“Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will 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 will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”” (John 4:10–15, ESV)
Jesus passes by the hostility and points her toward the gift of God as he begins to disclose his identity. This line of thought catches the woman off guard as she thinks primarily in human terms and has not yet fully comprehended that this is a divine encounter. Perhaps, she confuses the living water that Jesus speaks of with the fresh running water from the spring that feeds the well. This woman does not believe that Jesus can produce this water without the necessary tools needed to draw it. Jesus explains that drinking this water only offers satisfaction temporarily, but Jesus offers living water that will completely satisfy and ultimately give eternal life. At this, the woman asks for the water that Jesus has been speaking of so that she will be relieved of her thirst and alleviate the need to return to the well again and again.
Jesus offers satisfaction to weary, thirsty souls and it is this offer for living water that will provide her the joy, peace, satisfaction and meaning she so desperately craves. Like all of humanity, she had rejected the spring of living water and dug her own well, which was totally inadequate to hold the water for which she longed. She thought that the solution she needed would be found through ordinary means that made her life easier. The disciples will struggle to grasp the same concept later in this passage over food. As followers of Jesus, we must guard against seeing the world through strictly pragmatic lenses and not forget that only Jesus can satisfy the thirsty soul. Ask the Lord to help you escape the trap of seeing things as a means to your ease and comfort.