水是维持生命的起码和基本的要素。我曾听过某生物学家说,当神决定创造水时,其他的创造都只不过是细节而已。这样说不是要减低神的创造的复杂程度,但它却能帮助我们领会到水的重要性。
向撒玛利亚妇人取水喝时,耶稣触犯了社会上两项禁忌。祂与一个妇人说话,而这个妇人更是撒玛利亚人。犹太人视撒玛利亚人为混血儿和异教徒,而撒玛利亚人也不大尊重犹太人。耶稣向撒玛利亚妇人取水喝时,祂希望妇人能重新思想她认为自己已经知道的事。
她说:“先生,没有打水的器具,井又深…”然而耶稣所说的不是水本身,也不是指依靠水来维持的生命。祂所说的乃是祂自己 - 是能带来永生的活水。
耶稣把永生赐给妇人。当她接受基督所赐的活水时 - 就是接受在基督里得永生的好消息 - 她便被新生命充满了。
尽管我们每天仍然要喝足够的水来维持生命,然而我们只需要喝耶稣所赐的活水,便能够得永生了。
祷告
神啊,感谢你赐我们在基督里的新生命。求你以你的活水充满我们,好叫你的好消息因耶稣的缘故,能从我们身上涌流到整个世界。阿们。
约翰福音 4:4-26
4必须经过撒马利亚,
5于是到了撒马利亚的一座城,名叫叙加,靠近雅各给他儿子约瑟的那块地。
6在那里有雅各井。耶稣因走路困乏,就坐在井旁。那时约有午正。
7有一个撒马利亚的妇人来打水,耶稣对她说:“请你给我水喝。”
8那时门徒进城买食物去了。
9撒马利亚的妇人对他说:“你既是犹太人,怎么向我一个撒马利亚妇人要水喝呢?”(原来犹太人和撒马利亚人没有来往。)
10耶稣回答说:“你若知道神的恩赐和对你说‘给我水喝’的是谁,你必早求他,他也必早给了你活水。”
11妇人说:“先生,没有打水的器具,井又深,你从哪里得活水呢?
12我们的祖宗雅各将这井留给我们,他自己和儿子并牲畜也都喝这井里的水,难道你比他还大吗?”
13耶稣回答说:“凡喝这水的,还要再渴,
14人若喝我所赐的水,就永远不渴。我所赐的水要在他里头成为泉源,直涌到永生。”
15妇人说:“先生,请把这水赐给我,叫我不渴,也不用来这么远打水。”
16耶稣说:“你去叫你丈夫也到这里来。”
17妇人说:“我没有丈夫。”耶稣说:“你说没有丈夫是不错的。
18你已经有五个丈夫,你现在有的并不是你的丈夫。你这话是真的。”
19妇人说:“先生,我看出你是先知。
20我们的祖宗在这山上礼拜,你们倒说,应当礼拜的地方是在耶路撒冷。”
21耶稣说:“妇人,你当信我。时候将到,你们拜父也不在这山上,也不在耶路撒冷。
22你们所拜的你们不知道,我们所拜的我们知道,因为救恩是从犹太人出来的。
23时候将到,如今就是了,那真正拜父的,要用心灵和诚实拜他,因为父要这样的人拜他。
24神是个灵,所以拜他的必须用心灵和诚实拜他。”
25妇人说:“我知道弥赛亚,就是那称为基督的要来,他来了,必将一切的事都告诉我们。”
26耶稣说:“这和你说话的就是他。”
"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." - John 4:14
Water is basic and fundamental to life. I once heard a biologist say that when God decided to create water, the rest of creation was details. This is not meant to minimize all the complexities of God's creation, but it can help us to see how important water is.
When Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for a drink of water, he was breaking two social taboos. He was talking to a woman, and he was talking to a Samaritan. Jewish people thought of the Samaritans as half-breeds and heretics, and the Samaritans did not have much respect for the Jews. But by asking the Samaritan woman for water, Jesus wanted her to reconsider all the things she thought she knew.
She said, "You have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep. . . ." But Jesus wasn't talking about H2O; nor was he talking about the kind of life that H2O makes possible. He was talking about himself—the water that brings eternal life.
Jesus offered the woman everlasting life. And when she drank in the living water of Christ—that is, the good news of eternal life in him—she was filled with new life.
Though we still have to drink enough H2O each day to keep our bodies going, we need only to drink the living water of Jesus to receive eternal life.
O God, thank you for the gift of new life in Christ. Fill us with your living water, that your good news may flow from us to all the world, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
诵读: 骆云秀
片头: 张妙阳