Hydrate: For Mission (John 4:27-38)

A riot over free stuff

A few weeks ago, a popular social media personality in New York City named Kai Cenat offered to give away computers, gaming consoles, microphones and video monitors. At 4 o’clock in the afternoon in a city park. Thousands turned up to win the free gaming system and a riot broke out. The social media influencer was arrested for inciting a riot for using his social media platform to encourage people to show up and go crazy. Many had no idea who he was, except for the thousands who showed because they are part of the millions who watch him on social media. Giving away free stuff. And everybody shows up.

Giving away free Play Stations can create a crowd. Almost 2000 years ago, at a well just outside of a small town in Israel, a young rabbi is giving away free stuff and the whole town shows up. The free stuff is not a Play Station. In fact, it is something you cannot touch. Jesus was giving away Living Water. And everyone wanted some.

Over the past few weeks we have been talking about water. Living water. Today we finish the Hydrate series with one question: So what? What does Jesus being the Living Water have to do with anything other than being Living Water for me and my spiritual thirst? We’ve considered the story of the woman at the well on more than one occasion here at The Table. In fact, Pastor Ruben spent some time with this story when he was here earlier this year. But we’re going to look a little closer at what happened after the conversation Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at the well.

Jesus at Jacob’s Well

Our story this morning begins much earlier in the fourth chapter of the gospel of John. Jesus and his followers have decided to make the journey to Galilee, which is a few days walk north from Jerusalem. The most direct route to Galilee was through a region known as Samaria. But because the Jews and Samaritans hated each other, most Jews would cross the Jordan river to the east and go around Samaria. John 4 tells us that Jesus makes a conscious decision to go through Samaria. He and his followers end up in a town called Sychar, and while they go into town to buy food, Jesus strikes up a conversation with a woman at a well.

This conversation is worth noting for more than one reason. Jesus is talking with a Samaritan, considered by Jews to be less than dogs. He is talking with a woman in public, and for many Jews that was a no-no (and this comes up in our gospel text this morning). And, Jesus apparently has struck up a conversation with a Samaritan woman who is a bit of a town sinner. She does not have the best of reputations.

Jesus tells this woman that he has living water to offer her, water, if she drinks it… will make her never thirsty again. And he concludes the conversation by telling her that He indeed, is the Messiah, the champion that God had promised to Israel in the Old Testament. The entire conversation is remarkable.

And then the disciples show up. And they are apparently surprised that he is talking to a woman… which may be a bit of a jolt to us in the West because we would have expected the issue to be the fact that she is a Samaritan. But they are amazed he is talking with a woman. The woman runs off to town to tell her friends about Jesus, and Jesus is left with his followers and they get in a discussion about food. And sowing and reaping. And then the townspeople show up and they not only believe Jesus to be the Messiah, they talk him into staying with them a few extra days. In Samaria… a place where no good Jew would ever go.

That's the story. It would be very easy to focus in on the fact that Jesus spends his time in conversation with a woman who is at the bottom of society. And so we should be like Jesus. But I don't think John, who is writing this down for us, would have us do that. That's in this story… yes… this Samaritan woman at the well is not in the upper crust. She is a sinner, a Samaritan, a woman… but this is only part of the story… playing into a larger story that we must see.

Jesus is Living Water

This story, like all of the other stories in the first four books of the New Testament, is not about the woman it's about Jesus. It's about Living Water. Jesus stops at a well. Meets a woman who is there to get water, and he says:

John 4:13-14 “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.”

This story is about the Living Water found only in Jesus. The life that He is offering and giving through Himself. Living Water. The Promised One of the Old Testament, Israel's champion, has life to give to those who believe. The Living Water is Jesus himself.

We get to our passage and we are told that "the woman left her water jar." This woman knows. The water in her jar cannot save. That jar cannot help. That water and that jar can only give temporary satisfaction. That jar is nothing to be compared to the One who is there spending time with the outcast. That jar can only provide life for so long and then it is done. It has to be filled again, or death is around the corner. She left her water jar because it cannot save her from herself and her sin and her past. She has found hope in Living Water from Jesus.

The woman leaves her water jar not to save herself, though. She runs to town and on her lips is the gospel.

Come, see a man… Could this be the Messiah?

Come and see the one who has forgiven me my past… he told me everything I ever did and he still talked to me. He still offered me Living Water. He still gives grace. Come and See. Come and see the One who is the Promised champion of the Old Testament. She isn't interested in saving herself… she wants others to experience the same grace that she has experienced.

And so here come the townspeople. And while these people from the town of Sychar are just showing up on the horizon, Jesus tells his disciples to lift up their eyes, look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest. This is why Jesus shows up to Sychar. This is why he decides to go through enemy territory. It's harvest time. It's time to bring eternal life to the Samaritans. Those who were worse than dogs. This is Christ's harvest fueled by Living Water… he came for this woman and these people. Living Water isn’t just for the woman at the well. They all want this Living Water. This Living Water is for the world.

