"Then leaving her water jar..."
This small, simple phrase spoke to me in a completely fresh and extremely powerful way this past week.
Honestly, when it jumped out at me...I was just reading to read. Because we are going through the Gospel of John in our Tuesday evening home groups, I try to read whatever passage we are studying a few times throughout the week...this was our third week on John 4 and so I was a little doubtful that I would realize anything new.
HA
That's the absolute beauty of God's Word. It ALWAYS has something new and fresh and relevant to say to me no matter how many times I have read the exact same words! And so of course Jesus revealed a new truth to me from this very familiar passage.
Just to catch you up, John 4 is the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. We've been talking in Transit (our church) about the message of this passage. Jesus being the "living water" is essentially Jesus being enough...everything. When he tells this woman that there is a way that she will never have to worry about drinking again or dealing with the burden of carrying her water jug long distances each day and in the hot sun (which is when she came because she was most likely trying to avoid the other women) she hangs on his every word because that's one of the heaviest burdens she deals with.
The question that we asked is this,
"What does Jesus being the Living Water in YOUR life look like?" What does it mean for Jesus to be EVERYTHING to you?
This was such a great thought to wrestle with through the last few weeks, but on Saturday morning as I laid in bed reading this passage yet again, I realized yet another application from this text.
In verse 28 the author writes, "Then leaving her water jar..."
I had highlighted this prior to this time that I was reading it and so I paused for a moment to figure out why I had marked it.
This simple phrase says SO much. This woman is walking away from her water jar IMMEDIATELY after Jesus reveals himself to her. As soon as she realizes that he is the Messiah and that he knows her and can save her and give her eternal life, she leaves everything with him and goes to tell everyone that she knows who she has encountered. As soon as Jesus told her that she was enough...she left her heaviest burden with him and walked away empty handed! That means that in her journey to tell those other people about Jesus she had nothing holding her back or weighing her down. She was free of her past and her burdens and all that was left to do was tell everyone else how the same could happen in their lives.
I think about my own life. How often I tell Jesus that I trust him and that he is enough....that he is my everything....but honestly I am still carrying around my "water jar." When I don't actually leave those things with Jesus like this woman did, then I am not showing that Jesus is enough. I am actually saying that he is with my mouth but my actions say that I need to continue to carry other things just in case a time comes when he isn't quite enough.
When Jesus tells us that he is enough, that he is ALL we need, we need to then leave every burden and hindrance with him and walk away in freedom. Not only does holding onto those things break the heart of Jesus, it also holds us back from taking him to others. I can't minister to others effectively while still carrying around things that Jesus freed me from long ago. They need to see first hand how he has changed my life and become enough for me so that they will in turn let him do the same things in their own lives.
So this week, when you are tempted to walk away from your prayer time with the very things you just "gave to Jesus" remember this simple phrase....
"Then leaving her water jar..."
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