Living Water

John 4:1-26;32-36

Hands of the Healer

Dylan fell on playground while we played volleyball.

Patched up his spouting chin with First Aid.

Rushed to ER.

Had to hold him down so the nurse could stitch him up.

Offering up his wound to the hands of the healer.

My Wounds, our Wounds

We all have our wounds, some more healed than others. Some more recent than others.

Last week, Pastor Rod read a sad and difficult announcement from me. It is a wound in my life, in the life of my family. Anna and I are getting a divorce. I apologize to anyone hearing that for the first time.

But you need to know that I come to church in brokenness, I am hurting, Anna and my kids are hurting, and I know many of you are hurting and grieving with us.

… and you may ask this: “Why is this guy preaching? He’s a mess!” And it’s true, I am a mess.

But… actually that has always been true. I have fresher wounds today, I have more obvious life disasters and challenges right now… but that has always been true. And I have always believed this:

We come broken and wounded to the healer, we come to Jesus for healing. We minister as broken and hurting people to those who are broken and hurting… and this is God’s favorite way of comforting and healing his people.

And we come to His Word to speak to us in all moments of life, and I teach and preach to you what he has been teaching and preaching to me.

And God’s timing is a ridiculous thing. That this moment would connect with John 4, one of my absolute favorite stories. This is a story I have preached many times… but its never been real like this. So please bear with me… John 4.

John 4

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria.

Explanation and geography of Samaria.

Jesus isn’t racist. He isn’t tribal-ist either. He reaches right across tribal lines, national borders, religious boundaries and, in a moment, gender lines.

5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

Noon.

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “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.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 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.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

Please give me magic water.

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

Now… about this woman. We know very little about her, but we can surmise some things that would have stood out like a signpost to the men and women in Jesus’ day.

The woman is at the well noon. This is the wrong time.

And in a moment we are going to get another hint about this woman. She has had quite a storied past. Husband after husband, five of them. And she “has” a man now… we don’t know, but we suspect. This woman has, at the very least a history of broken marriages. Maybe she was divorced by her husbands over and over. Maybe there was adultery involved? Maybe her husbands kept dying tragically… or mysteriously. How did she convince the 5th guy to marry her? No wonder dude number 6 is wary of marriage.

But this is not normal. It is scandalous. Almost ludicrously scandalous. Two or three marriages would have been scandalous, 5 is insane, and if it is an adulterous living arrangement now… this woman would not be welcome in polite society.

And so, instead of joining the community at the well in the morning, here she is, in the heat of the day, avoiding anyone and everyone.

The pain of it. The shame of it. The isolation. The loneliness.

17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 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. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

This is a HUGE reveal. To this woman. A Samaritan woman. A woman to hurting or ashamed to show her face to the rest of her community… to this woman, Jesus reveals that he is the Messiah.

Up to now he has used new terms. Son of God. Son of Man. We think of those as synonymous but those were not, at the time. People suspected, they wondered, they questioned, even Jesus’ disciples don’t know this yet.

But to this woman. Broken and dishonored, a woman who shared her truth, however partially with Jesus, Jesus shares his truth. He is the Savior.

Jesus puts his hands on the worst most painful wound in her life… but they are healing hands. It may be hard. It may hurt. But his hands are healing hands. And I am not reading into this small comment, the woman herself, in her testimony, she tells everyone how she experienced this encounter.

39-42

39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.”

Jesus spoke a very few words, exposing a very few deeds. But she felt his truth, his healing, his Living Water across everything that she’d ever done.

40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

This is indeed the Savior of the world.

Come to Jesus – the Living Water

There are be like Jesus moments… and this could be one. Jesus ministers to this woman full of grace and truth… and we could emulate that, learn from that…

But this, today, is a come-to-Jesus moment.

Meet Jesus at the well. This is worship: to encounter God. We encounter him in spirit. Our spirit with the Holy Spirit of God.

Meet Jesus at the well with your truth. This is worship. True to who you are. To what you are really going through. To what you are feeling. Bring your joy and your victory. Bring your pain and your failure.

I tell you, I am bringing mine.

Bring your heart, even your deepest wounds, your deepest shame, bring it to Jesus at the well. This is worship in truth.

And let Jesus speak to you in truth. His truth.

He is Messiah. The Anointed One of God, begotten from eternity, chosen and sent by God for the salvation of the world. For the healing of the world.

For the saving of me. For the healing of me.

Let Jesus give you Living Water… that is himself.

Calling Forward

This is a moment where I could call you forward for prayer… but I’m not going to.

Because unlike Dylan at the ER, this isn’t a one-and-done situation.

This is actually what this whole building is about… worship in spirit and truth. Come to Jesus and let the Living Water cleanse and heal your deepest wounds.

This is actually what this whole people is about. Worship in spirit and truth. Bring your deepest wounds to one another and let the Holy Spirit speak and move and heal through His people.