripture. And I don't want to negate the power of the Holy Spirit for sure, but as a fallen human being, redeemed, fully redeemed, it's like grace, I guess. You can't ever extend grace unless somebody's actually shown you grace. And so, in all of this story and this great gift, part of that great gift is what came later in the body of Christ. And that is a huge gift. And that gift kind of comes together as we, in those amazing moments when the Holy Spirit's flowing through us, we do very extraordinary things for people. Like we show them grace when grace isn't deserved. But going back to this woman at the well, obviously Jesus showed her grace, but he also showed her love. And that may have been the first demonstration of what real love was to her that she'd ever seen. And so, I think it's important takeaway when we talk about this story is that as part of God's kingdom and part of God's body, there's times when we extend grace and we show love to others and it enables other people to show love. And personally, grace, I struggled with grace for a long time, and then I had a few people around me that showed me what real grace looked like. And all of a sudden, the concept became real to me. It wasn't just words. It wasn't just, you know, it became real. And in that moment, I was all of a sudden able to extend that love and grace to other people. Because you obviously, you backtrack and you go, hey, I remember what it was like when I didn't feel that. And now here's another situation. To show the love of Jesus Christ by extending that grace and love to somebody else, even if it's difficult, even if it's a bad situation. But wow, when we do that, the impact it has on people's lives, it's amazing because then all of a sudden, they have a real concept that they can grab ahold of and they go, okay, now I can show that love and grace to other people.
Yeah.
So, maybe not right away, but it sticks and it grows over time. So.
Yeah.
That was my thought.
Yeah. Well, it's kind of like as Scripture says, like, we're the, you know, the hands and feet of Christ. And so, that's how we, that's one of the main ways that we can do that is by showing the love of Christ. And being, you know, Christians is like little Christs being Christ-bearers. So, it's like, so we're supposed to reflect who the, like what the character of God is. What we as believers then we have that, it's a responsibility, but also, it's just, it'll just come out of us naturally to show that love and that grace that perhaps, you know, others didn't even experience growing up. Because somewhere along the way we all experienced some type of kindness, love and grace from somebody that then helped us to better understand, oh, this comes from God. This is actually where it's redirected back to. So yeah, that's a really important part that we play as, yeah.
I think sometimes if they're, if, especially when that comes from a difficult person where you go, wait a minute, that is not a characteristic of humanity in general. But this person, definitely not. All of a sudden you see what the woman at the well saw. You go, this is the Messiah.
Yeah.
This is a powerful God right here. Because that's powerful. God is working through very average, very normal, very fallen people over and over again, and displaying his great power. And so, it's not so much us.
Right.
It's Christ through us, in us, working through us. And it's so powerful when flawed people rise up and do amazing things because people look and say, only God.
Yeah.
Right.
I actually think that we, like, maybe not everyone, but I feel like overarching, the church in general, has kind of adopted this mindset, like God is all I need. And it's like we, but it's like this hyper independence and we say it under the guise of like, God is all I need. But the reality is, is like the more we look through Scripture, he intends us for, like the goal isn't independence from one another, it's like a healthy interconnectedness. It's healthy relationships with one another. And that reveals the nature of Christ to one another. And I mean, it might be because I like, I tend to be a very relationship-oriented person. Like everything comes down to relationships and everything leads back to relationships. So, I'm, I tend to be very passionate about that. But I do think the more that I read in the Scriptures, like that is God's, like that is how God executes his love for us on earth. And it's kind of like rocking my mind a little bit to think of how much we miss out on sometimes because we put up walls from other people or we try and be like the woman at the well where we'd rather go at high noon, the hottest part of the day, because we have all this shame surrounding us when what we need we're actually gonna find in other healthy people and people who have been transformed by the love of God. Like we have a, we have a lot of power in our relationships to heal one another and to love one another and to, like you're saying, to be that body of Christ, to be the hands and feet of Jesus, like to really, like it's. I feel like I, we over complicate it, like everything else in the world, but like it, we have a lot of power with how we interact with one another to reveal God to people in the gospel, so.
Yeah.
