Water That Will Become a Spring...
Sunday of the Samaritan Woman
Acts 11:19-26; John 4:5-42
“But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14)
First of all, Christ indicated to the Samaritan woman:
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.”
And we all know that, however much we drink water (especially on a hot day), after some time we will want to drink again.
Similarly: no matter how much we eat, however much food we consume, some hours later we will want to eat again. But Christ tells the Samaritan woman that the water He gives will "become... a spring," in other words, He is speaking of spiritual water — the grace of God, the favour of the Holy Spirit, which a person drinks, becomes a "spring" in them.
This is a very figurative expression: from a spring, cold and healthy water flows continuously—such a spiritual spring is formed in a person who has accepted Christ's teaching, and with it —the grace of the Holy Spirit, the favour of God, as a guiding principle for their life.
When a person sincerely accepts Christ into their heart and soul, with His teaching and grace, that source of spiritual nourishment sustains a person not only in this earthly temporary life — it "flows into eternal life".
But that source acts as long as we remain in connection with Christ — all our spiritual sources are nourished by Christ, by the inexhaustible sea of God's grace. When we baptize a child, bestow upon them God's grace, give them a new spiritual birth from God, from the Spirit, and then do not provide them with spiritual nourishment from Christ — such a source will not exist in a person. They will become spiritually dead.
It is just as if, after physical birth, a mother did not feed, or nurse, or care for the child — the child would soon die. Harsh facts of life — in this world, many exist; the spiritually dead languish. And such people are truly like animals; they eat, drink, sleep, and live only to exist bodily.
But a person without God, with his means, abilities, is immeasurably worse than any predatory animal. Just as these lines are being written, we read in the press that an 18-year-old killed an eight-year-old child, a little girl. A wild predatory beast kills another animal to eat, but a godless person kills another simply because they do not like them...
When godless people recognize that their ancestors were monkeys, their forefathers amphibians, then from a spiritual perspective they may be right. For both monkeys and all animals live to eat, drink, and reproduce physically, and so do they...
For people without spiritual kinship with God, without spiritual nourishment from Christ through His Church, there is no definite high purpose for life. And life without a high purpose of union with the Creator, with Christ, not only in earthly life but also in eternity, is like a ship sailing in the sea without a final port of destination, without arrival. It is aimless.
People live, sail, on the sea of life, but they do not know where they are going... To give meaning to their life-voyage, people invent false destinations for themselves: "sex", "liberation", various pseudo-scientific theories and philosophical doctrines, which are renounced in a few years or added to and remade because they are no longer fashionable... People rush from one "saving" theory-philosophy to another, from one ideology (or party) to another...
Christ, coming from God, being the incarnation of God, gave people nourishment once, bread and drink, so that they could become a source of eternal spiritual nourishment for people, so that by them and: through them people could be revived, renewed for eternal life.
Christ also indicated the way of life:
“I am the way” - “I am the way”.
He also gave people a goal - the port of final arrival from the voyage of life.
“No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
Whoever knows and confesses Jesus Christ in this world, He will not drive him away.
“As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.”
(1 Corinthians 15:49)
Many people don't believe that the whole truth, all the secrets of human life, the purpose and place of arrival can be so simply stated. People do not believe it; they worry and want to achieve something more perfect with their wisdom, so they continue to invent complex theories, ideologies, philosophies...
As an illuminating parallel, I shall provide a clear life example here. In the USA, in Omaha, certain people observed that a large company (Trust Co.) did not guard its large safe well. They broke into the building and spent several hours opening the steel door, which weighed several tons.
They even planted explosives — it was impossible to open it. They brought a cutting torch, burned a hole in the heavy door and got to the cash. There was only 25 dollars there. And there was an envelope on the door, taped to it, telling how to choose the numbers to open the door to the safe, but also warning that there was only $25 in the cash register.
But no one paid attention to that notice: for who would provide truthful instruction on how to unlock it, and who would honestly say how much money was there? And yet, everything was exactly as written. People did not believe the owners, wasted much labour and time in vain, gained nothing for themselves, did not become rich, and were convicted and punished.
So too, people do not believe Christ, God. Many people waste much labour and time in vain. Thus, it was said by the Lord:
“He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”
(Mark 16:16)
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
