Jesus had to bring you living water.

 

Sermon for Epiphany 2, January 17, 2021

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ your Redeemer and Savior.  Amen.

John 4:4-26  ⁴He had to go through Samaria.  ⁵So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the piece of land Jacob gave to his son Joseph.  ⁶Jacob’s well was there.  Then Jesus, being tired from the journey, sat down by the well.  It was about the sixth hour.  ⁷A woman from Samaria came to draw water.  Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸(His disciples had gone into town to buy food.)  ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)  ¹⁰Jesus 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“Sir,” she said, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep.  So where do you get this living water?  ¹²You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you?  He gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his animals.”  ¹³Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty ever again.  Rather, the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water, bubbling up to eternal life.”  ¹⁵“Sir, give me this water,” the woman said to him, “so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”  ¹⁶Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband, and come back here.”  ¹⁷“I have no husband,” the woman answered.  Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say, ‘I have no husband.’  ¹⁸In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband.  What you have said is true.”  ¹⁹“Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet.  ²⁰Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews insist that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”  ²¹Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will not worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem.  ²²You Samaritans worship what you do not know.  We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.  ²³But a time is coming and now is here when the real worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for those are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.  ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”  ²⁵The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ).  “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  ²⁶Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.” (EHV)

Jesus had to bring you living water.

Dear fellow redeemed,

            It has been said that one shouldn’t major in the minors.  In other words, if you want to be successful, you should pay attention to the big picture, not all the little details.  Whether that is great advice or not, I will leave to others, but this morning, I want to concentrate especially on one supposedly inconsequential word of our text—the word “had”.  The Greek word is likewise very short, and its literal translation is “it was necessary.”

John tells us that Jesus “had to go through Samaria.”  Of course, it is not as if there was only one option to go from Judea to Galilee.  There were at least two other roads more popular among Jewish travelers.  Some commentators skip over this little word assuming that John just meant that Jesus chose the shorter route, but I seriously doubt that the Father felt it necessary for Jesus to take this path simply to save time.  Instead, it was necessary for Jesus to go through Samaria because His Father wanted to save people.  Likewise, to save, Jesus had to bring you living water.

In that little city of Samaria, God saw people loosely descended from Abraham who had been misled and mistreated for centuries.  At the same time, they too had mistreated their cousins to the south, so the animosity between Jew and Samaritan was part of a longstanding conflict.

Specifically for us, Jesus went to Sychar in Samaria purposely to meet a woman who was troubled by isolation from her neighbors, the pain of numerous failed relationships, perhaps some discrimination, and especially, guilt.

Jesus met that woman at the sixth hour of the day.  Depending on whether John is using Jewish or Roman time, it was either noon or 6:00 in the evening.  In either case, it would be unusual for a woman to fetch water at that time of day.  More typically, the women of the village gathered there in the morning to supply their families’ needs, to visit, and to learn the latest news.  This woman came alone.  Either she was shunned by the other women, or she wasn’t comfortable around them.

We don’t know her full story, but for anyone to have five failed marriages, there must be a story.  It is unlikely that she was widowed five times, but if that were the case, her neighbors may have considered her cursed.  Since that isn’t mentioned, was she hard to live with?  Was she bad at picking men?  Was she what some might ungraciously call a harlot?  While we cannot answer the questions, it is obvious that she was hurting, and Jesus knew it.  Therefore, in God’s great love for her and for us, Jesus had to come to her with a message of hope.

As the woman approached the well, Jesus asked her for a drink.  Seems like a simple request, but she was taken aback.  She was surprised most of all because a Jew was asking a Samaritan for help.  Nine hundred years of conflict between two cultures will do that.  The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 

As He responded, Jesus gently rebuked her, not because she didn’t give Him the water, but because she didn’t ask Him for something much better.  You can almost imagine the perplexity on her face when she heard Jesus say, “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.” 

Part of me really wants to know that woman’s story.  She didn’t want to speak with a stranger, but here she found herself in the strangest conversation.  Who was this Man?  And what is living water?  She thought the situation was ludicrous.  “Sir,” she said, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep.  So where do you get this living water?  You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you?  He gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his animals.” 

