For God’s Sake: The “water” Jesus offers is eternal life
That family drank only filtered water dispensed from the refrigerator. “Sink water,” to me, connotes soapy water from a sink filled with dishes. We drink “tap water” with no ice, which probably makes us the most boring people in the world.
Friends recently invited us to lunch at their home and offered us a choice between “still or sparkling water.” I remarked to my wife that I had never heard plain water called “still water.” She explained how the carbonation process in sparkling water produces bubbles that move the water as they rise to the surface. I knew that, but “still water” reminded me of something I had learned in seminary.
We were introduced to the Didache (DI-dah-kay), a second-century manual on church practices, which gives the following instruction: “And concerning baptism, baptize this way: having first said all these things, baptize into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit in living water.
But if you have not living water, baptize into other water; and if you cannot in cold, in warm. But if you have not either, pour out water thrice upon the head into the name of Father and Son and Holy Spirit.” Living water here refers to the cold, flowing water of a stream, and “other water,” the warmer, still water of a pool.
Jesus also spoke of living water. He was sitting by a well outside a Samaritan town when a local woman came to draw water. Jesus surprised her by asking her for a drink; Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.
When she raised that issue, Jesus said, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that was saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” She asked, “Where do you get that living water?”
He explained that water drawn from a well only temporarily satisfies thirst, “but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.
The water I will give him will become a spring of living water welling up to eternal life.” The prospect of never again having to draw water from a well appealed to her, but Jesus was speaking of water of another kind. The “water” Jesus offers is eternal life, and he is its sole source.
The moment a person trusts in Christ Jesus as their Savior, his Spirit comes to reside in them bringing eternal life. This is not “bottled water” for later consumption, but the vibrant “water” of eternal life to be imbibed now and that will flow in a person forever. “Come, drink,” Jesus invites, “and you will thirst no more.”