True Satisfaction
Jesus answered, “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 in them a spring of water
welling up to eternal life.
John 4:13-14 (NIV)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
True Satisfaction
“The sexual confusion so prevalent in our world and in our own hearts is actually the human desire for heaven gone beserk … Behind all the pain and all the distortions is [an] authentic thirst for the eternal joys of heaven.” So writes Christopher West in his Theology of the Body for Beginners in which he aims to make the teaching of Pope John Paul II accessible for ordinary readers – and he does a pretty good job!
One of the most famous stories in the Bible of someone looking for satisfaction, but in the wrong place, is the story of Jesus and the woman of Samaria, whom he meets at the well in a town called Sychar when she goes to draw water (the story is told in John chapter 4). Jesus puts his finger on the woman’s search for satisfaction when he says, “The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.”
Christopher West comments: “Six lovers. Do you see the symbolism? Six is the imperfect biblical number. Seven is the perfect biblical number. Who is this woman’s “seventh lover”? Christ the Bridegroom! His love is what she’s been thirsting for the whole time – a “living water” welling up to eternal life.”
Isn’t that beautiful? Here is the fulfilling and everlasting satisfaction that this woman has been looking for all this time: Jesus! Her Bridegroom! Indeed, here is the one who will fulfil all our longings and meet all our desires and do so for ever – if only we knew that what we’ve been made for, what we thirst for, is to know that we are loved by Jesus.
Lord, thank you for giving us real and lasting satisfaction in Jesus, and beyond our dreams; teach us to be satisfied with Jesus and being loved by him. Amen.
Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)