Jesus EverlastingMuestra

Day 3: Our Wonderful Counselor

A counselor has to be a skilled conversationalist, intentionally phrasing his or her responses in a way that draws out the desired response from deep within the person. 

A counselor’s questions might be irritating and sound more like an interrogation than therapy. However, questions help us find answers. They may unearth hurt, incite anger, or awaken emotions that were once buried. Yet what is revealed enables us to rise up and move forward. 

On this particular day, a woman was moving toward the well for water, completely unaware she was moving toward a freedom she’d never known yet always longed for. Let’s look in on the conversation between the woman and Jesus through the lens of a counselor (John 4:7–15).

Jesus is the master counselor, isn’t He? Wow. Without saying anything disrespectful, He rattled the woman’s soul. She wanted what He was offering. 

The water she thought she needed was temporary, would run out, and would cause her to come back to the well every day. She, like all those living in the region, would have understood the term “living water” as running water—the underground water source that supplied the well.

But the woman was thinking logically, not spiritually: “Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.” She wanted Jesus to improve her life without inconveniencing her. 

Jesus, however, was speaking of a spiritual source of refreshment. The wise One (performing the job of a good counselor) used this play on words to make the woman think. The water He was talking about would never run out, would satisfy her every need, and in fact, would overflow from her, making others thirsty for it. 

Hudór záō was the living water Jesus spoke of in John 4:10 when He said to her, “If you only knew the gift God has for you … I would give you living water.” 

Thayer’s Greek Lexicon defines záō as “bubbling up, gushing forth, flowing.” The idea of this flowing water was a metaphor for the living spirit and truth of God. Water in cisterns or pools is still and becomes stagnant, but flowing water comes from a source that gets continually replenished, so the water is pure and continues to provide refreshment.

I love Bible commentator David Guzik’s thoughts about this living water: “The effect of this water does much more than simply satisfy the thirst of the one who drinks it. It also creates something good, something life-giving in the heart of the one who drinks it.… It becomes a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” 

Now I ask, who wouldn’t want this kind of water?