Day 19: It's All Fun & Games Until Someone Gets Thirsty
March 8
by Michael Lovett
Readings:
Reflection:
Here is the video of this devotional. I encourage you to read the scriptures first, then watch it.
In Exodus, we see the biggest family move ever going off the rails. Here we land at a breaking point (one of many) for Moses. Two million people are thirsty. There is no infrastructure. Just thirsty people who are used to suffering as enslaved people. They didn't think it could get worse, but then they left Egypt on what should have been a 40-day migration to a better place to live, freedom, and prosperity. They are in the desert. Former slaves wanted to be slaves again, so they simply could eat and drink. This was life and death. They felt hoodwinked and deceived. Yes, that was a great Red Sea miracle in the first few days of leaving Egypt, but it's getting very real now.
Moses simply groans, "What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me!" Whether it's fear or anger or both, Moses needs a literal miracle. Everyone is suffering. They cry out, and God simply provides. He will provide water from a rock. A rock? Really?! Can the opposite of water provide two million people with water? I'm sure Moses didn't hesitate or worry about how ridiculous it sounds. In the moment, you'll do whatever it takes to provide for those you love. God can make water come from a rock. God DID make that water come from the rock.
Now, cut to John's gospel. It is midday in the Middle East. Jesus is a Jew in Samaria on the ethnic "other side of the tracks." No one should be outside, but Jesus is waiting for his guys, and a woman comes to get water from a well. The meaning here is easily lost on us who have faucets and toilets in our homes. Anyway, she didn't come in the morning because that's when all the other women come for water, and she is the outcast. She's the talk of the town in a not-so-good way. She's a five-time divorceé, trying to survive small-town life. She needs water. Jesus offers water from himself with a bit of a mischievous twinkle in his eye, perhaps. She mistakes his mischief for flirtatiousness, but realizes very quickly that there is something altogether different about him. He is not flirting, he's prophesying. He knows things about her that no one should know. He is offering something, not trying to use her. Now she has to shift to religious mode. Jesus takes a hard left in the conversation. It's not about religion. It's about relating to a loving God who would send his son to save the woman who is the talk of the town. Jesus lands the zinger: "No no no... I AM the water, the living water." Jesus was waiting by the well, so why not use the well as the metaphor?
Jesus is brilliant, improvisational, and fiercely committed to winning our hearts. This is just one account of many that drive this point home.
Jesus is the water from the rock. Jesus comes from the most unexpected place, podunk Nazareth. Jesus provides our souls the same essentials that bread and water do for our bodies. Jesus pulls together a few disciples for three years, dies from a wrongful conviction after a sinless life, and rises from the dead after 48 hours cold in a tomb!
Jesus is the living water, and he is playful, not aloof. It's right here in John's gospel. He's intriguing. He is wonderful!
What thirst would Jesus quench in us if we would make a habit (liturgy) like Lent a yearly, seasonal practice?
Song:
Content for wisdom and contentment at: urenuf.life
Lent 2026 | urenuf.life podcast on Spotify
Comments
Post a Comment