“Why Am I Thirsty?” (John 4:4-14)

The Heart of Worship
Matt Redman is a world-renowned worship leader and songwriter. Many people came to his church, Soul Survivor in Watford, England, simply to hear his music. But the pastor and congregation realized something was missing. They had lost the heart of worship. So the pastor made a bold decision. For a season, they put away the sound system and the band. They worshiped with just their voices. At first, it was awkward. Uncomfortable. Some people stopped coming. But slowly, something changed. The congregation began to sing and pray from the heart. They encountered God in a fresh way. Out of that experience came Matt Redman’s song, The Heart of Worship:
When the music fades, all is stripped away,
and I simply come...

I’m coming back to the heart of worship,
and it’s all about You, Jesus.
It’s all about You, Jesus.
The Samaritan Woman
In today’s Scripture, we meet a woman whose soul is lonely and restless. She is thirsty. She longs for something more. She is a Samaritan woman. The Bible does not tell us the details of her five marriages. So, using a little imagination, perhaps her story went something like this: She looked for happiness and security in a husband. Perhaps she kept thinking, “Maybe this person will satisfy me.” One relationship. Then another. Then another. Five husbands. Five hopes. Five disappointments. And still she was thirsty. Still the same question: “Why am I thirsty?”

We may not have five husbands. But we have our own wells. You may have heard of the “when syndrome.” When we are children, we think, “Life will be better when I grow up.” As teenagers: “When I graduate.” In college: “When I get married.” Then: “When we have children.” Then: “When the children leave home.” And finally: “When I retire.” Always when. Always the next thing. But trying to quench our thirst with the things of this world is like drinking seawater. The more we drink, the thirstier we become. And we still ask: “Why am I thirsty?”

Why Am I Thirsty?
So why are we thirsty? The reason is simple: our relationship with God is broken. You and I are created to have fellowship with God. We are created to love and be loved, praise and worship God. That is who we are. In Isaiah 43:21 God says, “The people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.” But ever since Adam and Eve, we have been trying to dig our own wells and drink from them. The Bible says, “My people have done two evils: They have turned away from me, the spring of living water. And they have dug their own wells, which are broken wells that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13, NCV). The truth is, we can never quench our thirst with the waters from our own wells. Companionship, intimacy, money, fame, and power. None of these can satisfy the deepest longing of our souls. Jesus says, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.” (v. 13)

How Can I Quench My Thirst?
Now we know why we are thirsty. Our relationship with God is broken. But there is another problem. We may know the cause of our thirst, but we do not have the power to fix it. So Jesus came to us first. The Samaritan woman came to the well for water. Jesus came to the well looking for her. John 4:4 says, “Now he had to go through Samaria.” He didn’t have to go that way geographically. Many Jews travelling between Judea and Galilee would take a route around Samaria because of the hostility between Jews and Samaritans. But Jesus had to go through Samaria. Why? Because he had an appointment with this woman. She could not find her way to God. So Jesus came to her. We cannot find our way back to God on our own. So Jesus comes to us. “But those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty” (v. 14).

God seeks to restore our relationship with him through Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s way of salvation. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. We all have turned to our own way. The relationship has been broken. God gave us his law, but we did not obey. God sent his prophets, but we did not listen. Finally, when the time had fully come, God sent his only Son to reconcile us to himself. On the cross, Jesus endured the separation from God that should have been ours. He was pierced for our rebellion. He was crushed for our sins. On the cross, the way has been opened for us to be reconciled to God, to be united with God once again! (cf. Isaiah 53:4-6) Jesus is God’s way of salvation.

Jew, Prophet, Christ
Are you thirsty? What are you thirsty for? At first, the Samaritan woman was looking for love and happiness. But now, something deeper was happening. Her heart was beginning to thirst for God, the fountain of living water! Jesus came to her and opened the eyes of her heart. At first, she saw Jesus simply as a “Jewish man” (v. 9). Then, she began to see him as “a prophet” (v. 19). And eventually, she came to recognize him as the “Christ” (v. 29). Her understanding was growing: Jew. Prophet. Christ.

We often hear people say, “I accept Jesus as a good moral teacher, but I don’t believe he is God.” C. S. Lewis challenged that way of thinking in Mere Christianity. Jesus cannot simply be a good teacher whom we admire. If Jesus is who he says he is in the Gospel, we must take him seriously: liar, lunatic, or Lord. There is no comfortable middle ground. The Samaritan woman moved from seeing Jesus as a Jewish man, to a prophet, and finally to the Christ. And when we truly see Jesus, we cannot remain neutral.

There was once a sculptor who created a statue of our Lord. People came from great distances to see it. They walked around the statue. They looked at it from this side. Then from that side. They admired its strength and tenderness. But somehow, its full beauty still eluded them. Finally, one of them asked the sculptor, “From what angle should we look at it?” The sculptor replied, “There is only one angle from which this statue can truly be seen.” Then he said, “You must kneel.”

Today, Jesus still comes to us. He is calling us, “Are you thirsty? Come to me and drink. If you believe in me, streams of living water will flow from your heart” (John 7:37-38). So come and drink. Come to Jesus, the living water. Come and adore him. Come and worship him. May the Lord Jesus be glorified as we are satisfied in him. Amen.

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