Jesus’ thirst for sinners.

Jesus’ thirst for sinners.

 

The second person of the Most Holy Trinity became man in search of sinners, to redeem whom He sacrificed Himself on the Cross.

 

Jesus loves sinners however great their sins may be.

 

What He wants is that they must repent for their sins and become worthy of the eternal abode wherein all the redeemed will live in everlasting happiness with their Creator.

 

The story of the Samaritan woman at the well will be helpful to us to understand how Jesus finds out sinners in His search for them and redeems them from their sins.

(Gospel according to St, John 4:5-42)

 

 

 As the Gospel story begins, we see Jesus resting, in the heat of the day, at a well in Samaria.

A woman approaches and Jesus starts a conversation with her.  “Give me a drink.”

Jesus is thirsty.

But His thirst is not for water, but for souls.

Jesus became man with the thirst for sinners.  

Jesus’ conversation with the woman shows His eagerness to reveal Himself as the Messiah to her.

 

He wants to give her the “living water” that comes from faith in Him.

He repeatedly directs her attention away from the water in the well to the thirst He knows she has in her soul.

Why does Jesus want to make Himself known to her as the Messiah, when usually He wants everyone to keep quiet about it and not say anything?

This Samaritan woman is an outcast among outcasts.

 

Being a Samaritan, she is an outcast from the Jews, who consider Samaritans to be half-breed Jews, perverting the true religion of Israel.

 

Being a woman, she is a non-citizen in a culture that often views women as chattel.

Being a woman with a “reputation,” having had a string of husbands and living loosely with yet another man, she is an outcast even from other women.

“Good” women don’t want to associate with her.

She is at the well alone, at high noon, the “devil’s hour,” when no one thinks of doing any work.

What better person can Jesus have chosen to show the world that he came for the redemption of sinners?

 

 The woman, representing all of us sinners, has nothing at all to offer Jesus except her own thirst for God.

 

 

 

“The woman says to Him, ‘I know that the Messiah is coming…when He comes, He will tell us everything.’

 

Jesus tells her, ‘I am He, the One speaking with you.’”

 

The woman has got it!

 

She leaves her water jar at the well and she goes into town to tell others about Jesus.

 

Her life has changed.

She has already started to taste the Living Water.

Look at what happens next in this story.

 

The disciples return and want Jesus to eat—they assume He is starving.

  “But He tells them, ‘I have food to eat of which you do not know.’”

 

 

The disciples are baffled by this, but we shouldn’t be.

 

It is not water and food that Jesus is looking for—He is on the hunt for sinners who are, even without knowing it, looking for Him.

 

Jesus has redeemed an outcast sinner.

 

We must remember that we are all sinners.

 

It is in search of us that Jesus came into the world.

 

Let us make use of this Lenten season to return to Him by repenting for our sins and making a good confession.

 

Lourdu Selvam.

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