From this little exchange, we see how much things haven’t changed.  Like that woman, no one expects to meet a Man like Jesus.  Furthermore, no one can imagine something better than what we see in the world around us.  Once, you and I were just as lost and sorrowful as she, until Jesus brought us living water.

Like that Samaritan woman, we were born not knowing Jesus or His Father.  Like her, we all live in a world troubled with prejudice, broken relationships, political upheaval, wars and rumors of wars, and neighbors blacklisting (or we might say, cancelling) those they look down on or oppose.  How many of us have hurt almost more than we could bear?  How many of us have felt all alone in the world?  Yet, like that Samaritan woman, without Jesus’ guidance, we still wouldn’t understand when Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty ever again.  Rather, the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water, bubbling up to eternal life.”  “Sir, give me this water,” the woman said to him, “so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 

We live in a broken world.  We sin.  We shame ourselves with the lack of love that is so prevalent in our lives.  On our own, we cannot imagine something more than what this world offers, but Jesus came to be the cure that brings life.  What is the gift of God and the living water Jesus promised?  The letter to the Ephesians tells us, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)  Jesus was leading her to eternal life and salvation by faith.  He was offering her hope that far surpasses any riches or troubles we might have here on earth.  It is the same hope He offers to us through Baptism and hearing the Gospel.  Yes, so you could have hope in any trouble, Jesus had to bring you living water. 

The woman wasn’t convinced yet, but Jesus knew her weak spot.  Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband, and come back here.”  “I have no husband,” the woman answered.  Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say, ‘I have no husband.’  In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband.  What you have said is true.”  Jesus had to confront the source of her sorrow.  Sin was ruining her life—her sin and the sins of the men around her. 

Like so often happens with us, when confronted with our sins, our defenses spring up in defiance.  “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet.  Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews insist that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”  When confronted, people often deflect the accusation.  Call her a sinner!  She was worshipping as her forefathers had taught her!  Trouble is, they were all worshipping a mixture of false gods and ideas.  Now, for the cure.

Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will not worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem.  You Samaritans worship what you do not know.  We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.  But a time is coming and now is here when the real worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for those are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”  The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ).  “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”

Long standing error had left the Samaritans with only a glimmer of the truth.  They knew a Messiah was coming, but not much more.  Still, for her, there was a glimmer of hope.  Jesus spent two days at the little town.  She went boldly to those who she formerly avoided, told them what she had seen, and asked them to help her understand.  Thus, Jesus could tell a whole town about the love of God which He was living and giving to the world.

True worship isn’t in Jerusalem or any man-made temple.  It isn’t in making the right sacrifices while performing the perfect ceremony.  True worship is trusting the truth of God as the Holy Spirit has given it.  True worship is knowing Jesus, and believing that He lived for us, died for us, rose on the third day, and ascended to heaven to live and reign for us for all the time this world is allowed to last.  True worship is trusting that Jesus has done everything needed to reconcile you with God in heaven.  True worship doesn’t look for salvation on earth but in the sacrifice Jesus made so that we can live with Him forever above.  True worship is knowing that Jesus and the Father are One, and that their love has set us free from sin, death, and the devil.

Dear friends, while we were lost in the sins of our forefather, Adam, we didn’t know Jesus and couldn’t find God.  Any worship we might have imagined would only have left us in torment.  But, the Father saw that it was necessary for Jesus to come to us, so for you and me, Jesus gave His life as the perfect sacrifice for your sins and mine.  Then, when all things were finished for our redemption, Jesus returned to His Father’s side, and together, they sent the Holy Spirit so that we could worship in spirit and truth.  He gave us His Word so that we could know our sins but learn how Jesus has set us free.  He came to us, personally, in His message of grace and in Baptism so that we wouldn’t be wandering in darkness while covered in shame.  Through disciples who told us the Good News, Jesus gave us living water, a Spirit-given faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior and Redeemer, and a spiritual life that will never end.  Give thanks to the Triune God, for Jesus has brought you living water.  Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.