Jesus Our Living Water

24th May 2021

Water makes up 60-75% of human body weight. A loss of just 4% of total body water leads to dehydration, and a loss of 15% can be fatal. Likewise, a person could survive a month without food but wouldn’t survive 3 days without water. This crucial dependence on water broadly governs all life forms.  Clearly water is vital for survival.” ¹

All of us, at some point in life have experienced thirst. May be on a road trip we ran out of water. Or on a train journey we missed buying water. And on such occasions we have a mild panic, though we know for sure that we will get water within a few hours. But what about a person who is lost in the desert and has run out of water ? The severe thirst and the uncertainty of ever finding water will lead to panic. Soon dehydration will set in and he will collapse . If help does not reach him, he will lose consciousness and eventually die. On the other hand if that person, lost in the desert, suddenly comes across a cool spring of water, the panic will turn to joy and he will run and quench his thirst and that feeling of satisfaction is indescribable.

There was a woman who tried to quench her thirst through her relationship with men. She had married five times and still unsatisfied, she was now living with a man who was not her husband. And one day she had an encounter with Jesus. She would go to a well outside her village to draw water and that is where she met Jesus. And Jesus made an incredible offer. Jesus offered her water that will quench her thirst forever. This is what Jesus told her “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14.

But in order for Jesus to become for us the spring of living water, that can quench our every thirst, Jesus had to first offer His own life on a cruel Cross. On the Cross our every sin was laid on Jesus. On the Cross Jesus drank from the cup of God’s fury and appeased the wrath of a Holy God for our every sin. This is what the scripture says about the suffering of Jesus.

Isa 53:3  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isa 53:5  But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. Isa 53:10  Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and the LORD makes his life a guilt offering.

Why was the source of Living Water crushed in my place ? Why was the the one who quenches my every thirst was Himself subject to thirst .

Psa 22:14  I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. Psa 22:15  My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.

So that you and me need thirst no more. May we find our satisfaction in Jesus our Living Water.

And this is that eternal life of heaven,
Laid up with Christ in God, the mystery
Of resurrection life which He hath given:
A fount of living waters full and free;
A life by which the gates of death are riven,
A life which on the throne of Christ shall be.

Now come, Lord Jesus, quickly from above,
Do Thou sustain us on the desert road,
And draw us after Thee by might of love,
Our Fatherland art Thou, O love of God;
Once safe in Thee, no more shall we remove,
O Thou our everlasting sure abode.

Moravian Bretheren Hymn: How true it is no heart may comprehend (hymnal.net)

¹    Biological Roles of Water: Why is water necessary for life? – Science in the News (harvard.edu)