She replied: “How is it that being a Jewish man, you ask me, a woman of
He said: “If you knew about the gift of God and who is he who tells you: “Give me
to drink”, you would ask him, and he would give you living
water”.
She replied: “Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep, from where have
you then the living water?” But Jesus told her: “Whoever drinks this water shall thirst again, but whoever drinks the
water that I shall give him, shall never thirst, and the water that I shall give
him, shall become in him a spring of water flowing for eternal
life”. (John
4:9-14)
2 When Jesus spoke of living
water, he did not speak about the water of baptism, which is
before God, a voluntary
death in union with Christ, to pay the wages of inherited sin. The living water Jesus offered her was “the instruction that comes from
the spirit, in order to
communicate spiritual things in spiritual
terms”, (1
Corinthians 2:13) “the sound instruction in harmony with the glorious
Good News of the exultant God”. (1Timothy 1: 10-11)
Paul says, “All who are guided by the spirit of God are
sons of God”. (Romans 8:14) Those who drink the pure water of Christ's
teachings, the water that flows for eternal life, and who walk under the
guidance of the spirit of God, may understand his sacred secret as exposed in
the Good News and they shall never be spiritually thirsty again, what's more,
they have in their hearts a fountain that may give eternal life to those who by
their words, put faith in the purpose of God through Jesus
Christ.
3 Jesus said to the crowds gathered to hear
his words: “Blessed are those who seek earnestly for their spirit, because theirs is
the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3) And
Peter wrote to the disciples: “through the holy spirit sent from heaven, these things that even the angels try to understand, have been announced by those who preached
you the Good News”, (1Peter 1:12) and Paul says, “it is written: “Eye has not seen
nor ear heard, nor has been conceived in the heart of man, the things God has prepared for those who love
him”. But God has revealed them
to us through the
spirit”, (1Corinthians 2:9-10) granting us “the privilege to proclaim
among the nations the immense treasure of the
Good News of Christ, by revealing to everyone how to
administrate the sacred secret, which from the distant past was hidden in the
God who created all things, and that now, through the
congregation, has been made known to the rulers and
authorities that are in the
heavenly places”. (Ephesians 3: 8-10)
4 Before
God’s promises to Abraham granted to his
offspring the glorious heritage that Paul describes as “the adoption as sons, the glory, the
covenants ... the sacred service, the promises ... and
above all, the God to whom
the praise belongs forever”. (Romains 9:4-5) And after the death of Christ, when
the Christian Congregation was founded, the people of God became all who
believed in Christ, who was God’s Messiah. Paul says: “Now there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: because the
same Lord is over them all, and he is generous with all that call on
him, (Romains 10:12) and he
explains: “the promise received by Abraham and his descendants about being the
heirs of the world, was not trough the Law but through the justification that
comes from faith, because in fact, if the heirs were those who adhere to the
law, the faith would be useless and the promise worthless. The Law produces a
trial, but where there is no law, there is no transgression, for this reason the promise comes as a result of faith, and may be
attributed generously as a gift and guaranteed to all the offspring, not only to
those coming through the Law, but also to those who through their faith, become
Abraham's offspring, who is thus established the father of all of us, as it is
written: “I have made you father of a great number of nations”. (Romains 4:13-16)
5 Speaking about the Christ of God and the spiritual
The descendants of Abraham and Jacob became the nation chosen to receive the Christ and the blessings
of the kingdom, but as a nation, Israel refused him; “he came to his house and
his own received him not, but he gave power to those who recognized him, to become God’s offspring; those who put faith in
his name and are not born of blood or by
the will of man, but are born of
God". (John 1:11-13)
John reveals the destiny of the heirs of the promise, those who are born
of God through baptism, when writes these words addressed to Jesus in heaven:
“You are worthy to receive the scroll and to open the seals, because you
were sacrificed, and with your blood you
redeemed men for God from every tribe and tongue, and population and nation,
making them kings and priests for our
God, to reign over the
earth”. (Revelation
5:9-10)
6 All this allows us to understand the meaning of Jesus' words
to Nicodemus. John writes: “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a Jewish judge, who went by night to Jesus and said, “Rabbi,
we know that you came from God as instructor, because no one can perform the signals you
do, unless God is with
him”. Jesus replied, “Truthfully, truthfully I say: He who is not
born again cannot see the
7 Paul wrote for Christ’s disciples: “by faith in Jesus Christ, now, all of you are sons of God and those
who have been baptized into Christ, are part of the Christ. Therefore there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, neither
male nor female; you are all one in Jesus Christ, and
according to the promise,
if you belong to Christ, you are also heirs and offspring of Abraham” (Galatians 3:26-29) Therefore, “we are heirs, heirs of God and inheritors with Christ, provided
we suffer together with him to be also glorified together”, (Romains
8:14-17) because “just as there is a physical body, there is a spiritual body. It is
written that the first Adam became a living being, while the last Adam was a
life-giving spirit. So the spiritual was not the first one, it was the physical
one and later the spiritual, because the first man was made out of the earth, so
he is earthly, however, the second one came from heaven. Therefore, like the
earthly man was, will be the earthly men, and like the heavenly one was, will
also be heavenly ones. We have borne the image of the earthly man and we will
also bear the image of heavenly one”. (1Corinthians 15:45-49)
8 Jesus invited the Jews and the proselytes gathered in
Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, saying in a loud voice:
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink, and from the bosom of
those who put faith in me, will flow, as the Scripture says, rivers of living
water” (John 7:37-39)
This invitation is also for us! On the day of Pentecost, his followers
were filled with spirit and rivers of living water flowed from them, and reached
the all the ancient world, but these waters also reach us through their
writings, that give us the knowledge of the Good News about
the true and everlasting purpose of God, and enable us to
trust in his promises and to be generated by
him for the eternal life,
“not by a corruptible seed, but by one
incorruptible: the word
of God that lives forever and
never fails”. (1Peter 1: 23-24)
9 Paul wrote to his brothers from the nations:
“It's me who generated you in Christ through the Good
News”, (1Corinthians 4:14-15) And this may also be true for us, because through his
writings and the writings of the other apostles and disciples, we have come to
know “the truth that leads to the faith based on the hope of the eternal life,
promised since antiquity by the God who cannot lie”, (Titus 1:1-2) and
“the way in which God provides the justification that the Law and the
Prophets declare, the justification that God provides through the faith in
Christ, and is available to all who have faith, without distinction”, (Romains 3:21-22) because “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ... in his great mercy, made
us be born again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Christ from the
dead”. (1Peter
1:3)
10 Throughout the Scriptures, the Creator of heaven and
earth calls us to quench the thirst of our spirit with the teachings of his
spirit. Let us obey his call by listening to the words of his firstborn, who
tells us: “I Jesus have sent my angel to make known these things to the church, I
am the root of David and the bright star of the morning. The spirit and the
bride (his
true Church, also called the Spiritual Jerusalem) say:
Come! And anyone who hears it, repeat: Come! Whoever is thirsty: Come! And he
who wishes it, may drink freely the water of life”. (Revelation
22:16-17)