“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ ... and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly ... but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:1, 5–6, 8 ESV).

The season of Lent exposes our thirst. Like the Israelites in the wilderness, we grumble. We grumble against leaders, circumstances, family, and even against God Himself. The Israelites famously asked, “Is the Lord against us or not?” We test God with our complaints, our doubts, and our impatience. Or like the Samaritan woman at the well, we come to our Lord seeing satisfaction for our daily needs, yet we carry (and try to hide) burdens like broken relationships, shame, and spiritual apathy. We are dried up, thirsty, and no earthly water source can quench it.

Our weakness is profound. The Scriptures describe us as more than just thirsty. Romans 5 tells us that we were ungodly, sinners, and enemies of God. No amount of effort, striving, or self-improvement draws forth living water. We deserve temporal and eternal punishment, not blessings.

In His mercy, though, God provides. Moses strikes the rock, and the water flows abundantly for the people who had just rebelled against God. Paul tells us that Rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4). In John 4, Jesus comes to a well, tired and thirsty. There he offers up living water that becomes “a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14). Jesus knows the sin of the woman in front of Him, yet He still reveals Himself as the Messiah who freely gives of Himself. This is the incredible abundance of His grace, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God’s love is poured out, truly lavished upon us, through the Holy Spirit.

Throughout the season of Lent, we hear texts that again and again call us to repent of our grumbling, our self-reliance, and to drink deeply from the well, that is Christ. Our congregations deliver the means of grace to us week by week. We hear the Word proclaimed in sermons. We watch as Holy Baptism drowns the old Adam and raises to new life. We hear the words of absolution. The Lord’s Supper gives us Christ’s very body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins. In God’s house, our thirst is quenched, we have hope, and we are strengthened to live in a broken and dried-up world.

The church alone has this answer for human thirst: no program, philosophy, or self-help can give living water. We proclaim Jesus—the crucified and risen Savior—who turns our testing into trust, our weakness into hope that does not disappoint.

Praise the One who blessed the children
With a strong, yet gentle, word;
Praise the One who drove out demons
With the piercing, two-edged sword.
Praise the One who brings cool water
To the desert’s burning sand;
From this Well comes living water,
Quenching thirst in ev’ry land. (Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness, LSB 849:2)

In Christ,

Rev. Samuel M. Powell
Third Vice President, Missouri District