Communion With the Christ:: The Season of Lent: Your Thirst Assuaged

“Give us Water to Drink” Ex: 17:2

The ancient Season of Lent which has come down through the ages and covers several weeks teaches us powerful lessons in so many ways, from our trust in a faithful God to being transformed into an all-new life.

The Season of Lent began during the Post Apostolic period of the Early Church. In the early years the Christian Church generally began to hold the Sacrament of Baptism once a year on Easter Sunday. All those who had come to believe in Jesus would be instructed to take a 40-day period of time and consider through prayer and reading what Scriptures were available to them, how their lives were to changes in light of who Jesus Christ is and all that he had accomplished on their behalf. This 40-day period became what we now call the Season of Lent; Lent being an old world which means in the "Spring of the year" reflecting the season of the Resurrection.

Lent is far more than a season of legalistic performance based religious self-examination, it is rather a time of fully embracing the grace of God and the reality of the risen Christ and the Season of Easter.

Israel's Pilgrimage

As the people of Israel sojourned in the Wilderness on their forty-year pilgrimage to the Promised Land , they often found themselves in need of very basic necessities of life.

At one such point in their journey the need for water become such a sore issue that the people of Israel began to lose faith and even seditiously moved against Moses and confronted him demanding that their thirst should be dealt with.

“The people argued with Moses saying “Give us water to drink” Ex: 17:2

All Thirst

The need of the people of Israel for water and the assuagement of their thirst is, in truth, not just their need centuries ago in the Wilderness of Sin, but it is the need of all humanity, in any and all ages.

All humanity is thirsty whether they know it or not, and they look to assuage that thirst in many different ways. The demand of the stiff neck Israelites is the vocalization of the need of all humanity. They knew the thirst which filled them and sought to find its assuagement.

The thirst that all humanity has as we pass through this life is in truth quenched in only one way, through the life-giving waters of the Holy Spirit given so freely to any who will but drink of that eternal deep well.

All humanity seeks to quench this thirst which we are all created with and are driven to seek out what we so desire. Yet , for some, they find it ever elusive and are drinking from many different wells but never finding assuagement to this thirst.

Jacob’s Well

This thirst, the thirst of humanity, however, is assuaged through the divine waters drawn from only one well, these waters which flow from only one pure eternal spring, and that living spring is the Lord Jesus Christ through whom the Holy Spirit is given to us and our thirst finds it’s assuagement only in him.

Jesus himself speaks to this very truth there at Jacob’s well in the Samaritan village of Sycar. This well, named for the Patriarch Jacob was fed by a deep spring known as the Fountain of Life. This water flow was known for the quality and purity of it’s the water that was found there.

As Jesus sits near Jacob’s well a woman of the village approaches and is about to draw some water. Jesus, breaking cultural protocols; for Jews and Samaritans normally did not interact, for the Jews viewed gentiles as unclean, but Jesus initiates a conversation with her.

“There came a woman of Samira to the well to draw water. Jesus said to her “Give me a drink” Jhn: 4:7

Jesus’ request surprises the woman, she being aware of the cultural boundaries between Jews and her people. Jesus ignores the cultural protocols expressed in her reply and moves to the true purpose of his coming to this place and at this particular time.

“Jesus said to her, “if you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give me a drink”; you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water” (10)

The woman looks upon only what she can see with her eyes.

“Sire, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do you get this living water?”( 11)

She then, not knowing who Jesus is at first sees him as just another Jew and then she alludes to her peoples mingled and adopted heritage with the Jewish people.

“You are not greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well” (12a)

Jesus ignores that she, for the moment, does not understand who he is and then proceeds to address the true need and thirst of all humanity who attempts to find the solution to the thirst which resides in us all as we pilgrimage in the dry wilderness of this life as Israel did centuries ago.

Still Thirsty

“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again;” (13)

What Jesus, in truth, is addressing is not the need common to all humanity for of water but rather the deep thirst which is found within “everyone” for something greater than this life itself; the need to know the Great God.

We all are like Israel whether we know it or not crying out for water in our deepest need to assuage our deepest thirst.

Jesus unites the knowledge of who he is to the giving of the living water “if you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you “Give me a drink” you would have asked of him and he would have given you living water”.

What Jesus is telling her, and we all, that he is the source of this water which assuages our deepest thirst to know our God, and that he would, and is, so willing to give it freely to us all through grace, if we will but ask of him.

Jesus will give this living water to us, he desires to give it to each and to all we need not draw it ourselves, that it no human effort can draw dig this well or bring forth, it our through grace alone; as a Jesus said to the woman and all humanity “If you knew the gift of God”.

The Greek word “dorea” here in the narrative and is translated as “gift”, is unique to St. John’s Gospel and is found only in this narrative. This word “dorea” is a word meaning something which is given fully by grace alone. It cannot be errand nor can it be merited. This speaks to us about our Lord’s deep desire for us to know him and have our thirst completely assuaged.

Living Water

This living water, that is water which is moving and flowing, is also transformational. Living water is water which flows and washes away impurities. The Jewish baptismal custom of baptizing gentile converts to Judaism was preferred to be carried out in living waters which flowed, for they believed that flowing water literally washed away their being gentiles transforming these converts into Jews, making them “born again”. This was thought to be accomplished through the acceptance of the Torah, the Law, but Jesus tells us the true source of life changing living waters flow only from him, by grace alone.

