So the woman left her water jar and went away into town John 4:28

July has been unusually hot in the mountains. With afternoon temperatures climbing into the 90’s almost every day, I have to water the gardens and hanging baskets rigorously and faithfully. More than that, I need to drink a lot of water myself. When Dan and I leave the house, we take lots of water bottles with us. If not, we end up not only parched, but tired and more than a little cranky. This summer’s heat reminds me that all life depends on water.

The fourth Chapter of John’s Gospel is an incomparable narrative about physical and spiritual thirst as seen in Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman. She comes to an ancient well for water and finds instead the One who promises to give her water that will never run dry, the One who knows everything about her and reveals Himself as Messiah. After Jesus’s pointed conversation with the woman, the disciples reappear with food for Jesus and “they marveled that He talked with a woman.” Immediately, she departs, presumably because the disciples had come back and runs to tell the village about Jesus.

Then the woman left her water jar, went back into the town, and said to the people…John 28

Leaving the water jar catches my attention. It seems like a trivial detail in the larger context of the story, but I call it one of the Holy Spirit’s parentheses, a thought stirring within a thought. Why did she leave the water jug? At high noon in sweltering desert heat she needed to take water from the well back to the village. Yet she left it behind. Why did John even mention the water pot? Some have suggested that she left the jug for the disciples’ benefit, intending to come back for it later. Another commentary says that John’s inclusion of this detail proves that he was present at the scene. She may simply have been careless in her haste to leave. We will never know for sure.

Even the smallest details in Scripture are breathed by the Holy Spirit. God’s living Word stirs something in us, first curiosity, then surprise and finally, hopefully, a moment of revelation. Afterwards, we’re changed and delighted. The woman came to the well for water, carrying a jug to fill up just as she’d done countless times. Suddenly, she encounters Jesus and everything changes. He promises her “living water” that will quench all her thirst.

But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”…John 4:14

Jesus was speaking of the Spirit, but the woman may have understood Jesus’ words practically. Her problem seemed solved! At least that day she wasn’t worrying about taking water back. She had encountered the One who promised her water of a different kind from a very different source – the wellspring of Himself. Leaving her water jug behind was symbolic. Just as Peter and Andrew left their nets to follow Jesus, so the woman left her jug behind. She’d become the vessel into which Christ would pour Himself from the cross. She needed the water jar no more.

Do we still go to old historic wells for water like the Samaritan woman, carrying emptiness within like a water jar, hoping the waters of love or success or pleasure will fill our parched souls? In life’s scorching desert heat, when we’re dry and thirst overcomes , how often will we go back and forth carrying water that never quenches the longing for an encounter with the One who is already waiting to give us water?

Jesus told the woman, “You will never thirst.” Neither will we. First put down the glass decanter balanced on your head and the clay jar of your heart at Jesus’ feet. Then confess: “Lord, I don’t need to refill these any more. You alone suffice. Fill me up instead.”