This morning, I feel the need to confess something to you all. Some of you already know about it and others may have suspected. It’s something I’ve struggled with much of my life and it stems back to some experiences I had in early childhood. I confess that I don’t like water much. I rarely drink water, I’m not a big fan of swimming pools, and I don’t really care much for boating. I do enjoy showering, which I’m sure all of you appreciate, but I don’t really care for baths. Despite my strange aversion to water, it is something critical for life. In fact, our bodies are 60% water, there are 37.5 quadrillion gallons of water in earth’s atmosphere, and about 71% of the earth’s surface is water. Water is essential to the sustaining of life.

The thing about water though is that there is never enough. Even if we drink the recommended 7-8 glasses of water a day, we’d still need water the next day. No matter how many times we shower or bathe, we will always need to do so again in the future…if we don’t want to stink at least. No matter how many times we water our garden or how many times it rains, our plants will still need more water eventually if we want them to survive. The surface of the earth, which is 71% water, still needs rain to stay alive. Water sustains life, but how much do we need to be satisfied? Is it even possible for us to truly be satisfied?

In our story for this morning from the gospel of John, Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman when he comes to a well and sits down to rest. Then “a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’” Scripture tells us that it is about noon, the heat of the day. Jesus probably didn’t expect anyone to be coming to this well at this time of day. Most people came early, while it was still cooler. They would fill up all of their buckets and bring the water back to their homes for the day. But then along comes this woman. She’s there in the heat of the day filling up her buckets. So, Jesus goes to her and asks for water. And she responds, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” John adds the parenthetical note that Jews and Samaritans did not share things. Yet Jesus seems to think that she might be willing to share with him.

Now, John doesn’t actually tell us whether or not the woman gave Jesus some water or not, but I think we can assume that she did. I guess John didn’t view that detail as important for the story though because he focuses instead on Jesus’ response to the woman’s question. He says to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” Seems like a weird way to say thank you. Jesus is telling the woman that if she really knew what was happening in that moment, she would have asked him for water instead..and he would have given her “living water.” Water that contains life. Water that gives and sustains life.

The question I have with that is “Doesn’t all water give and sustain life in some way?” So, what makes what Jesus is offering better than other water? Well, at first, the Samaritan woman doesn’t seem to think that Jesus’ living water is any different than the water she has raised from the well. She says to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” She is clearly thinking that Jesus is still talking about regular water because she is wondering how he will get it without a bucket.

So Jesus clarifies a bit, saying, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” Jesus’ water is not regular water that quenches thirst and sustains our lives. Jesus’ water is water that fully satisfies, water that sustains our lives for eternity. This water Jesus provides is far more powerful and sustaining than the water that comes from the earth. The Samaritan woman still doesn’t seem to fully grasp what Jesus’ water offers, because she says, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” She thinks that what he is offering her is not a spiritual reality but a physical one. She still thinks that he is offering the water of the earth, but somehow he has found a way to make it sustain us for longer. And she wants that sustenance. She wants to be satisfied. She doesn’t want to have to feel thirsty anymore.

Now, at that point, the conversation veers a different direction as Jesus tells the woman to go get her husband. When she tells him that she has no husband, he recognizes that what she is saying is true. But Jesus also knows there is more to it than that. He goes on to say, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” We could probably spend an entire sermon on that little interaction, but I will simply say that this is a woman who has been through a lot. She probably has a lot of shame, so when Jesus brings this up, she does what many of us would do in similar circumstances. She changes the subject.

She turns the topic to the different worship practices of Jews and Samaritans. She is concerned because the Jews keep telling the Samaritans that the only true place to worship is the temple in Jerusalem. But Samaria has their own place of worship on the mountain. Jesus tells her that at some point soon, it won’t matter WHERE people worship, but instead it will matter HOW they worship, in that they worship in SPIRIT and in TRUTH. She seems to glean from this that Jesus is talking about the Messiah. And she knows that the Messiah is coming. And Jesus then tells her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” In other words, Jesus is the Messiah. Again, Jesus is talking about something that sustains longer than what the world offers.

The woman then runs off to tell others about Jesus, but his disciples come over quickly and are concerned about the woman, but they quickly turn their attention to the fact that Jesus hasn’t eaten in a while. Jesus takes that as an intro for him to talk about planting and harvesting. And Jesus tells them that in the physical world there is a time for planting and a time for harvesting, but in the spiritual realm, there is an abundant harvest because many people are looking for that sustenance, that satisfaction, that seems to be missing. And Jesus tells the disciples that it is their job to reap the harvest that was planted by those who went before.

All of this has led me to the question, “What satisfies us?” And often the answer we come to is the answer given by the Rolling Stones, “I can’t get no satisfaction. I can’t get no satisfaction. ‘Cause I try, and I try, and I try, and I try. I can’t get no, I can’t get no.” We feel constantly dissatisfied. In some ways, that dissatisfaction is positive, in that it pushes us to try new things, to face new challenges, and to solve new problems. But it can also lead to things like greed and envy and covetousness. We don’t have enough, so we take it from others. We don’t like it when others have more than we do, so we tear them down. And all the time, true satisfaction continues to elude us. And that is because true satisfaction can only come through God. Jesus says, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The water God gives does not leave us continually thirsty like all the things of this world do. The living water of God truly satisfies.

Psalm 63 talks about satisfaction as well. The Psalmist writes, “O God, you are my God; I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.” The Psalmist recognizes that what Jesus told the Samaritan woman is true. Only God can satisfy, so we must thirst for God. And when we turn our praise to God, the Psalmist says that this is the result: My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips when I think of you on my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night, for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.” True satisfaction in life can only come through God. It does not come through money or power or victory or the tearing down of others. It comes from God.

I’ve always found that Rolling Stones song to be interesting. The first line says, “I can’t get no satisfaction.” Now, if you’re like me, grammar alarm bells are going off and the voice recording is saying, “that statement is a double negative, which means that it is actually positive.” In other words, an equivalent of “I can’t get no satisfaction” would be, “I can get satisfaction.” The truth is that in some ways both understandings of that lyric have some truth to them. Mick Jagger can’t get satisfaction from the way he lives his life and the things he has. But satisfaction is also not impossible. We just have to recognize that true satisfaction comes from God alone…and when we turn to God, that satisfaction will lead us to eternal life. Lord, give us this water, that we may never be thirsty again. Amen!