The Permanency of the Healing of Jesus

Scripture reading
1The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])

10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

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

13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

15The 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."


Observations:
(1) The gift of Jesus does not perish

Not much beats a cold drink on a hot day.

Perhaps except a nice warm shower after coming in out of freezing cold weather.

Only one problem – two hours later, you are thirsty again and in need of another drink. Or, with the shower example, by the next morning, or even by later that evening, you are dirty and cold, and in need of another shower.

In other words, the benefits provided by cold drinks or hot showers are temporary in nature and do not last. If you want to stay warm or refreshed as the case may be, you have to have another drink or shower – you have to keep going back for more.

Not so for the impact of Jesus, an impact which sustains us now and for the rest of our lives. In addition to the obvious benefit of salvation, we also receive something else when we truly accept Jesus as our savior – spiritual rebirth and a new heart.

The moment that you and I truly accept Jesus Christ as our savior, a kind of spiritual re-birth begins to take place. Under this process, the lord our god plants in us a seed of his own being and spirit in our hearts, which changes us on the outside by first changing us on the inside.

Jesus does not simply just simply visit us once (spiritually speaking) and go away, never to be seen again. No, instead, he invests a seed of rightesnous, a seed which never dies or leaves us. The seed grows, producing a spirit of righteousness which permeates our very being. Over time, it changes us, and helps us to grow up as children of god, overflowing with the type of characteristics which come from him, such as righteousness, kindness, compassion and love, just to name a few.

We receive the spirit of god once and once only, have no need to go back and keep receiving it. Instead, we receive it once, it is planted firmly in our hearts, and it stays with us for all time.


(2) God does not need us – we need him.

Refer back to versus seven, eight, nine and ten. The sequence of events is quite curious, commencing with Jesus asking the woman for a drink, it soon becomes apparent that indeed, it is the woman, rather than Jesus, who is in need.

I think there is an important lesson here for us to learn about our place before god. On one hand, it is certainly true that god, as our maker, is also our master, and that we must serve him by honoring him with all of our hearts. Nevertheless, I think it is all too easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking that we have something that god requires, and that he is somehow dependant upon us.

Not true. Rather, god has what we need – righteousness and the forgiveness of sins. We, as fallen man, have sinned before the lord, and are in need of forgiveness. He, great and mighty god, is the only one who is in a position to grant the forgiveness which we need. These are his and his only to give, and these represent our deepest and most desperate need.

We are the ones in need – not him.

True, under no circumstances should we adopt any form of consumer mentality towards the lord. Our thoughts and hearts should always be set on how we can honor the lord, not what he can give for us or do for us.

But we are the ones in need of forgiveness, something only our great lord can give.


Prayer:
Lord,

I thank you that you do not leave us, that instead, when we truly accept your peace offering on the cross, that you do not leave us to our own devices, but instead invest a part of you into our own beings, so that whilst we might occasionally feel hungry, thirsty or tired from a physical viewpoint, we need never feel that way from a spiritual viewpoint.

Lord, I pray that you let your spirit take control of my heart, and that you grow me up in the type of characteristics which I need in order to live a life which is honorable to your name. Characteristics of love, patience, kindness, compassion, meekness and self control, just to name a few.

Lord, we are sinful man, and there is nothing which we can do for you. We are in need of you, not the other way around. It is we who have sinned and are in need of forgiveness. It is you and only you who has the authority to grant what we so badly need.

I can only thank you that you promise to grant forgiveness so freely to anyone who accepts Christ as their savior.

In these things I pray.

In your great name,

Amen.