In the absence of the chosen, the seemingly unchosen arrived. When a dozen of muscular frames went in search for the thicker grubs, the cosmetic loner came to fetch the lightest liquid of all. And with a taste for the tasteless, she would quench both the quest for water and food.
Have you ever been thirsty and hungry at the same time? Or found it difficult to tell which? Now you may begin to feel exactly what Jesus the Master felt in John 4. But His longing was a bit direr. He had just walked uphill, tired out not to say weary. Coming from the southbound Israeli capital, Jerusalem and heading for Galilee but stuck in-between – Samaria. Droughty on a route most Jews would naturally detour for a million reasons He had made it a must to pass through.
But one thing couldn’t be clearer. No, two. He had sent His disciples to get food from Sychar, the nearest town to the well by which He was sitting. Now, He was thirsty as well. The not-so-funny thing here was seeing that water in the well and not being able drink of it. Stings like one with a burning thirst by the ocean? Like savoring the wafting aroma of your favorite dish when all you could do is starve on like Esau. Get the feel? The Master thirst still, not because He wasn’t well positioned or that the water was dirty, but He needed a fetcher. Doesn’t that feels just the same when the harvest is plenty but there are no laborers – water drawers?
Whereas satisfying our hunger can’t delay at times and may even lead to anger like Jesus cursed a deceptive green lush but fruitless fig tree, when you are famished and athirst at the same time, one will usually edge the other out. And your guess is as good as mine. Thirst first, hunger can wait. So would Jesus address thirst here first. Though the coming food also has some water in it but by the time you are craving for water, your basic instinct couldn’t be satisfied by any other substitute.
This thirst, like one you last felt is jealous and immediate. Perhaps why some of us when parched thirsty wouldn’t even mind any liquid first, dirty or not. This sure was the thirst Jesus had and the mighty twelve had just missed it by chance or could it be that it wasn’t there before they went for the meat? But He thirsted still and sat still by the water instead of going with them for the meat. Yet, not only does He have the living water to give, He is the living water. So then, how can the water Himself be so thirsty? Perhaps this thirst wasn’t for Himself. For who then?
Not only was it twilight, she wasn’t meant to walking outside alone but her dirty past which was still her present had made her a misfit in any moral peers. Either for the unique taste that comes with the water from Jacob’s well or the shame of fetching from her neighborhood, she would sneak through the miles to the well and fetch for self and her secret suitors. At least, before she breaks their hearts or they do the same, there would be some purifying water to wash with, as she changed them like cloths. No one would know she was wearing the sixth who is not even her husband.
Before the disciples brought the food, she would ask in my paraphrase, how come you a Jew would be speaking at all to a Samaritan who you loath so much as traitors, impure half-breed between Hebrews and Assyrians? She knew Samaria was envied for taking the lion share of Solomon’s tribal divide and scoffed at for laying claims to the exclusive monotony of the original Pentateuch. Everyone knew that the religio-political rift between the two couldn’t better explain why every non-Samaritan skirt this pathway and only in a parable would a Samaritan see a Judean as neighbors. But this Master's thirst would break the racial divide as the gospel is to the Jews and the Gentiles and to the uttermost end of the earth.
The Master’s thirst would be quenched by a loner, it won’t wait for the gathering of three. The masters thirst, would be quenched by a stranger, already breaking the jealous sense of preclusive ownership of Jesus the disciples would have when they see others preaching in the name of Jesus. Like Jesus would replied to them, the Samaritan woman was not against them but was for them.
This Master’s thirst, the Christ thirst would be quenched by breaking religious rituals of objectified places of worship, be it the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem with Herod’s retouch where people have sought to localized God or the rival temple with its hallowed steeple visible from the nearby mountain in Gerizim. This thirst would be quenched by a worshiper whom the Spirit has just sought out in houses not built by the hands of men.
This Master’s thirst, amazingly though weakening to some would be quenched by a woman. No, not the dozen choice of masculinity. Quenching it breaks the gender barrier. Little wonder the disciples were surprised He was speaking with a lady alone. They wondered with their lips sealed, while He could hear their thoughts loud and clear: Is the master up to something, anyway He’s one hundred percent flesh too to have been hungry for meat in the first place. Uhmn, was this why did He sent us away for hunger and here thirst is the main issue? A thirst for what exactly? Was she setting him up? Oh Jesus of Nazareth! Even if you must die on the cross, it must not be of the accusations of rape. And if sexual assault, not by a lady whose tract record looked cheap for her to be alone, she must be a seductress.
On a lady through whom men get to know each other, the Masters thirst would be quenched. By one with a yoke of dirty past but ready to drop them at the foot of Jesus like her pot and pick up His lighter yoke, this thirst would be quenched. The Master’s thirst is a thirst quenched by one ready to make His thirst their thirst. Now, listen to Jeremiah Ishaya:
Whenever you return home, either from school or work after having a long, busy and hot sunny day. Or after a long time spent at the gym, you immediately reach out for a glass of water. Because there is a demand by your system to quench its thirst and to keep it going.
