Now he had to go through Samaria. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water"? Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." (John 4:4-11, 13-15 NIV).

I’m sure you have heard the parable of the table set with a glorious banquet of delicious food. Everyone was welcome, but the peculiar thing about this banquet was that the handles on the spoons were about four feet long, far too long for anyone to feed themselves with. The description is given how those who learned to feed one another went away satisfied while others left hungry.

In today's Scripture we get a rare glimpse of Jesus' very human self. He was tired and thirsty from his journey, and had stopped to rest at Jacob's well. He needed a drink, but had nothing to draw water with. When the Samaritan woman came to the well, he made her aware of her spiritual thirst. They were each thirsty in their own way. They were each near a source of life-giving water; yet without each other, neither of their needs could be met. In a gesture that was unthinkable at the time, Jesus reached across societal, racial, and gender barriers when he reached out to the Samaritan woman. She responded by reaching back.

The living water that Jesus offers is the gift of his spirit, a gift that we are all welcome to. The wonder of his work on the cross and the resurrection is that through the Holy Spirit we always have someone with us to “feed us.” Before Christ’s death and resurrection we were all sitting at the table isolated and alone with the four foot spoon of sin in our way keeping us from being fully fed and satisfied. Now that has all been changed!