2/1/11 John 4:11-15 Spiritual Not Physical

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
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.”

(Woman at the Well J Tissot c. 1890)

Thoughts: The woman was so wrapped up in the physical that she didn't get the spiritual until it was repeated to her about three times by Jesus.  So many in our culture are the same way- we are really blind to the spiritual, and wrapped up in the things we have (or don't have).  But we don't need water- we need the deeper, more lasting, more satisfying living water of Christ.  Yet our physical needs can lead us (as in this instance) to a deeper spiritual answer.  The hunger for bread in Egypt and other Arab countries has led to a hunger for freedom- and even hunger for spiritual answers. 

Prayer: Open my heart O Lord, that I may not concentrate only on what I can see with my eyes.  Give me grace to have a pure heart that I may see your love and presence.

John Calvin Abridged Commentary: "Nothing to Draw with"- The woman knew Jesus was speaking figuratively, yet she mocked him by continuing to talk about the physical- as if he was promising more than he could deliver.  Yet Christ patiently teaches her the difference of the kinds of waters.  One kind lasts only for a time for the body.  The other lasts pepetually for the soul.  The living water gives us a continual, heavenly watering in this life.