It will interest you to know that God also thirst. And there is a demand upon every believer to quench that thirst. But unlike us what He thirst for is not water, but it is a thirst for SOULS. This responsibility has been saddled upon every believer including you and I to satisfy this thirst. There is a story in the bible that drew my attention on this;
“And David was then in an hold, and the garrison of the philistines was then in Bethlehem. And David longed, and said oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. And the three mighty men broke through the host of the philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the lord. – 2 Samuel 23:14-16.
The bible said, that King David longed to drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. Remember, that is where the host of the philistine army pitch their camp, and it will be suicide to embark on such a mission to satisfy the king’s desire. But there were three men, the bible referred to them as the three mighty men of David. This men broke through the host of the philistines and drew water, just to satisfy their king.
Here is one greater than David, He is the king of kings and the lord of lords, He thirst and he desire that this thirst be satisfied. Are there no men and women who can be likened to the mighty men of David in our generation today who will break through boundaries, go beyond limitations and oppositions just so that they quench the Master’s thirst? There is something I notice about myself whenever I am thirsty and it is: when I take any other liquid or juice that thirst will still be there, unless I drink water.
Therefore for me, water is irreplaceable when it comes to quenching my thirst. I don’t know if it is same for you. In the same way, God is not so much interested in your activities. You go to church every Sunday or attend online, you pray in tongues, you attend bible studies, these are as good as they are. God is not so much interested in them as He wants you to quench His thirst with SOULS. In 2 Corinthians 5:18 “he has reconciled to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation”. Christ is depending on you and I to quench his thirst by reconciling men to him. Make it a priority today and be determined to quench the master’s thirst by bringing men to him.
Did Jeremiah say the water brought by David’s men was poured out unto the Lord? Yes, the concluding verse 17 of that story reads, “Far be it from me, O LORD, that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?” Therefore he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did.” Feels like a sheer waste of time? No, it is the restoration of eternity! And like David, Jesus’ thirst wasn’t really quenched by that physical water but the hunger to wreck through the enemies line to fetch it and guide it back. The Master’s thirst is a thirst quenchable by our hunger to fetch and get the water of the word across!
That’s exactly what the thirst of Christ is. It is actually a thirst for the lost to quench the thirst of God for others.
“for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’- Matthew 25:35-40.
Now you understand what Jesus told the Samaritan woman, it’s not really me that is thirsty, if only you knew the one who asked you for water. The Master’s thirst; it’s a thirst for those ready to forget their trademark jar of water for a wellspring of water dug within. It’s for fetchers who would trade their regular back-and-forth trip to the well for a going that’s far into the cities and villages as mobile wells of tanks.
It’s a fetcher thirst, to the famished in the famine of the word even they think they are repositories of the Pentateuch. It’s a fetchers thirst to the maligned in this desert of the word even when they think they are in the word cities. It’s a thirst of Christ to the dry and dead even when they think they are word drown and have no need for the living water.
How far can you go to draw the water to others. This is a thirst in harvest time, coincidentally in thirst time of David too if you read verse 13 of the story Jeremiah shared. Here is an outbursts of the joy that greets the fetcher of the water by the thirsty Master. It’s an outpour unto the Lord. That the woman would return with souls was to Jesus the quenching of all thirsts! Imagine, it’s not written so far that she had given Jesus a drop of water or that He used her pot. But doing the will of God became so revitalizing that the look met on Jesus’s face by His food laden returning disciples suggested He was full already. In fact, looking at how refreshed he appeared, one had to ask if someone had fed him. Yes, she just did, with varieties! The Master’s thirst is such a thirst that satisfy hunger – my meat is to do the will of God – harvest of souls by the quencher of His thirst.
Little wonder the chapter would close with Jesus speaking of the plentiful harvest with little quenching laborers. By the time He asked his disciples to lift up their faces to see the crowd, they would relate with that harvest of souls as a banquet, holding by the wellspring. His thirst and hunger would be quenched in one fell swoop. This is the party that excites Jesus with angels rejoicing in heaven over sinners that repent. Quenching the Master’s thirst is an instantaneous Evangelism by influence.
Quenching the Master’s thirst is an hunger shaming thirst. She would announce not only the Messiah but proudly preach of the Revelation of her notorious past and how has changed. If she was ashamed of her past, she wasn’t ashamed of the gospel of Christ. That is the thirst! This quenching, though starting out from a drop, is not a drop in the ocean but drops that makes a mighty ocean. It would turn a transit pass into a two day layover between a divided house. It would make a side gist turn into harvest of crusade.
This is the thirst of the Master, quench it, don’t quench the Holy Ghost!
- Co-written by Olusanya Olusola and Jeremiah Ishaya. BICQMag TEAM Salem Otto - Ghana Jeremiah Ishaya - Northern Nigeria Oluwatobi Shoyoye - Southern Nigeria Olusanya Racheal - Northern UK Odunayo Olashore - Canada
Olusanya Olusola - Southern UK
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