Come to WELS . . . you might be surprised at what you hear. You might be surprised to hear that the church offers peace through Jesus, not peace on earth.

The Samaritan woman was surprised by what she heard. Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst” (John 4:13,14). When she heard that, you could almost see the woman’s eyes light up. “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water” (John 4:15). Wow, what a deal! My days of having to come to this dirty old well day after day and lug a big jar of water back to the house will be over. My problems are solved!

But Jesus wasn’t talking about solving all her earthly problems. He was talking about solving her spiritual problems. He says: “Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Jesus wasn’t there just to make her earthly life easier. He was there to give her eternal life by telling her of the forgiveness of sins that was hers through his sacrifice on the cross. That’s what he meant by saying, “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.” The Samaritan woman came to the well and was surprised at what she heard. The Lord offered her peace through Jesus, not peace on earth . . . forgiveness of sins, not a solution to all her earthly problems.

Dr. Bob Moorehead, former pastor at Overlake Christian Church, Redmond, Wash., wrote the following:

“The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. . . . We have learned how to make a living, but not a life; we’ve added years to life, but not life to years. . . . We have conquered outer space, but not inner space” (Words Aptly Spoken, 1995).

Moorehead makes the same basic point that Jesus made when he spoke to the woman at the well. People today keep looking for the kind of water that will only leave them thirsty again and fail to look for the water that will become a spring welling up to eternal life. And so people come to church looking for something that will make their life easier and their earthly problems go away.