I did my thesis research on at-risk youth and one of the main factors of youth who were able to like avoid statistics was having one supportive adult person. And I look at how God provided those. I had more than one and I, I'm just so thankful for those people and the community that he put us in because those people were who showed me unconditional love and the love of Jesus and what it looked like to sacrifice for one another. And it was just really powerful. And I think that is a huge part of what made me who I am today.
That's great.
Yeah, it's a great blessing when there are people that can provide that love and show that love, God working through them and. But even if there aren't, even if no one really comes to mind, at least, you know, reflecting on God's own gift is, still should put within the person resources to give that away still. God might be the only person for some people that they can reflect on like that they've received, you know, from. And like Matthew 10:8 says, "freely ye have received, freely give," in the King James. Even when God was feeding the 5,000, give to the people, feed the people as food is being given from what they had received and they're giving it, they didn't have less once they gave. Once they gave to others, in the end they had more than they even started with. So, this idea of giving, it doesn't diminish the source it actually is a multiplication. It's actually an increase that happens, which is really kind of counterintuitive, right? It's the opposite of the way you would think it would work.
As is so much the case with Jesus.
I think so many people feel like their faith is a private thing.
And just the nature of this word, "give," and everything we've talked about today, you think about that, it's not a private thing. And you can get trapped in the darkness of your own mind with your relationship with the Lord. But when you, obviously, everybody around this table knows this, you bring it out into the light of relationship, you start sharing, talking, interacting, and all of a sudden, you're not alone anymore. And I think how easy it would have been for Jesus to just stroll in there, take a drink of water and leave. But instead, he strolls in, he asks for that small favor, and then it develops into something that obviously the woman at the well, she did not keep it in her own head. She ran away saying, hey, come and see this guy who told me everything about myself. Right?
Yeah.
And that's what's so amazing about this relationship with Jesus Christ. It's never meant to be—it is personal—but it's not meant to be held inside. It's meant to be released through a million different means, but it's meant to be shared and passed on to other people. And so, an example of passing it on, he passed it on to her and, and she passed it on to many others as she shouted out the message, so.
Yeah. Imagine what she must have been like thinking or experiencing when then she sees Jesus crucified. I mean, the whole give, like, I'll give you the living water. I mean that, then that becomes even more significant for her specifically because it's like, wow, she met with him, I'll give you living water. And it all starts to become more and more relatable, understandable to that end. And so, I think that's something that's really powerful too, is, if we can connect these dots, because we have it all in front of us with the Bible, which is a huge blessing. It's amazing, just the course of, it all makes sense. It all, the dots all connect and then to the end where Jesus dies and then raises again. I mean, that is the reason why we have the living water for sure. And I just imagine in her mind she's just like, whoa, this is, this is something, this is next level. Yeah.
Well, before closing thoughts, any other thoughts that wouldn't.
We'll see if this.
Go ahead.
Yeah, we'll see if this makes the cut.
You need a little transition?
No. No.
What else you got?
No, this, this. So, this kind of goes back. Just one last thought, something that goes back to what we were talking about before. And J.C. Ryle, when it comes to the woman at the well, he writes,
"He tells the Samaritan woman that if she had asked, 'He would have given her living water.' He knew the character of the person before Him perfectly well. Yet He says, 'If she had asked, He would have given,'—He would have given the living water of grace, mercy, and peace.
The infinite willingness of Christ to receive sinners is a golden truth, which ought to be treasured up in our hearts, and diligently impressed on others. The Lord Jesus is far more ready to hear than we are to pray, and far more ready to give favors than we are to ask them. All day long He stretches out His hands to the disobedient and gainsaying. He has thoughts of pity and compassion towards the vilest of sinners, even when they have no thoughts of Him. He stands waiting to bestow mercy and grace on the worst and most unworthy, if they will only cry to Him. He will never draw back from that well-known promise, 'Ask and ye shall receive: seek and ye shall find.' The lost will discover at the last day, that they had not because they asked not."
And I think that's just an interesting reminder. Just again, it kind of says what we've already said a bit is like there's no, there's no person that Jesus won't seek out. And it's very, it becomes pretty simple. Just ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. And yeah, on that last day, you know, that's just something where it's like, well, you have not because you ask not. And that's something where he's made it so simple, so easy. He'll meet us in the middle of the day in the heat when we're not supposed to be interacting with quote, unquote, the right people. I mean, we've done everything wrong, and he'll meet us exactly where we're at. He's made it so simple. So, we just need to basically just accept what he's already given, that gift.