The Torah, the Law, cannot truly assuage our thirst or changes us, it can only conform us and still leave our thirst, that deep need for something deeper left unsatisfied.

Flowing From Us

As our thirst is assuaged and our lives are transformed those water issue forth from us flowing to those around us and in the divine process of God the lives of others are forever changed and inviting them to come to the true sources of living waters which washes away and healing our thirst.

“If anyone is thirsty is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scriptures said, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water” Jhn: 7:37c-38

It was thirst, that brought the woman of Sycar to the well where she encountered our Lord Jesus who invites her to drink of the living waters which he so freely gives to assuage her thirst for all time and eternity.

In Jesus’ divine invitation to “everyone who is thirsty” to come to him Jesus is now revealing the nature of those rivers of living waters from which we might drink and then flow forth from our very being to those around us, as St. John reveals to us in the next verses.

“But Jesus was speaking of the Spirit, whom those who believe in him were to receive, for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (39)

The Waters Flow

The Holy Spirit flows out to us assuaging our thirst and healing the dry wilderness of our lives. The living water of the Holy Spirit given to us by grace, through Jesus, is in view in the vision of the Prophet Ezekiel sees a glorious vision of the Temple of God, in Ezekiel’s visions which is found in the later chapters of his book. Ezekiel: 40-48

The Prophet first sees the Temple of God empty, dark, and with our life, then, as Ezekiel beholds the glory of the Lord enters in and fills the Temple with glory of Lord once again, then in a later chapter we are shown that due to the restored glory waters burst forth and flow and course out to the dry and thirsty land healing it, and causing all manner of tress to bear good fruit and then flowing to the Dead Seas and even heling those salty waters. Ezekiel: 47

We are told by the Prophet that all who came to those waters lived.

What we are witnessing ,through the Prophet Ezekiel, is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus and the rivers of the waters of the Holy Spirit flowing forth heling and assuaging the thirsty dry wilderness of our lives at the resurrection from the dead of our Lord Jesus as he lay lifeless in darkness of death in the tomb , just as the Temple in the vision was lifeless and shrouded in darkness

St. John tells us that Jesus calls his very self the Temple which would be raised up after being torn down by the crucifixion, then he would be raised up in there days through the resurrection, that is glorified. John: 2:18-20

Recall, that St. John, in his Gospel, said that the Spirit “was not yet given” because “Jesus was not yet glorified”, that is resurrected to glory.

This is what the Prophet was showing us in his vision, the glorious resurrection of our Lord and flow of the living waters of the Holy Spirit out to all humanity assuaging the thirsts and healing the dry land of our lives.

This glorious image of the living waters flowing out from the Temple of God in Ezekiel’s visions, bringing healing and life, and have their ultimate fulfillment in the St. John's glorious vision of the heavenly New Jerusalem as it descends from God himself, wherein, the waters are described as flowing for eternity clear as crystal all people for all nation have their thirst forever assuaged through Jesus. Revelation: 21

From Glory to Glory

The Holy Spirit would now be offered to humanity so that we could have our "need to know" our God in a way, which was previously unknown to us.

The Holy Spirit flows to us and assuages our deepest thirst transforming us, and ever speaking to us regarding our Lord Jesus. As we are transformed, the Holy Spirit flows from us to all around us effecting their lives as well.

“But we all , with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” 2Cor:3:18

This transformation into the “same image” where in we see the “glory to glory” is what we are truly thirsty for . Coming to know Jesus and being forever changed by him. This process is what occurs as we pilgrimage through the wilderness of this life on our way to the Promised land of the Heavenly Kingdom of God.

Worship Digs the Well Deeper

When we accept his offer to come to Jesus and we see who Jesus is, that Jesus is God’s son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, our response is to worship him, and as we gather to worship Jesus the living waters of the Holy Spirit flow out to us, healing us and restoring us, it is as if when we worship our Lord Jesus, we are digging the well deeper, and the deeper. The well the deeper the waters of the Spirit seemed to flow to us in powerful and deeply meaningful way. We are like the people of Israel who dug the well at Beer.

“Israel continued to Beer, the well where the Lord God said to Moses “Gather the people together and I will give them water. And Israel sang this song: Spring up O well! Sing about it, about the well that the princess dug, that the nobles of the people sank-the nobles with scepters and staffs” Num: 21:1-18

As we gather worship our Lord, we are digging the well, through praise and worship of Jesus’ Holy divine person, as we do the Holy Spirit ministers to us and assuaging our thirsts.

The Season of Lent reminds us that when as find ourselves dry and thirsty on our pilgrimage toward the Promised Land of the Kingdom, and we cry out, as did Israel did, “give us water to drink”, all we need do is come is to accept the call of our Lord Jesus and worship him and the deep well of the Holy Spirit will flow forth to each and all of us and assuage our deepest thirst.

This is a lesson of the Season of Lent.

Benediction: May we each and all ever find our thirst assuaged and be transformed by the living waters of the Holy Spirit as we come answer the divine invitation, issued to us that we might come and worship to Jesus alone, and there have our thirst assuaged, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.