McDonald’s Diet Coke

A Series on New Testament Stories
The Samaritan Woman
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
John 4:1-26 

[The Bible is mostly made up of stories. Stories about people’s lives, the struggles they faced and their faith, or lack of it. In this series we will be looking at some of those people in the Gospel of John. We’ll try to learn from their stories about who God is, how he worked in their life and how that applies to us today.]

 

When you’re really, really thirsty, what quenches your thirst? For me, it’s a large ice cold, McDonald’s Diet Coke. There’s something about their Diet Coke that makes it better than any other restaurant. And that’s not just my opinion either. I’ve confirmed it with other McDonald’s Diet Coke drinkers.

 

Jesus had a very interesting conversation with a Samaritan woman. They were at Jacob’s well where all she wanted to do was get some water when nobody else was around. But Jesus was thirsty and asked her for a drink.

 

Her backstory was sordid. She had five failed marriages and was currently living with someone that she wasn’t married to. No doubt her reputation was in ruins. However, she was a survivor, and she did what she believed she had to do.

 

Although she had some religious beliefs, like the proper place to worship and the promised Messiah, they did nothing to provide for her needs or improve her life. Needless to say, God wasn’t a high priority for her.

 

In fact, she compartmentalized God. Living… was here and now. God… was out there somewhere untouchable. The two didn’t intersect. Did she pray? Did she go to synagogue? Maybe. But her day to day life was unaffected by her religious beliefs.

 

Jesus broke through her wall of compartmentalization. He saw her physical need for water, and translated it into her spiritual need for the Messiah. It was through his unconditional love, grace and forgiveness that he touched her life that day.

 

¹⁰ Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”         NLT

 

²⁶ Then Jesus told her, “I am the Messiah!”     NLT

 

During this brief, lunchtime-at-the-well conversation, she learned a lot about who Jesus was… the living water; the gift of God; the Messiah. Those truths are unchanged today for you and me.

 

There are lots of diversions that can derail our faith. For the Samaritan woman, it was a lifetime of failed relationships. For us, it could be the same. Or it could be our career, a desire for material possessions or financial security, or an addiction.

 

But the Good News is that no matter what, Jesus doesn’t give up on us. He keeps reaching out to us. Like the woman at the well, he keeps offering us the gift of living water; the gift of himself. He quenches our spiritual thirst.

 

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”              NIV

 

That’s way better than a large McDonald’s Diet Coke.

 

Copyright 2023 Joseph B Williams