John 4, 5ff 2008
Lent 3
February 24, 2008
John 4: 5-26
“Water that Satisfies”
Introduction: "Nevertheless, there is reason to hope," Doctor Gomes promised. “The future is God’s gift to you. God will not let you stumble or fall. God has not brought you this far to this place to abandon you or leave you here alone and afraid. The God of Israel never stumbles, never sleeps, never goes on sabbatical. Thus, my beloved and bewildered young friends, do not be afraid.”
What Doctor Gomes did for the senior class at Harvard, Jesus does for the woman at the well.
Before we take a look at the story let me let you in on a fascinating fact. You can go to Israel today and take a journey to Samaria to the town of Sychar. A place the passage of time seems to have forgotten. Not many people live there, about 300, and they still consider themselves Samaritans.
The primary structure in town is a kind of cellar, which houses a well, the only source of water for miles. Archeologists estimate its date upwards of 4,000 years. Weary travelers have quenched their thirst there since the time of Jacob. But even more fascinating than its archeological significance is the fact that this place historically validates for us the precise location where the Samaritan woman had an encounter with the Christ. It's hard to believe but the authenticity of the well is undisputed. Samaritans, Muslims, Christians, Jews all agree that this is the place where the story took place.
It was noonday at Sychar. The disciples went on into the village—we are told—to buy food. Someone has suggested that they were seeking out the stores that gave the clergy discount. Jesus stopped at the well on the outskirts for a brief respite from the sun’s blistering rays. When a woman of the village walked up Jesus addressed her: “Woman, give me a drink.”
She was taken back that Jesus spoke to her for two reasons. First, men did not publicly speak to women. Two, she was a Samaritan and Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. They considered them unclean—— ritualistically speaking and probably in terms of personal hygiene as well. They were dogs. Thus, Jesus had crossed both a gender and a racial line by speaking to this person. She replied: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of water from me, a woman of Samaria?” Jesus ignores her question, ignores the racial issue, and gets to the heart of the matter. He said: “If you had known who was asking you for water you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” Jesus is, of course, speaking theologically, which is the only significant way to speak, but the woman cannot get beyond the literal. “Oh, go on,” she snips. “This is a deep well and you haven’t even got a bucket.
The woman appears to be poking fun at Jesus: “You have nothing to draw with and this well is deep. Just how did you suppose to drawn this living water of yours? Our father Jacob drank from this well. Do you think that you are better than he is?” You can’t miss the irony in her sarcasm. Here she is speaking to the Master of Life about depth, when her own life was so miserably shallow.
In a sudden change of direction, Jesus startles the woman and asks her to go get her husband. With this one question he has exposed her dark side. We all have a dark side. You see, by any standard of ethics this woman was living an immoral life. Of course, we already have a hint of that because she has come to the well by herself at noon. The village women come to the well together in the coolness of the morning. She does not come with them because she is not welcome.
I
The woman replies: “I have no husband.” Now listen. She’s honest. She doesn’t try to hide her immoral behavior. She owns up to it and that is the first step in finding living water for a thirsty soul. We must give an honest confession about our lives. Jesus replies: “What you say is true. You do not have a husband. You have five husbands. And the man that you are living with now is not your husband.” Note that Jesus does not shake his finger in her face and give her a lecture on what an evil person she is. Rather, he brags on her for telling the truth. I wish that we could somehow get this message across in the church. The purpose of religion is not to dwell on the bad in people, but to enhance the good in people. It is to elevate people and not pull them down. We haven’t always done a very good job of that in the church I am afraid.
But, oh boy can the truth hurt, sometimes. Even under the most liberal interpretation of the Law of Moses an individual was permitted only three divorces. But this woman had been divorced five times and in her latest relationship she hadn’t even bothered to go through the pretense of a wedding. It was just a live-in. She went around with tramps because she saw herself as a tramp. And if she had gone to the synagogue, which I am confident she never did, in her mind she would probably think that the voice of God would be saying to her what the people were thinking of her: “What are you doing her you slut. Defaming the synagogue like this.” That’s harsh language folks but it’s the unvarnished truth. That’s the way the town saw his woman.
Jesus is blunt with her. But he is a little too close to home and his penetrating observation is making her squirm. She attempts, cleverly, to change the subject. Let me give you a bit of wisdom. If you get into a conversation that is uncomfortable change the subject to something that interest your listener. That’s what this woman does. She perceives that this man is a rabbi, and what better subject to talk to a preacher about than religion. “Sir,” she says, “I perceive that you are a rabbi. Our fathers worshipped God on this mountain (Mt. Gerazim) but you Jews say that the proper place to worship God is in Jerusalem. Now who is right?” Now, let’s don’t talk about me Jesus. You just go along and let’s get caught up with some meaningless discussion on religion.
