"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water" (Jn. 4:13-15).
It seems to me that asking for water is the easiest thing we can ever do; anyone can do it. It takes no moral righteousness or obedience or education to ask for water. Maybe that's why Jesus had to appear in the flesh---just to tell us that all we have to do is ask.
Left to ourselves, we have devised all sorts of systems and codes to earn God's blessing on our lives. I understand "rules," because every family, no matter how small, has to have some sort of regulation in order to live together in harmony and agreement. Nothing works when each one of us just does whatever he/she wants to do whenever we want to do it. So it makes sense that religions---extended and sometimes very large families---have rules also: if you want to belong to this family, this is how we have agreed to behave; if you don't like these rules, you can choose another family.
And part of formal religions is also the effort to remain faithful not only to one another, but to God. So if we believe that God has given us certain guidelines to follow, then we want to follow them. But when we fail, either through rebellion or human weakness---or when the rules become more important than the people---Jesus has a simple solution: Ask Me for living water.
Rules might scare us because we cannot live by them---or because we no longer believe they are God's directions for us. But water is something we all need and desire, both physically and spiritually. Who can be afraid of water? I love the dialog that follows Jesus' simple direction---Ask Me for living water! Immediately, the woman at the well begins to probe theological questions, not asking the religious leaders, but Jesus Himself to answer the questions that have been on her mind. And in response, she receives a direct revelation---one that most of the people in Israel had yet to learn--that Jesus is the Promised Messiah. And she already knows that "when He comes, He will explain everything to us."
Most of us have questions that no one can answer to our satisfaction. If we are content to ask simply for "living water," the dialog can begin.
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