Our Potter

First, she looked at the empty water jars, then looked up at the sun. “I guess it is safe for me to leave now.” she thought. As she walked down the dusty road in the heat of the day, she reflected on how her life was like those empty water jars—old, worn and empty!

It wasn’t always like this, in her prime she was the beauty of the village! She could have any man in the village she wanted and in fact she did “have many of them.” She didn’t know why she had lived like that, she certainly was not raised that way by her parents, but she enjoyed the attention and the power she had to manipulate men. It made her feel “full,” (at least for a time). She reflected on how that too was like those water jars—easily filled and easily emptied!

“What did it matter?” she thought to herself, “Those days were long gone!” Now after five failed marriages, she was lucky she had a roof over her head. She knew Jeroboam did not love her, she was nothing more to him than a live-in maid and consort. She knew that no other man would have her, she was too old and too scandalously “sinful.” That is why she walked alone to the well in the heat of the day. It was the only way she could avoid the vicious attacks coming from the other women in the village. She couldn’t blame them, she had affairs with many of their husbands, but still their looks and especially their words hurt.

As she approached the well, she saw a lone solitary figure sitting by the well. Her first reaction was to turn away and go home, but she knew she couldn’t. What would Jeroboam do to her if he came home to discover there was no food and water waiting for him. No, she had to continue and take the abuse.

As she continued to walk, she noticed that the figure was not a woman, but a man. As she drew even closer, she could tell by the way he dressed that he was not a Samaritan, but a Jew! What was a Jew doing here? They would usually walk many extra miles just to avoid going through Samaria. At least she wouldn’t have to worry about him saying anything to her, Jews never talk to Samaritans!

As she took the jar from her head and prepared to draw water, the most amazing thing happened—he asked her for a drink!

She said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?”

He replied, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

She was both a little confused and curious by such a reply. All she could think to say was, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”

Then he said the most amazing thing to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

She was amazed by his answer, but she was not fool. She had seen her share of religious charlatans and fake Messiahs, she would call his bluff, so she said, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

Then he said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

“I got him,” she thought to herself, “he is trying to change the subject!” She confidently answered him, “I have no husband.”

Then everything began to unravel as he said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

Now the tables were turned, she was the one caught in a bluff! Trying to change the topic she said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

“That should get him,” she confidently though to herself, “Jews always love to argue about how superior their temple is.”

But once again he caught her off guard by saying to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Shaken, she said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will tell us all things.”

Looking her straight in the eye, he said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

It was at that point that everything changed, she believed! This truly was the Messiah! Looking at the jar in her hands she realized that she didn’t feel empty anymore and this time it was real! She had looked in all the wrong places, what her heart had really longed for was God and His Messiah! On the outside she may still look like an old worn out and cracked clay jar, but inside she felt young and beautiful again! She had the “treasure” of “living water” within her.

By this time the man’s disciples had come back. She knew she had to share the Good News with everyone. Leaving her water jar she ran as fast as she could back to the village and said to everyone she met, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Messiah?” The people went out of the village and came to him.

Rebellious Clay

In our reading from the prophet Isaiah we learned that God is our Potter. From the dust of the earth He made us and in our mother’s womb He formed us. Like clay in a potter’s hand He formed us according to His purposes, but we have been rebellious clay. Isaiah prophesied this concerning our rebellion:

Isaiah 29:16 ESV

You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

Like the scandalous women at the well, we have all sinned against God and “turned things upside down!”

The consequence of our sin is that we are left empty like old water jars. We were created by God, for God. As our catechism reminds us, we are created to “glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

In desperation the people Israel cried out in our Scripture reading:

Isaiah 64:8–9 ESV

But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.

The Good News of Advent is that God heard their prayers.

God with Us—Our Potter

As the Samaritan woman discovered that day, Jesus is the one our hearts have longed for all along. He is the living water our soul’s thirst for.

Isn’t it sad that this message has been lost in our modern celebration of Christmas? The message of Madison Avenue is that material things are what will satisfy the hunger and thirst of our souls. This message is so pervasive and loud that many Christians have been deceived into believing it. What a tragedy, when we live this way, we are nothing but broken and empty jars of clay.

Jesus came into this world to remake us and fill us up. In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians we find this wonderful promise:

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Baptism, which we celebrated today, is a sign and symbol of this re-creative power. Speaking to Nicodemus, Jesus said,

John 3:5–6 ESV

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

This message is too Good to keep to ourselves. Like the woman at the well we have to share it with others.

Treasure in Jars of Clay

Being “born again” does not free us from the consequences of sin in this life. As our Epistle Reading reminded us, we have “this treasure in jars of clay” and “our outer self is wasting away.” Now there is coming a day when our “outer selves” will be reborn, but that day is not in this life.

Why is this? Way does Our Potter make us wait? Our text tells us why:

2 Corinthians 4:7 ESV

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

The message about the Good News of Jesus the Messiah is a supernatural message. It is a message going to “broken and cracked pots” just like you and me. The very fact that we are broken and cracked as they are is proof that they too can be “filled with living water” just as we have! The message is not about us, it is all about Jesus and His power!

We are “the light of the world,” not by being the flame, but by being the lamp. In the ancient world, lamps were usually made of clay, shaped by the Potter’s hand to hold the oil and the flame! So, let your light shine this Advent and Christmas season by being full of the Holy Spirit and letting Christ shine through you!