We’re finding out what the Apostle John tells us about the Holy Spirit in his Gospel.
And here, in two episodes, Jesus shows us that real life and worship flow from receiving God’s gift of the Holy Spirit—an eternal life. The alternative is a life hijacked by things we can see and control.
The first account happens in Samaria[i]. The second at the temple in Jerusalem[ii]. It helps if we look at them together.
In the first episode, Jesus meets a woman by a well and asks for a drink, but, as the story reveals, he knows she is thirstier than he is. And he wastes no time in directing her attention to a new way to live.
She is surprised that Jesus speaks to a Samaritan woman. Jesus says if she knew who he was, she would ask him for living water. But there’s a way to go before she will understand this.
A life lived horizontally, with no access to God, is no real life at all. This woman needs to be saved by a drink from God’s ‘well of salvation’[iii]. She needs God himself to come to her, like running water, bubbling up within her as life that will be forever.
On the second of the two occasions we are looking at, Jesus is in the temple for a Feast day and offers ‘living water’ to everyone there. So, we know this offer is being made to us all. And John identifies this water as the Holy Spirit.
What difference does it make to us, to receive this gift of the Spirit? We know that no human being can live another person’s life for them. If we attempt to take responsibility for something they should do, we do them damage.
But life is God’s to give, and Jesus is the giver, and the gift is the Spirit. Only the Spirit can work things in us that we should do and must do. And he never intrudes on the responsibility given to us.
The woman of Samaria has no idea of a world above her that intersects with her daily life. When Jesus offers her God’s gift of living water, she merely asks if Jesus is greater than Jacob who is thought to have dug this well.
So, Jesus makes his offer of water more explicit—not a temporary quenching of thirst but an ongoing supply within her as life that is eternal.
The woman still thinks of physical things. But Jesus asks to see her husband—all the time knowing her difficult history.
And then, Jesus fills in her partial story—about her five previous husbands and now a partner. She can see that Jesus is a prophet! But still, she prefers to think horizontally. Or perhaps, to divert attention from an awkward truth! She asks about the proper location for worship—Samaria or Jerusalem.
Jesus tells her what God has revealed to Israel. And he adds, that a new era is beginning. People are going to worship in spirit and truth. They will really worship from their hearts! This will never be the case without the help of the Spirit[iv].
It’s so easy to reduce everything—including God—to things we can understand and control. But they don’t bring us to God. And oftentimes, they don’t even work—like the marriages this woman has had.
This has always been our problem. Like people in Jeremiah’s day, we turn away from God who is the fountain of living water for us, and we dig tanks that leak[v]. In other words, we prefer idols we can make and control, rather than turn to and trust in the living God.
Our need is so deep! We are made in God’s image. We need to hear him speak. We need his blessing. We need to call God ‘Father’! If we don’t know him, and if we’re not full of him, we remain discontented and must create something else to be wonderful or great or powerful.
So, Jesus must baptize us in the Spirit. Only this will free us from the bitterness and disappointment and shame of the past. Only this will open us up to God who loves us, and to people who need us[vi].
Something has happened to this Samaritan woman. She returns to her community. She talks. People listen. What amazes her is that Jesus has known her whole sorry story and still offered her a life from heaven.
She’s come to the well in mid-day heat—perhaps to avoid contact with other women. Now, she has a message, an eagerness, a hope, a credibility. ‘Have we found the Messiah?’ she asks.
And the town comes out to see for themselves.
God’s gift of the Spirit is the way we ourselves become real—real worshippers of God and real people to others. What now comes from us, surging up from within us, is in fact the Spirit of God being God to us.
When this promise of living water is repeated in Jerusalem, John explains that the Spirit is not yet given because Jesus is not yet glorified.
Already, plans are afoot to kill him. But this death will be his glory—and ours. He will be the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world. The Spirit will be given when Jesus has made an offering for sin.
Do we know who this Jesus is—the Messiah, the Lamb of God, the Baptizer in the Spirit? If we do, he gives us living water, springing up within us—life that is eternal. We are washed clean. We call God Father. We worship truly. Our life is on track. Others can see that we are renewed. Rivers of living water are pouring to us, and from us. As a postscript to this episode, Jesus explains to his disciples that it’s time for a harvest of souls to be reaped—starting with this woman. We don’t know how the following months work out in this town in Samaria, but we know that, later, when Philip visits this area as an evangelist of the risen Christ, many receive the word with joy[vii]. Perhaps the seed has been sown by this woman, and Philip reaps the crop.
[i] John 4:1-30
[ii] John 7:37-39
[iii] Isa. 12:2-3
[iv] Phil. 3:3
[v] Jer. 2:13; 17:13
[vi] Isa. 58:11
[vii] Acts 8:4-8
Simply True 