Jesus had to go through Samaria. He came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, which was near the land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus was tired from his journey, so he sat down at the well. It was about noon.
A Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water to drink.” His disciples had gone into the city to buy him some food.
The Samaritan woman asked, “Why do you, a Jewish man, ask for something to drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each other.)
Jesus responded, “If you recognized God’s gift and who is saying to you, ‘Give me some water to drink,’ you would be asking him and he would give you living water.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket and the well is deep. Where would you get this living water? You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave this well to us, and he drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks from the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles up into eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will never be thirsty and will never need to come here to draw water!”
Jesus said to her, “Go, get your husband, and come back here.”
The woman replied, “I don’t have a husband.”
“You are right to say, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus answered. “You’ve had five husbands, and the man you are with now isn’t your husband. You’ve spoken the truth.”
The woman said, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you and your people say that it is necessary to worship in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you and your people will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You and your people worship what you don’t know; we worship what we know because salvation is from the Jews. But the time is coming—and is here!—when true worshippers will worship in spirit and truth. The Father looks for those who worship him this way. God is spirit, and it is necessary to worship God in spirit and truth.”
The woman said, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one who is called the Christ. When he comes, he will teach everything to us.”
Jesus said to her, “I Am—the one who speaks with you.”
Just then, Jesus’ disciples arrived and were shocked that he was talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” The woman put down her water jar and went into the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who has told me everything I’ve done! Could this man be the Christ?” They left the city and were on their way to see Jesus.
In the meantime the disciples spoke to Jesus, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
Jesus said to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”
The disciples asked each other, “Has someone brought him food?”
Jesus said to them, “I am fed by doing the will of the one who sent me and by completing his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘Four more months and then it’s time for harvest’? Look, I tell you: open your eyes and notice that the fields are already ripe for the harvest. Those who harvest are receiving their pay and gathering fruit for eternal life so that those who sow and those who harvest can celebrate together. This is a true saying, that one sows and another harvests. I have sent you to harvest what you didn’t work hard for; others worked hard, and you will share in their hard work.”
Many Samaritans in that city believed in Jesus because of the woman’s word when she testified, “He told me everything I’ve ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. Many more believed because of his word, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is truly the savior of the world.” (John 4:1-42, CEB)
Water. A drink of water. That’s how it all started. A drink of water. That’s it. One simple request for a drink of water. That’s how my life changed in a moment.
Has that ever happened to you? One day, as you’re going along and everything, finally, seems like it’s going well. And, then, something happens to change your life. Dramatically.
In the past, this has usually happened when my husband has announced that he’s divorcing me. This has happened to me five times. My existence as a woman in my world is precarious. My entire worth is wrapped around whether or not I can bear children. I’m unable to have children. Or, I’m barren, as they like to say. (I hate that word because it makes it sound as though I’m completely empty inside--like I am nothing because I can’t have a child.) Five times my husbands have divorced me. Five times.
As a single woman in my world, I am nothing. Even if I’d been widowed, I’d at least have some place in our society, some status. But, the fact that I’m female, divorced, and have no children, well that puts me at the bottom of our world. Abandoned property. Nothing.
That day, the day my life changed, I had gone to the well to get water. I was there later than usual. I’d been busy doing things in my household. So, it was near midday and very hot when I finally got to the well, to Jacob’s Well.
You remember that well, don’t you? It was the well where Jacob met Rachel. There’s a significance to this well and to all wells in my culture. It has traditionally been where we’ve been courted. A place where, especially as young girls collecting water, we’ve been able to meet men, potential suitors, future husbands. I’d met some of my husbands at a well.
That day, as I was preparing to draw water, a man came up to me at Jacob’s Well. By this time of day, most men would be working in the fields or tending animals. So, I didn’t expect to see any man there. And I certainly didn’t expect any man to speak to me, much less a Jew.
In my world this was not proper. A woman didn’t speak to a strange man. And a Samaritan woman, like I was, certainly never spoke to a Jewish man or the other way around. You see there was a long history between our people--the Israelites and the Samaritans. Even though we were both descended from Joseph, the Jews considered us half-breeds, below them.
We had other differences, too. Perhaps, the biggest one was where to worship. The Jews insisted the only holy place to worship Yahweh was the temple in Jerusalem. We believed it was Mount Gerizim, the place where Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac.
So, when this man, this Jew, asked me, a Samaritan woman for a drink of water at the well, I was stunned. I probably should have gathered my bucket and run away. Instead, I spoke to him. I even surprised myself that I spoke to him. I asked him how he, a Jewish man, could ask me, a Samaritan woman, for something to drink.
What he said back confused me. Living water? He said that if I recognized who was asking for water to drink that I would be asking for water. For living water. I was so confused. I asked him what he meant.
Then, he said something that was almost silly. He said that anyone who would drink the water from this well--from Jacob’s well--would be thirsty again. But that, if one would drink the water he gave--that living water--they would never thirst again. How ridiculous that was! To think that one would never again be thirsty. So, it was with some sarcasm that I said to him, “Give me some of that water. I never want to be thirsty again.”
He responded, telling me to go get my husband. I said I didn’t have one. I didn’t. I was not married to the man I was living with because we were unable to be married. Then, this man, this Jew, told me my own history--the history of my five husbands. And of my current situation. He knew who I was. And, then, I knew who he was.
He was a prophet. He had to be a prophet to know those things about me. So, then, I asked him a question about worship. About whether we, Samaritans, were right about where to worship. Or whether the Jews were right.
And, then, he told me about a future time. A time when we would not worship Yahweh on a mountain or in Jerusalem. But in spirit. In our hearts. In truth. That this time was coming near.
I thought he was talking about the promised Messiah. The one to come. The Christ. So, I said that to him--that when he, the Christ, comes, he will teach us everything. Everything we need to know.
Then, this man, this Jewish man, said, “I am.”
I am. Do you remember those words? You know the Hebrew scriptures, don’t you? I am. Those were the words Yahweh said to Moses, when Moses asked who Yahweh was. I am.
“Could it be?” I thought. “Could it be that this man, this Jewish man, this prophet--could he be the Messiah? The Christ? Could it be?”
It was then that several men joined us. I know now they were his followers. I knew they were shocked that he was speaking to me. It was obvious on their faces. So, I put down my jar and I went back to my village. I thought that was the best thing to do. Besides, I wanted to tell others about this man I had met at the well, at our watering place. I wanted to tell them to come and see. That this man had told me everything that had happened in my life. That they needed to come and see--to see if this was the Christ, the promised One.
Many returned with me to the well. He and his followers were still there. So, we asked him to stay with us. To come with us back to our village. To tell us more. They did. They stayed with us two days.
And in that two days, we began to understand and to believe that this man was the Messiah. That he had come. To save us. To save all of us. The whole world.
A drink of water. That’s how it started. A drink of living water. From that moment on, I was no longer on the outside of society. None of us were. That’s what happens when we receive the living water that Christ gives us.
You have that living water here. In your baptism. With the water and with God’s Word, you are no longer on the outside, no longer alone. You are welcomed into relationship. Into relationship with God. Into relationship with each other. Into relationship with all believers so that you might invite all others into relationship. All those who, like I was, were on that edge of the world, on the margin of society. All those who are different from us, those with whom we disagree, those whom we hate, those who we think are less than we are. All others.
God--Yahweh--welcomes all of us into relationship. Here. Through this living water of baptism.
So, drink. Drink. Drink of this living water. Be filled. May your thirst be quenched forever. May your life be changed as mine was changed. Amen.
Preached March 19, 2017 at Grace and Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.
Third Sunday in Lent.
Readings: Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11, John 4:1-42.
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