But Jesus does not play along. The time is now when God the Father will be worshipped neither in Jerusalem nor on Mt. Garazim. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. In other words, the place of worship is not as important as the integrity with which you bring to worship. If you want to talk religion, he is saying, that is fine, but the most important subject in religion is you. Can you hear Jesus saying that? You want to worship and that is good. But where you worship, on this mountain or that, in your home or in your car, in this church or that church, matters little as long as you worship in spirit and truth.
The Samaritan woman is obviously taken back by this prophetic insight. Sir, she says, I know that one day Messiah, the one who is called Christ, will come and he will tell us all things. Jesus answered:
“I who speak to you am he.”
For the first time the great messianic secret has been revealed. This is one of the most dramatic moments in Biblical history. Jesus lets his true identity be known. Look at what happens here. Does he reveal his identity to the Sanhedrin or the Jerusalem Bar? No! Does he make this pronouncement at the Temple to the priest? No! My friends this is the moment that history has been waiting for—the hopes and fears of all the years and Jesus ushers in this glad news through this gentile, this woman, this outcast among a people of outcasts.
Why did he choose her? I don’t know. The only hint is found in a single verse in the 11th chapter of Matthew. On that occasion Jesus prayed to God: “I thank you father that you have hidden these things (meaning truths) from the wise and revealed them instead to babes.” Or, as some interpretations word it, these little ones.
At this point the conversation is cut short by the disciples return. They are stunned to find Jesus talking with this Samaritan woman, but we are told that they said not a thing. It’s the only time in scripture that Peter didn’t have a comment to make. He had an opinion on everything but even he is stunned. But Jesus knows of their disapproval. How? The face tells all doesn’t it. Their lips may have been silent but their faces screamed out disapproval.
II
But not even the 12 disciples can stop the woman now. She has found what she came to the well to receive. She has found her water. Living water. She sees the truth in Jesus’ words. She sees him as Messiah. This is the second step in finding living water for a thirsty soul, recognizing and accepting Jesus' as the Messiah. Watch what the woman does. She abruptly leaves her water jar and runs back to her village to tell the people what she had experienced. You can’t evangelize and tell the story until you first believe the story. You can’t be convincing unless you are convinced. She stirs up the entire town and Jesus sees this throng of people coming and he says to the disciples: “You say that there are four months left unto harvest. I say to you lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white unto harvest.” Jesus is saying to these twelve do not draw boundaries around the kingdom of God. Don’t limit its scope. No people, no race, no gender, no sinner is exempt from God’s grace. The time is now and the people are all around.
III
And that’s the third step in finding living water for a thirsty soul. When we have filled our cups the living water spills out all around us. We bring the living water with us wherever we go. The grace we have received changes us, makes us reach out, empowers people to move beyond their normal habits.
This week I got in my car and I drove west. I drove around the school and I saw students who were playing on slides and swings, and bicycling, and walking--I saw fields that were white unto harvest. Then I drove west of the church and I saw where the poor and the marginalized of this community live and I saw fields that are black unto harvest. Why do you say that there are four months left unto harvest? I say to you that in Memphis Tennessee the fields are white and black unto harvest. Let our prayer at First church be to the Lord of the Harvest, that He sends us more laborers--people who have a passion and urgency to the Kingdom of God, people whose lives are filled with living water.
It is interesting to note that in her enthusiasm to tell her story, she lost the shame of her sin. She came to the well in solitude; she returns in congregation. She cam to the well as one disgraced; she returns as one graced!
The villagers ask Jesus if he will remain with them. Many villages in Galilee ask Jesus if he would leave, this one asks him to stay. And he did remain for several days, we are told. At the conclusion of this time the townspeople say to the woman: “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard him ourselves and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the World. It is no longer second hand; it is a firsthand witness. It is the strongest witness in the world. No one can argue against it. It is a witness that says, yes, I know that it is true because I have experienced it in my own life.
The pages of history have not changed the village of Sychar too much. At night there is still the same howling, lonely, wind that blows against the blistering sand. The well——it is still there too. There is something else that has not changed or vanished with the ages either. That is the living water that is offered to you and to me this morning. Drink from it and you shall never thirst.
After Brett Blair
