{"id":388,"date":"2010-10-05T08:52:13","date_gmt":"2010-10-05T08:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/questions-for-jesus-where-can-we-get-this-living-water.html"},"modified":"2010-10-05T08:52:13","modified_gmt":"2010-10-05T08:52:13","slug":"questions-for-jesus-where-can-we-get-this-living-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/questions-for-jesus-where-can-we-get-this-living-water.html","title":{"rendered":"Questions for Jesus: Where Can We Get This Living Water?"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"Thumbnail<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s one of my favorite stories in the Bible, John 4<\/a>, where
\nJesus asks a Samaritan woman for a drink of water. I love it because it
\ndemonstrates who Jesus is–that he’s willing, and even eager, to talk to the
\nwhole spectrum of humanity (from Nicodemus, the intellectual religious leader
\nin John 3, to the man with paralyzed legs in John 5). That he initiates
\nconversation and relationship with all types of people, even (especially?)
\nthose he isn’t “supposed” to talk to. And that he wants to give life.<\/p>\n

But I also love it because of who this woman is. She’s
\nsincere. She asks him what on earth he’s doing talking to her, a Samaritan, a
\nwoman, and by implication an outcast (why else would she be drawing water alone
\nin the heat of the day)? She’s a little bit sassy. She pushes back when Jesus
\ndoesn’t make sense. And she’s a seeker. When Jesus talks about living water,
\nshe asks, “Where can you get this living water?”<\/p>\n

Jesus doesn’t give her an answer and let her walk away. The
\nonly way to receive this living water is through a relationship with him.
\nFirst, she has to admit who she is–the woman who has had five husbands and is
\nliving with a sixth man. Then, she has to believe that Jesus still wants to
\ntalk to her, still cares about her, still offers this wellspring of life.
\nFinally, she has to understand who Jesus is–the Messiah, the one sent from God,
\nthe one who can offer living water forever. <\/p>\n

Jesus initiates. He invades her privacy by asking for a
\ndrink and then by asking about her husband. But he does so because he wants a
\nrelationship with her. He doesn’t want to give her something and let her walk
\naway forever. He wants an encounter with her that will transform her, where the
\nabundant life he offers will spring up within her and pour forth to others. <\/p>\n

So where can we get this living water? This abundant life? We
\nget it by going to Jesus with who we are–with our faults and failings, with our
\ndistinctive personalities, with our families and histories–and by asking. Jesus
\nis waiting for us to arrive, ready to initiate with us. Ready to offer eternal
\nlife. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s one of my favorite stories in the Bible, John 4, where Jesus asks a Samaritan woman for a drink of water. I love it because it demonstrates who Jesus is–that he’s willing, and even eager, to talk to the whole spectrum of humanity (from Nicodemus, the intellectual religious leader in John 3, to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith"],"yoast_head":"\nQuestions for Jesus: Where Can We Get This Living Water? - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/questions-for-jesus-where-can-we-get-this-living-water.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Questions for Jesus: Where Can We Get This Living Water? - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s one of my favorite stories in the Bible, John 4, where Jesus asks a Samaritan woman for a drink of water. 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}