The Thirsty Messiah

May 24, 2025  | Read and think about John 4:1-14

Verse 10 of the passage gives an outline for the whole chapter, when Jesus says:  “if you knew the gift of God, and who is speaking with you …”

So the two main parts of the chapter are "what is the gift of God" Jesus spoke about here? And who is Jesus? This post looks at the first one.

What is the gift of God Jesus spoke of here?

Talking to a complete stranger in an unfriendly land, Jesus uses his own human thirst to compare and contrast physical thirst from spiritual thirst:

“Everyone who drinks of this water [from the earthly well] will be thirsty again.  But whoever drinks of the water I will give will never be thirsty again.  The water I give becomes a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Later, in John 7:37-38, speaking to His own people at the festival in Jerusalem, He repeats it again:

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of their heart will flow rivers of living water.”

What a promise!  As the next verse in John's gospel tells us, He was referring here to the Holy Spirit as the gift of God.

As I finished this post, I kept the original title of “The Thirsty Messiah.”  Because in his human nature, Jesus was very thirsty that day, in the noon heat after a long trek.  But here at the end of writing the post, another good title is - -

“Messiah for a Thirsty People” - which was them, and it is us.