Meeting our Deepest Needs
A reflection on John 4:5-42
If we were honest with ourselves, we would recognize that most of us aren’t the best at discerning what we truly need, or if we do recognize our needs, we aren’t always the best at fulfilling them. Take drinking water for example. That is a basic necessity of life.
And yet, when I was in seminary, I often swapped water for sweet tea, until I eventually got so dehydrated that the university health clinic had to put me on an iv drip. (I of course, promptly sent an email to my professor with a pic, to explain why I wouldn’t be in class or would need an extension on my final. I can’t quite remember what time of the year this occurred).
My issue was that I was thinking only of short-term needs and wants: I need to quench my thirst, but I sought the answer in sweet tea, which meant the immediate need of quenching my thirst but not the long-term need of hydrating myself.
One would hope that such an experience would be a wakeup call to drink more water, right? Of course not. Last year, so about 6 years after my brush with dehydration in seminary, I had to go to the hospital because of severe abdominal pain. It was most likely a kidney stone. Kidney stones can be attributed to numerous causes, but one factor can be: you guessed it dehydration.
fter that brush with the emergency room, I did drink more water. However, did you know that water intake is dictated by weight? Apparently, I am supposed to be drinking one hour a day. No thanks, but I will try to drink the 8 glasses of water. (I rarely succeed, I more often drink half that amount)
So again, back to my main point. We as humans aren’t always good at 1) discerning our needs and 2) if we do manage to figure out our needs, we aren’t always good at meeting them. In John 4:5-42, there is a lot of discussion about water and food, both basic necessities, without which life becomes unsustainable.
And yet without eschewing the importance of meeting basic needs, Jesus points to deeper needs. Jesus tells the Samaritan woman, who is astonished that Jesus would ask her of all people for a drink of water, that he had living water.
And access to this living water was not based on shallow divisions that pit people against each other, nor was he going to judge her for living with multiple men in order to survive. Jesus was pointing to another reality and he was urging her to turn to him to fulfill her deeper need for liberation, a need obscured and neglected by dominant society.
Jesus also encourages his disciples to look deeper, to go beyond physical food, and to notice the ways in which God is at work around them. He challenges them to notice that God is ready to act in the world, then and now., if only they could truly see and obey God. Jesus is urging them to notice how God is seeking to fulfill humanity’s deeper needs: for justice, for salvation, for liberation.
Now let me be clear, meeting basic needs is important, as my story with dehydration proves. In addition, the reality is that so much of the world is struggling to meet basic needs, through no fault of their own. Access to food and water are justice issues and they matter. I don’t mean to ignore those issues and subordinate them to “spiritual concerns.”
But I would argue that in this day and age, access to drinking water and healthy food, is tied to spiritual concerns that are often neglected. Case in point, what if we looked at those responsible for circumscribing and preventing others from accessing basic necessities, what would we find?
If we looked at the giant corporations that are polluting water sources, extracting water from vulnerable communities only to sell them at prices that are unaffordable to the local community and to ship them off to those who can afford them, what might we discover? If we look at politicians who believe providing free food is beyond our means, what might we discover?
It’s easy to write off those who are doing harm as simply evil whose motivations are based only on hatred and greed and don’t get me wrong, I don’t deny that those motivations do play a role in oppression. But let’s nuance the conversation a bit.
What if those causing harm, such as the corporations polluting and extracting water, and the politicians denying aid to the vulnerable, are acting not only out of greed or hatred but also out of ignorance regarding their needs? This isn’t to downplay the injustice of their actions or to give them a pass. But an awareness of the ways in which we humans misread our needs and how that impacts justice work.
For instance, one could argue that the corporations and individual politicians are ignoring the reality that we are all interdependent, and that what directly impacts one will eventually have consequences for all. The corporations that only see the need for more money and who act in ways that pollute water or makes or renders water unavailable to the majority of poor people, are either unaware or do not care that not only are their actions causing direct harm to the marginalized, but that the corporations and the individuals that benefit the most will also face the consequences for their actions.
The presidents, CEO, and high-level executives, will eventually be on the receiving end of the harm they caused. Perhaps the source of their wealth will literally dry up which will impact not only their stocks but have global ramifications that impact them and their loved ones. These corporations are ignoring a basic truth and need of humanity: our interdependence in order to fulfill their want and “need” for wealth.
The politicians who refuse to shore up a safety net to help the most vulnerable may not only find themselves out of office, since increasingly voters from across the political spectrum are finding themselves struggling to put food on the table and care for their families, but eventually the callousness and disregard for human life, will directly impact those politicians: whether it’s a loved one or friend, who finds themselves struggling, or even themselves.
In this passage, Jesus points the Samaritan woman and his disciples to look beyond their present desires and needs to something more. He encouraged them to look deeper and turn to God to fill their deeper needs: needs for God, for liberation, for eternity.
In a similar way, we humans need to look deeper than short-term wants and needs. (Though let’s be honest, many of these short-term needs are wants disguised as needs). And our inability to recognize these deeper needs often leaves us chasing solutions that only cause us and other people harm. Let’s be honest and willing to explore our deepest needs, trusting that God will help us fill them.
Image: Yellow Background. Text: Let’s be honest and willing to explore our deepest needs, trusting that God will help us fill them.