In Part 1 we looked at the seven buckets we keep carrying to the wrong wells. Relationships, entertainment, religion, money, control, achievement, and escape. Every one of them is a well that runs dry.
The Samaritan woman had spent her whole life on the bucket. She was worried about how Jesus was going to draw water from Jacob’s well without one.
John 4:11 “The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?”
Jesus was not talking about her bucket. He was talking about the well. And the well He was pointing her to was not the one at her feet. It was the One standing in front of her.
John 4:14 “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
The bucket-life had left her empty. The well-life would change everything.
Bucket Versus Well
Notice how different a bucket is from a well.
- A bucket is a method. A well is a source.
- A bucket is empty. A well is full.
- A bucket is meant to pull out. A well is meant to fill up.
- A bucket is limited. A well is abundant.
- A bucket is man-made. A well is God-given.
- A bucket is mobile. A well is fixed.
- A bucket is shallow. A well is deep.
- A bucket is temporary. A well is permanent.
- A bucket is for today. A well is for forever.
The well that Jesus stood at over 2000 years ago was put there 2000 years before Him by Jacob. It’s a 4000 year old well that’s still active today!
We spend most of our lives comparing buckets when we ought to be checking the well. A better bucket does not fix a bad well. A prettier bucket does not fix a dry well. If the source is wrong, no bucket can save you. If the source is right, no bucket is needed.
So the question changes. It is not “which bucket do I need?” It is “which well am I going to?”
The Well Is Free
Every bucket in Part 1 costs you something. The relationship bucket costs you your peace. The entertainment bucket costs you your time. The money bucket costs you your soul. But the well Jesus offers costs nothing.
Isaiah 55:1 “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
Isaiah 55:2 “Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.”
The Lord is asking us the same question He asked Israel. Why do you keep spending your money on bread that is not bread? Why do you keep laboring for the thing that will not satisfy? The well is free. Come and drink!
Jeremiah 2:13 “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”
Two evils. First, we forsake the fountain that flows for free. Second, we go to the trouble of digging out cracked cisterns that cannot even hold water. That is the double foolishness of the bucket-life.
The Well Is Above, Not Below
Every bucket we carry pulls us down. We drop it, we lower it, we pull it back up with effort. The well of God works in the opposite direction. It calls us up.
Colossians 3:1 “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.”
Colossians 3:2 “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”
The Samaritan woman was looking down into a well in the ground. Jesus was pointing her up. Every bucket in Part 1 lives below. Relationships, entertainment, money, control, achievement, escape. All of it lives on the earth. But the real well is above!
A Christian who spends all day looking down at their buckets will never see the well that is above. Set your affection higher.
The Well Is Lasting
Every bucket has a bottom. You drink it and it is gone. You go back the next day and start all over again. The Samaritan woman had been coming to the same physical well her whole life. Every day with the same trip and the same effort. But she got the same emptiness.
John 6:35 “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
John 7:37 “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.”
Never hungry and never thirsting sounds good, doesn’t it? Jesus was not referring to EBT.
The Well Is Overflowing
A bucket is limited by its size. Whatever you pull up is all you get. But the well Jesus gives is not just enough; it is more than enough. It does not just fill you, it overflows out of you.
John 7:38 “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
Notice the picture of multiple rivers. This well is not a private supply for a private soul. It is a river that runs out of you and into other lives. The Samaritan woman would prove this before the chapter was over. She would run into her city with rivers flowing out of her.
The Well Is Refreshing
Buckets leave you tired. You are always drawing water and always drinking and always going back for more.
Psalm 63:1 “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.”
David knew what it felt like to be in a dry and thirsty land. He knew what it felt like to have no water. And his answer was not a better bucket. His answer was an earlier seeking of the Lord.
The Well Is Accessed by Faith
You cannot see the well the way you see the buckets. The buckets are visible. You can hold them, measure them and compare them to other people’s buckets. The well requires eyes that look to something that you cannot see.
2 Corinthians 4:18 “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Faith is the pipeline. Without it, the well might as well not exist to you. With it, the well is closer than the air you breathe.
Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
The Well Puts Everything Into Perspective
Once you have been to the well, the buckets lose their pull. What used to look important looks small. What used to feel urgent feels unnecessary. The things you used to chase, you would now trade in a heartbeat.
Philippians 3:7 “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.”
Philippians 3:8 “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”
Paul had every bucket a man could carry. Position, education, religious reputation and standing in his community. And once he met the well, he called all of it loss. He called it dung! That is what the well does to buckets. It makes them look like what they always were.
The Well Is Offered to All Who Come
The best part about this well is who it is for. It is for anyone who is thirsty.
Revelation 22:17 “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
The invitation is wide open. Come. Come. Come. Whosoever will and take the water of life freely.
The Samaritan woman was a five-time divorcee living with a man she was not married to. She was avoiding the other women in her town and carrying more shame than water. And Jesus offered her the well anyway.
We have been checking buckets when we should have been checking the well. We have been comparing tools when we should have been changing sources. The well puts everything into perspective. And the well is offered to whosoever will.
The Samaritan woman came to Jacob’s well with a bucket and left with a well inside her. She went from drawing water at noon to preaching in the city center. What made the difference was not a better bucket. It was a different well.
In Part 3 we will see exactly what happens in a life when you change the well instead of the bucket. Seven things change and when they change, everything else follows.
