Sermon Tone Analysis

“Will you give me a drink?”

It’s a simple question isn’t it?

But on the lips of Jesus it changes to life of not only the woman he is speaking to, but also her community.

I think Jesus is modelling for us a way of interacting with people who don’t yet follow Him.

This morning I’d like to share with you some observations from this question Jesus asks that I think will help us live out the second principle of PLAN A, “Knowing Others”.

But before I get to that, let me catch you up on what is happening in case you’ve missed the last couple of weeks.

We have started a series called “PLAN A: The Great Commission for Every Christian”.

This series unpacks five principles that we can think about to help us share our faith in our every day life.

The five principles are “Growing, Knowing, Sowing, Rowing and Showing Up”

“Growing as disciples of Jesus”

“Knowing Others”

“Sowing Seeds in Conversation”

“Rowing together”

And “Showing Up and depending on Jesus”

Last week we thought through the principle “Growing as Disciples”

Today we are looking at the second principle of “PLAN A” “knowing”.

“Knowing others, being relational”.

This is the principle where we think about how we form relationships with people who don’t yet know Jesus.

Because if we are going to be disciples who make disciples, then we need to know people who don’t yet know Jesus.

And I think we can learn a lot about how to relate to others from Jesus’ asking for a drink of water.

“Will you give me a drink?”

The first observation is that it’s no accident Jesus is speaking to the Samaritan woman.

He’s intentionally sought out this interaction.

Jesus doesn’t accidentally end up in Samaria.

Jesus doesn’t get lost and finds himself in Samaria.

Jesus doesn’t get kidnapped and taken to Samaria.

John tells us Jesus has to go through Samaria.

He’s intentional about where he is going and why.

John 4:4 Says “ now he had to go through Samaria”.

And this interesting because Jesus didn’t have to go through Samaria at all.

Jesus has been down south in a region called “Judea” and he wants to travel north to a region called “Galilee”.

In the middle of the two is a region called Samaria.

Now many Jews avoided Samaria, they travelled around the region.

They would go to the extent of crossing the Jordan river and going up on the oppossite side and then crossing back into Galilee.

As John points out in v 9 the Jews did not associate with the Samaritans.

The Samaritans as a people group shared a blood line with the Jews, They both go back to having Abraham as their father, but over the centuries and largely as a result of being the victims of conquest the Samaritans had mixed with other peoples and religions, so the Jews considered them half-breeds and apostates.

There is even a history of bloodshed between the Jews and the Samaritans and in Jesus’ day a smouldering tension still existed between the two.

So the Jews avoided the Samaritans wherever possible.

Yet John tells us Jesus “Has to go through Samaria”.

Jesus is intentional about where he goes.

Which leads me to ask: How intentional are we about where we go?

Because if we are hoping to accidentally form relationships with people who don’t know Jesus, it’s unlikely to happen.

Are we following the same old routes around where the people are?

If we aren’t intentional, if we keep following the same old road, we will miss those opportunities to build relationships with people don’t yet know Jesus.

We need to intentionally take the path that will lead us to relationships with people who don’t yet know Jesus.

Because when we stop being intentional, we lose our relationships with people who don’t yet follow Jesus.

There are some statistics which say that it takes five years for a Christian to lose meaningful relationships with non-Christians.

It’s easy to understand why this happens.

You get invovled in the local sports club when you are younger but over time you have a family and get to busy.

You are invovled in the P & C or the tuckshop and then your kids grow up and life moves on and you no longer see those parents from the local school.

But church provides some consistency.

Even if things are changing at work or in your neighbourhood, you see the same people at church every week and over years form close friendships with Christians.

This is a wonderful thing and we want to encourage that.

One of the joys of following Jesus is the community we do life with.

But it does mean if we want to form relationships with people who don’t yet follow Jesus then we need to be intentional about it, because the natural pull of our lives is in towards the church.

They are “our people” those we are most comfortable with.

So keep coming back to this question “do I really know anyone who does’t know Jesus?”

And if the answer is no “how I can be intentional about starting to get to know someone?”

Jesus asked a woman of Samaria “Will you give me a drink?”

The second observation I’d like to make is that Jesus intentionally seeks out people who are different to him.

By going to Samaria Jesus is seeking out people who are ethnically and religiously different to him.

By speaking to a woman Jesus is crossing gender boundaries as well.

In that culture this was a big deal, intentionally engaging with a woman who was not part of his family wasn’t the done thing.

But Jesus is also crossing social class.

Jesus is a rabbi with a following.

We learn that this woman has been married 5 times.

We aren’t sure of the reason, but it seems she’s vulnerable, that she’s been mistreated by men.

And there is something about her being at the well in the middle of the day.

We know in that culture that women came to the well in groups either in the morning or in the evening in the cool of the day.

By coming to the well in the middle of the day on her own, it seems to speak about her social status - she’s an outsider, she doesn’t quite belong.

So Jesus crosses nearly every barrier you can think of in order to speak to the woman at the well.

How do we go at crossing barriers?

How do we go at relating to people who are different to us?

Even taking the gospel to people who might traditionally be our enemy or people we have been warned about.

And as the face of Australia changes, we need to be prepared to do the same thing.

As our work places diversify we need to be willing to connect with people who are different to us.

It’s comfortable to be with people who look like us and think like us, but we need to push ourselves to reach across boundaries.

To be willing to spend time with people who are different to us.

To hear their stories and celebrate their culture.

I recognise that this may be uncomfortable.

We can see in this story that when the disciples return from the village and find Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman they are “surprised”.

I can only imagine it was awkward.

Crossing barriers can make us feel uncomfortable.

When I speak with the Sikh wearing a turban, or engage with a person who obviously has an African heritage, the Hindu vegitarian, the Muslim or someone who is blantantly “different” it can be difficult.

I am more comfortable with those who are like me.

Just this week I spoke at length with a Sikh soldier.

And while I enjoyed the interaction and was there as the senior person providing advice I was also conscious of the differences and the need to be respectful of his faith.

I was in fact able to draw on my knowledge of his beliefs to direct his thinking whilst also drawing on some similarities with Christianity to hopefully expand his understanding.

He being a Sikh actually made it easier for me because they have a great respect for religious teachers.

He wanted to engage with me.

But the fact remains, I have to work a lot harder engaging him than I do with the other men in this church at breakfast on Saturday.

They are my people.

Jesus asked the Samaritian woman, a person who was vulnerable and socially outcast, “Will you give me a drink?”

My third observation is that by asking for help, Jesus is treating the woman with dignity.

Kenneth Bailey is a scholar who lived in the Middle East and he points out that when Jesus asks for help he blesses the woman.

Because in that culture, it’s only the strong who are able to give to others.

Jesus affirms the dignity of the woman he is speaking to, by lifting her up and lowering himself.

How much of our evangelism looks like this?

Being vulnerable?

Looking for the strengths of others to allow them to bless us?