It was July 30, 1945, near the end of the Second World War, when the American battle cruiser USS Indianapolis was struck by a Japanese torpedo and sank within twelve minutes. About 1,200 men had been on board. Around 300 went down with the ship, and roughly 900 were left floating in the waters of the Pacific. For four days they drifted under the burning sun with no food, no water, and very little hope. When rescuers finally arrived, only 316 were still alive.
One of them, the ship’s senior medical officer, Captain Lewis Haynes, later described what he saw. “There was nothing I could do but try to keep the men from drinking the water. The sun was so hot and the ocean so clear, it looked good enough to drink. But when the young ones lost hope, they would drink the salt water, and they would go fast.”
Those who gave in and drank the salt water became delirious, then violent, and finally died. They thought it would satisfy them, but it only made their thirst worse.
It is hard to imagine that kind of thirst. Everywhere they looked there was water, but not a drop that could help them. And yet, in a very real way, that is what happens to countless souls in our world today. People are drinking deeply of everything this world offers, but they are still thirsty.
We are surrounded by abundance. Clean water flows from our taps. Food is easy to find. Life seems full of things that should satisfy us. But beneath the surface there is another kind of thirst that no amount of comfort or success can quench. God has placed in every human heart a longing meant to draw us to Him. It is a thirst of the soul, and if we ignore it, it will eventually destroy us.
That is the lesson we see in John 4, when Jesus meets a woman beside a well in Samaria.
Tired from His journey, Jesus sat down by a well around noon (John 4:6). A woman from the city came to draw water. It was unusual for someone to come alone at the hottest part of the day, but this woman was an outcast even among her own people. She had been married five times and was now living with a man who was not her husband. She came to the well at a time when no one else would be there. And yet that day she met the Savior.
When Jesus asked her for a drink, she was surprised: “How is it that You, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (John 4:9). Jesus used that moment to reveal her deeper need. He told her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water” (John 4:10).
At first she misunderstood. She thought He was talking about the water in the well. But Jesus made it clear: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:13–14).
Jesus was speaking about the life that only He can give: the life that satisfies the soul.
Just as the sailors thought salt water would quench their thirst, this woman had been drinking spiritual salt water all her life. She had been trying to satisfy her heart through relationships, but none of them could fill the emptiness inside. When Jesus told her, “Go call your husband,” He was not trying to shame her. He was showing her the truth. She had been looking in the wrong places for what only God could give.
That is what sin does to all of us. It convinces us that the things of this world, can meet the deepest needs of our hearts. But no matter how much we drink from those sources, they only leave us thirstier than before.
People today still drink from the same salt water. Some turn to money and possessions. Others to entertainment, approval, or pleasure. Some try to fill the void with work, with image, or endless distraction. All of it promises refreshment, but none of it truly satisfies. It looks clear and inviting, but it cannot give life.
Jesus said, “Whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst.” The living water He offers is not temporary satisfaction. It is eternal life. It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God that renews and sustains the soul. When we come to Christ in faith, He places within us “a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
To drink that water is to receive what only He can give. It means admitting that our own wells have run dry and that our best efforts to fill the void have failed. It means believing that Jesus is the Son of God and that only in Him can we find life. The gospel of John was written for that very reason, “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). This is the greatest truth in the universe. Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and through Him we can have life.
Another thing that makes this account in John 4 so remarkable is who He chose to reveal this truth to. He did not first make this declaration to a ruler, a scholar, or a religious leader. He spoke it to a Samaritan woman, a person others had written off, someone the world would have overlooked.
That is what grace looks like. Jesus meets people where they are. He met her at the well, and He still meets people the same way. He still offers living water to anyone who will ask. He still calls us to turn away from the salt water of this world and come to Him for true life.
In John 7:37–38, Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”
That is the invitation of the gospel. The world offers many things that seem to bring life, but they cannot. Only Jesus gives the living water that truly satisfies. Only He can quench the thirst of the human soul.
What He said to the woman at the well, He says to us, “If you knew the gift of God, you would have asked, and He would have given you living water.” The gift is still being offered. The fountain is still open. Each of us must decide what water we will drink. The salt water of the world, or the living water of Christ which gives life forever.