The cleansing touch of 'living waters'
For the Lesson titled “Everlasting Punishment” from October 28 - November 3, 2013
You might say that the title of this week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson, “Everlasting Punishment,” is a hot topic! At least it is for those who fear fire and brimstone at a final judgment. But will God at any point cast off His own children? No, answers Christian Science—God and the real man are inseparable. No matter how far we may feel we’ve fallen from God, good, we can leave behind that clinging sense of sin and be assured that “the eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27 , Golden Text).
Mary Baker Eddy writes in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “The design of Love is to reform the sinner” (p. 35
, citation 14). The Christ is the catalyst of that reform: “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”
(I John 2:1
, cit. 6). “Advocate” (paraklētos in Greek, translated “comforter” in the Gospel of John) means “defender” or “one who pleads another’s cause.” The Christ is our powerful ally, whose healing touch reaches all. The stories in this Lesson of the Samaritan woman at the well and the man at the pool of Bethesda prove that “Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals” (Science and Health, p. 13
, cit. 17).
The Samaritan woman was taken aback when Jesus spoke to her (see John 4, cit. 13). Not only was it taboo for him to talk with an unknown woman, but there was a schism between the Jews and the Samaritans in spite of their ancestral bonds. The Samaritans maintained that God had chosen Mount Gerizim as His holy place, and they had built a shrine there, but the Jews destroyed it, fiercely claiming that only Jerusalem could have a temple. Jesus’ answer? We must worship God “in spirit and in truth” (verse 24 ), not at a particular place.
The woman was attentive, receptive, and eager to receive Jesus’ “living water.” When Jesus accurately described her personal circumstances (see verse 18 ), the woman, remarkably conversant on theological points, grasped his spiritual authority, left her water pot, and became a witness to the Christ (see verses 28 and 29 ). According to Eastern Orthodox tradition, her name was Phōteinē, “the enlightened one,” and she and her children continued a life of evangelism.
The man at the pool of Bethesda (see John 5:2–9 , cit. 15), on the other hand, seemed dulled by his circumstances. He complained and gave excuses as he waited hopelessly for his turn in the troubled (stirred up) water. Yet obedience to Jesus’ command brought him immediate healing, and with it, the freedom to leave his old life and enter the temple.
So what kind of water appeals to you—living water or troubled water?
Like the man at the pool and the woman at the well, we can leave the past behind and drink the “living waters” of Christ that quench the fires of sin. We’ll learn that “this process of higher spiritual understanding improves mankind until error disappears, and nothing is left which deserves to perish or to be punished” (Science and Health, p. 251 , cit. 25).
