Thirsty?

desert

This was the first article that I wrote for the Glass House Country News (no really, this newspaper is huge). The comment made by my pastor after he read the first draft was rather comical – “this is too preachy and reads like an exegetical paper.” That made sense to me, a major aspect of college is preaching and exegesis – i’m not at college to become a journalist.

Thirsty

During the early 1990’s Nirvana became the first punk-rock band to reach triple-platinum sales. The band’s lead singer, Kurt Cobain was labelled as a ‘spokesman for a generation’ and the song ‘Teen Spirit’ became a defining sound of generation X. Cobain struggled through years of drug addiction and bitterly resented the attention that was given to him and his band. In April of 1994, Cobain was found dead in his Los Angeles apartment along with a 20 gauge shotgun and a suicide note that read “I haven’t felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music… for too many years now.”

Jesus was no stranger to those who suffered. While travelling through Samaria, Jesus met a woman who had come to draw water from a well. The woman was a five time divorcee and the man she was currently living with was not her husband. As a woman, she had a lower social status. As a Samaritan, she was looked down upon. One can only imagine the pain of rejection that she felt as she endured the social stigma of her many failed relationships. Jesus does not let the opportunity pass by but rather engages with the woman. He said to her, “everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.” The woman came to the well simply to draw water, but was confronted by Jesus with a greater need.

We don’t have to be experts to conclude that the desire for something greater and the feeling that there must be something more is universal. Hollywood might try and convince us that we can fill this void with possessions or wealth or sexuality, perhaps even falling in love with a vampire. I agree, we certainly can temporarily numb the feeling, but our desire for something greater always comes back. Has physical gain, achievement or ability ever really satisfied? Did athletic ability satisfy Ian Thorpe? He’s now retired from swimming! Does our search for beauty fully satisfy? Ask Shirley Temple, she’s not dead, but she’s not cute either! Does sex fully satisfy? Why then does Hugh Heffner need so many women?

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, whether or not you’re pretty, rich or gifted –you, just like everyone else has a desire for something greater and a longing for something more to this life. Well, that’s because there is something more, and this is why Jesus came into the world. Jesus reveals to us who God is. He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, made the lame walk, fed the hungry, gave hope to the hopeless and rebuked the religious. Finally, in Jesus’ greatest display of love, he went to the cross and absorbed the wrath of God. Jesus took the punishment of sin that each person rightly deserved and placed it onto himself so that sinners could be reconciled with God.

The next words that Jesus said to the woman at the well were, “the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The longing that everyone has is nothing short of eternal life and a relationship with God.