A New Beginning

Paul explains how this can take place in vv. 14 and 15:

14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Cor 5:14-15; NIV)

This is what baptism symbolises. Your old life dies and you are buried under the water, just as Jesus was buried in the tomb. Then you stand up out of the water, just as Jesus stood up from the grave. You stand up as a new person, a new ktisis. That’s why Paul can confidently say “the old has gone, the new has come!”

When we turn back to our Bible story, we see that Jesus offered just this sort of new life to the hopeless woman:

As she nears the well, the woman notices a man sitting on the wall. She hesitates. What’s he doing there? She wants to turn away, but she needs water. With downcast eyes she walks closer. Perhaps he will just ignore her.

But He doesn’t. Instead, He asks her for some water.

Jesus should not have spoken with her. The etiquette of the day forbade it. (1) She was a woman—and a man did not speak with a woman, particularly if her husband or father were not present. (2) She was a Samaritan and He was a Jew—and the Jews and Samaritans felt the same way about each other then as the Jews and Palestinians feel about each other today. (3) She was living in sin—nobody would speak with her anymore, not even the other women in town. Jesus should not have spoken with her. But he did.

And then Jesus offers her living water—the living water which quenches a persons thirst and gives eternal life. There’re a number of Old Testament texts which refer to God as the fountain of living water (Ps 36:9; Jer 17:13) and in making this reference to living water, Jesus is actually telling her, “Hey, I’m the Messiah! I’m what you’ve been longing for! I’m what you need in your life!”

But the woman does not realise what He’s talking about. And then He begins to get too personal. He tells her about her failed marriages. He reminds her of her past, of all her disappointments. And with each word the door to her pain is forced a little more open.

She begins to realise what He’s offering her—a brand new beginning—but the pain is just too much and she slams the door shut. In her mind she steps away from His offer and throws up a smokescreen between herself and the Messiah. She changes the topic, tries to lure Him away with a popular debate, lure Him away from her sin, lure Him away from her disappointments, lure Him away from her pain.

It’s not easy to confront our failures, our disappointments, our pain. In fact, it’s possible for us to get used to living in spiritual poverty, to live without hope. To hope again is scary. If we begin to hope again, we can be disappointed again. If we try to start over once more, we might just fail once more.

But however scary it might be to think of making a new start, that is exactly what the Bible is promising: “[I]f anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”