Leave Your Waterpot Behind

What burden are you carrying with you today? I know that many of you are weighed down with some heavy burdens and you’re finding it difficult to keep going. I want to remind you of a familiar story in the Bible about the Samaritan woman who meets Jesus at the well. 

 

If you remember, she was at the well to get water. She came in the middle of the day when it was hot because she was an outcast, not acceptable in polite society. And she had brought with her the usual heavy waterpot, which she would fill up and carry on her head back to her home.

 

But when she met Jesus, he told her about living water, water that could spring up within her, a never-ending supply of water. He was, of course, referring to the water of life which he offers to everyone. She was thrilled to learn about this living water.

 

When the disciples returned to join Jesus, we see in John 4:28 that she left her water jar to rush back into town and tell everyone she could find about Jesus. This woman left behind, with Jesus, her burden—her weight. This was the toilsome task she had to perform daily; it was a humiliating, tiring, boring job; it showed that she was poor because she had to get her own water. 

 

That waterpot is the symbol of the burdens we carry around, until we meet the Savior. Then when we discover living water, we realize there is no more necessity for the waterpot. Why do you need a waterpot if you have a spring of water inside of you? We can put our waterpot right at Jesus’ feet, and go forth to tell others about him, free from the burden, free from the guilt, free from the humility of our past, free from our poverty and weariness, and alive unto Jesus.

 

But sometimes we go back and get the waterpot again, don’t we? We try to carry our burdens ourselves, and we forget the living water inside of us, which relieves us of the need to carry our old waterpot.

 

What is your waterpot today: Some past sin or failure? Some difficult job you must do? Some great disappointment? Why do you continue to carry that waterpot and fill it up with earthly water, earthly solutions? Jesus is waiting at the well to give you living water; he is the answer to your need, and you can leave your waterpot right at his feet and go forward, with freedom and lightness.