By Pastor Greg
When
God created the dog, He said, "Sit all day by the door of your house and
bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a
life span of twenty years.” The dog
complained that 20 years is a long time to be barking. So he gave back
ten of those years, and God agreed. When
God created the monkey, He said, "Entertain people, do tricks, and make
them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span." The monkey said, “That's a pretty long time to
perform. How about I give you back ten like the dog did?" And God agreed. When God created the cow, He said, "You
must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun,
have calves, and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I
will give you a life span of sixty years." The cow said: "That's kind of a tough
life. How about I give you back forty of
those?" And God agreed again. When God created man, He said, "Eat, sleep,
play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty
years." However, man said,
"Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty
the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back;
that makes eighty, okay?" "Alright" said God. You have your wish. So that’s why the first twenty years we eat,
sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the
next forty years, we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next
ten years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for
the last ten years, we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.
Perhaps
now you understand life. Or maybe this
just confused you even more. Regardless,
life is difficult to understand at times.
Our lives don’t always make sense.
Consider the Samaritan woman who meets Jesus at a well one day. John gives us a glimpse into her life, and it
is a life filled with loneliness and rejection.
And it almost seems she has resigned herself to this life, never
imagining that she might find purpose and meaning in the Man who sat beside
her.
(John 4:1-18) 1 Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that
Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although
Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), 3 He
left Judea and went away again into Galilee. 4 And He had to
pass through Samaria. 5 So He came to a city of Samaria called
Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; 6 and
Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting
thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 There came
a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For
His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the
Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a
drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with
Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered and 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 Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 She
said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where
then do You get that living water? 12 “You are not greater than
our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and
his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her,
“Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but
whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the
water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to
eternal life.” 15 The
woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come
all the way here to draw.” 16 He said to her, “Go, call your
husband and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said, “I have
no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for
you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband;
this you have said truly.”[1]
In this conversation, Jesus
offers this woman something she could not imagine. She just could not imagine the life Jesus was
offering. You can tell she was carrying
around a lot of emotional pain. Listen
to the excuses she makes while she talks with Jesus. “Why
are you talking to me”, she asks (verse 9).
“I don’t think You’ll be able to
help me” she observed (verse 11).
Most likely an outcast, she had resigned herself to a life of loneliness
and sadness. And oddly, this woman seemed
to accept these circumstance in life. I
suppose she could not imagine a life filled with grace, love, acceptance, and
forgiveness.
Right from the start, Jesus
offers to do something for her; something that would change her life
forever. Yet she responds to this offer
with sarcasm (verse 15). It’s sad,
really. A woman, who was most likely an
outcast (why else would she come to the well when no one else would be around)
and who struggled to find love and acceptance, resigned herself to an arid
life; a life without love, grace, acceptance, purpose, and meaning. As Jesus sat next to her offering all these
things, she laughed at Him. She could
not image a life beyond her present circumstance. She was too easily pleased.
This is something I find
difficult to understand. People talk
about their problems, their sadness, their loneliness, and their hurt, yet are
content to remain there. Rather than
accept Jesus and His living water, they reject everything He is offering. Why would someone choose to remain
unloved? Why would someone choose to
remain lonely? Why would someone choose
to live with their pain and hurt? Why
would someone reject grace and forgiveness?
If they are anything like this woman at the well, they just can’t
imagine a life beyond the present. They
cannot conceive this “Living Water” and the idea of never thirsting again. Or maybe these people feel the solution is just
one lottery ticket away, or in a brand new relationship, or a brand new toy, or
a brand new job. Our society basically
tells us to carry around our bucket and draw
happiness from those around us. Unfortunately,
things we can see, touch, hear, and taste will never satisfy. They will never quench our thirst.
C.S. Lewis wrote “It would seem
that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are
half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when
infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making
mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a
holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”[2] In other words, we settle for far less than
what God is offering. We accept less
than what the Lord wants to give us.
Satan would have us believe that the best we can have in life is our
present circumstances – our sadness, loneliness; our hurt and our pain. Satan would have us believe that these things
are the best we might receive. Of
course, Satan is telling an awful lie because the Lord is offering “Living
Water” that leads to eternal life.
Jesus hinted that this “Living
Water” is the Holy Spirit. Having this
“Living Water” leads to eternal life.
But beyond that, the presence of the Spirit within us connects us to
God. The Spirit washes away our guilt,
our sadness, our loneliness, our sorrow, and our pain. Springing up within us, we find “love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”[3] These things well up inside us and flow out
of us. The well has life within itself.
The bucket and rope draws life
from others.
Through belief in Jesus, we become
filled with the living water and no longer need to search for love and
happiness because these things are found within us. What kind of life are you
living right now? How content have you
become with your life? Do you find
yourself prone to anger, sadness, loneliness?
Does your life feel like a train wreck?
You don’t need to accept those circumstances. Look nowhere else, for the Lord is here with
you right now, and He is still offering that “Living Water”. What will you choose to do?