John has a couple of fascinating details that he wants us to see. First, he says,

John 4:39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of what the woman said.

This story is a story of mission. Living water is on mission. This woman can’t keep the Living Water to herself. She’s not the only outcast. The entire town is Samaritan. The Living Water is for them. Many believed because of the gospel on her lips. But that’s not all. Jesus ends up staying two days with this town and here’s what John says:

John 4:41 Many more believed because of what Jesus said.

Many believed because of what the woman said. Many more believed because of what Jesus said. What we’re supposed to see here is that it’s Christ’s Word that gives life. Jesus gives us Himself, the Living Water, through His Word. When it is preached. When it is received in the Sacrament. Jesus is the Living Water for the woman, and now he is Living Water for the town, they have come right to the source. The Gospel isn’t simply being spoken by the woman but by the entire town:

John 4:42 “We have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.”

The Living Water is Living Water for the world. The whole world. Remember the passage we read in Ezekiel?

Ezekiel 47:8-9 “This water flows out...When it enters the sea, the sea of foul water, the water of the sea becomes fresh...Since the water will become fresh, there will be life everywhere the river goes.”

Life. Everywhere the river goes. There we have the picture of a river flowing from a temple that brings life to the whole world. That River is Jesus himself. It is not confined to Jerusalem or any one place. And that day, Jesus is offering Living Water for the world. From this well, from this conversation, thousands, millions, billions drink from Living Water flowing throughout the World wherever the Gospel is preached. The entire world is Hydrated with Jesus wherever His death is proclaimed. As Living Water, Jesus is the Savior of the whole world.

We are the Samaritan woman

That Living Water flows to and for Los Fresnos. And like those Samaritans who are outcasts, the Living Water flows among the unlovely. Living Water is for us. Salvation is for us. You see, we are the Samaritan woman. We are the townspeople. We are those who do not deserve grace. Do not deserve salvation. We are those who spend our lives in an endless pursuit of tap water that quenches thirst only for a moment, but cannot satisfy the deepest thirsts of our existence.

And Jesus comes to our town. For us. Jesus dies for us. Jesus rises for us. At the cross, Jesus offers us Living Water. He offers us Life. He offers us Himself. We are the outcast. We are the sinner. We are those who have no hope unless Jesus comes to our town and gives us Living Water that always satisfies, all of the time. We must have Jesus come to our well and meet us in our sin and give us the Living Water we need.

Come and see Jesus

But this story is also about something else. The woman left her water jar and went into town and told the people, “Come, see a man… could this be the Messiah?”

It would be very easy to miss this. Jesus makes a point to come to this town. He gives a woman at the well Good News. And the very next thing you know, this woman is ditching her jar to go tell others the Good News. This woman is mimicking Jesus. What Jesus has done for her, she is doing for others. Jesus has been on mission and now this woman is on mission. This woman was the harvest Jesus came to town for… the townspeople are the harvest the woman went to town for. And when Jesus says, open your eyes and see the harvest, he is telling his followers to see the same thing that he and this woman see. People who need connected to Jesus.

As the result of this woman’s Good News that she has found Living Water in Jesus, many in her town put their faith in Jesus. She came to know Jesus’s grace. She wanted others to experience that same grace. “Come, see a man who knows me and yet forgives me.”

This is us. In Los Fresnos. We have been loved by Jesus for the purposes of loving Los Fresnos. What has happened to us, we want for our neighbor. Jesus has given us Living Water. It’s free. We don’t do anything to deserve it. In fact, we can’t. We are Samaritans. We are the outcasts who could never live up to God’s expectations. So Jesus forgives us our sins. He gives us His grace. And because we’ve been given grace, we want others to know that grace too.

This is our story of mission. Jesus is the Living Water that we offer. Just as the woman mimicks Jesus and His mission, so we mimick his mission. We tell our neighbors “Come and See a man who knows me and yet forgives me.”

This woman came to know the grace of Jesus because Jesus had a conversation with her. Connecting people to Jesus here in Los Fresnos doesn’t involve fancy invitations. It doesn’t involve an education program. It’s just a conversation with our neighbor. Again. And again. Conversations at the wells of people’s lives. Where we work, live, learn, and play. Conversations about life. About Living Water.

We have a mission. We are on mission. There is a harvest. It has already begun. It is all around us. We need only lift up our eyes to see it all around us. It’s our families. It’s our friends. It’s our neighbors. Jesus is using us to hydrate our city with Living Water: “Come, see a man who knows me and still forgives me.”

Let’s Pray.

The Table

In our story today, Jesus is again talking about food. Jesus says “His food is to do the will of him who sent me.” His food is His mission to save His people from their sins. This table is part of that mission. In this table, Jesus offers life, salvation, hope, and forgiveness. His food has become our food. And when we taste of this food, we find forgiveness… and we then take this to the world. We live lives of forgiveness for others because we have found forgiveness here. This is His food. This is our food. This is our Living Water.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24-26

“May the Lord bless you and protect you;

may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.”