https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/ece-devotions/20260309ECME.mp3

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

The 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.”

Beet-red cheeks. Forehead hair stuck to a damp brow. Children coming in from a summer afternoon of hard play. Thirsty! Water! Water is on their minds, wet and refreshing. Water can cool the body temperature and fill every organ and cell in their little bodies. Water is a necessary element for life.

Water was necessary for the woman at the well. She was there on that hot afternoon to get water for her survival. Red cheeks. Sweaty head. Little did she know, she was going to receive living water necessary for her eternal life. “Living water” is what Jesus offered her.

At first, it sounded like a time saver. She would not have to strategically plan her day to be at the well when her nosy neighbors were not. She would not have to heave or huff as she balanced her water jug on the walk home. In fact, she would not have to go at all! One drink and she would be done with this relentless errand!

Of course, Jesus was not offering her actual wet water from the well in her town. Jesus was offering himself as her Savior. Her embarrassing string of bad decisions were sins that separated her from God. Jesus was telling her to draw water from him, her Savior from her sin.

The picture Jesus created for her told her to, “Listen to me! Be forgiven in me! I am the only one who can quench your thirst for peace in your heart. I constantly provide peace between you and God because when I am in your heart, God will look at you and see what I have done for you! He will see that you are one of my very own, a precious and forgiven spiritual sibling who is no longer thirsty for mercy from any other well because you have mercy in me!”

We need Jesus, the living water, too! During Lent, we ponder our sin. We look at Jesus, on his way to the cross, willing to be nailed to that cross for our sins. Those are the sins that would separate us from God. Yet, by faith, we have Jesus, our living water. He satisfies our thirst for mercy by taking those sins into his own hands. When God looks upon believing hearts, he sees Jesus’ perfect life and his innocent death on the cross. He sees Jesus’ empty grave. There is no more separation. He calls us his own, a precious and forgiven child. Weary sinner, drink from the well of living water that Jesus offers to you. Find mercy and peace in Jesus, your forgiving Savior from sin!

Thank you for being my Savior from sin. Help me share your word with all around me so that they, too, may drink from the well of living water. Amen!