Relationships 31
Many people are longing for a relationship that will fulfil them. Jesus once met someone who had been hurt by relationships. This lady was what we might call a serial monogamist – someone who had gone from one serious relationship to another, had married four times, but now was with someone else and not married to them. She had clearly given up on marriage and had become very cynical towards it. I think there are many people like her today. Here are some quotes and popular statements about marriage: l
l
l
l
l
Married life is very frustrating. In the first year of marriage, the man speaks and the wife listens. In the second year, the woman speaks and the husband listens. In the third year, they both speak and the neighbours listen. I never knew what real happiness was until I got married and by then it was too late. Cher says: ‘The trouble with some women is they get all excited about nothing – and then they marry him.’ Ouch. Marriage is very much like a violin; after the sweet music is over the strings are attached. I think, therefore I am single. 35
So Jesus meets this lady, who has become wary of marriage, and enters into a conversation with her at a well. Being thirsty, he asks her for some water but instead receives a rebuff because he’s a Jew and she’s a Samaritan and the two communities don’t associate with each other. Undeterred, he uses the water to make a point: ‘If you knew ... who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water’. ‘What are you talking about?’ she replies, perhaps a bit mockingly, ‘are you greater than the man who gave us this well?’ Jesus answers her, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst, indeed the water I give them will become a spring of water welling up into life 36. 35
All from J John and Mark Stibbe ‘A Box of Delights’ 36 John 4:13-14