It's so powerful though that he leaves it up to us to choose it, to accept it. Otherwise, we'd be like robots walking around just being like, I obey Jesus, right? He wants us to choose relationship with him. And he's like a gentleman about it. I think that's always been so powerful to think about.
Yeah. He's respectful enough to basically respect our wishes.
That whole free will thing is very deep in its own. That's another episode, Dr. Jon. Just knowing that we have the right of refusal.
Right.
It means everything. It's a true act of grace to me that we have the right of refusal. It's not forced. It's not. But wow, once you say yes and you start to live in the grace and peace of Jesus Christ, there's nothing like it.
Yep. Yep.
All right, well, closing thoughts around the room on this topic of gift and give and giving?
Yeah, I think I'll just kind of go back to where Jesus will meet us, exactly where we're at. And there's nothing that he won't do to get to us. He'll leave the 99 to seek out the 1. And at some point in our life, we were all that one that he came after. So, he is, the free gift is there for everybody. And he is doing everything that he can. He's done everything that he could do to make that possible for us to have an eternity with him. And I think that that is just one of the most powerful things.
I think the thing that just keeps resonating with me is to think of the fact that he wants to bring us all into his fold and into his family. And he takes the rejected and the has-beens and the washed up and the very, very broken and he gives us a new name and he redeems us. And I think I just, I'm forever grateful for that.
I think small bits, that sounds a little odd, but he offers her a drink of living water. He doesn't pour a gallon of water down her throat in one sitting. So, the takeaway or the lesson for me, and also in that is that, you know, as we share that living water with others, what are our expectations of that? Are we willing to just throw a seed out there? Or do we feel like we have to go through the whole process, we have to plant it, water it, and harvest it later? Everyone's not ready for all of that. And sometimes a big dose of truth is very painful. A big dose of grace can be very damaging sometimes depending on this balance. So, when I look at it, I just think we have to keep it in perspective as we share this, that time and relationship answer a lot of questions as we share the gospel with people. And bits and pieces, and eventually it leads to what I would say, immersion—like eventually those bits and pieces come together, somebody finds out really who Jesus is—and then that awesome act of baptism where we're just immersed in who God is and raised up to live a new life. I think Jesus, so well, he gives us so many good examples of: don't rush things, just trust in who I am and I'll take care, I love people way more than you could ever love them, so, trust in me.
Yeah, that's good.
I think just what's really resonating with me is how much I identify with the woman at the well. When you, when. I think when I used to read this story, it didn't totally grasp that, like, a lot of the shame that she was experiencing, the avoidance of people and just having a history that like, she didn't want to talk about. And I'm just really grateful for the Lord seeking me out and finding me. And then like, everything about Jesus was so intentional there. Like, it's not like he just like randomly came upon her, like you said, like, he intentionally sought her out. And I'm really grateful for that. And it's convicting me in a way of like, how intentional am I being also about these opportunities for people who don't yet know his, like, his grace. And rather than like, asking for divine appointments, I guess, like—which we do, and I think is good—but like, how intentional can I also be about sharing the love of Jesus with people who need him? So, yeah.
Yeah. The. This. The wordage of water of life appears again in Revelation 22. And just the first couple verses there says,
"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."
And whether this is symbolism, as much of the book of Revelation seems to be, or whether it's literal, the important thing is that it's reality. This is the gift, you know, the gift of the water of life, and that's for the nations. It's far-reaching and it's something that God is offering to us through Jesus. And it's just, I like that the way the verse there kind of gives you something to look forward to even, you know, it's like, it's just an amazing description of the vastness of how far-reaching God's plan is. And it's a beautiful thing. And it's something that if we ask for it, he gives it to us freely, so.
Yeah. John 3:16, right? For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever, whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Very far-reaching. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Well, great discussion. Thank you everybody for participating. Thanks for joining us once again for the podcast. Please like and subscribe to be aware of when the next episode lands. We look forward to another episode soon. Thank you everybody.
Take care everybody.
Thank you.
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