A Tale Of Two Waters

A Tale of Two Waters

John 4:6-42 (portions) {NIV}

Sermon Objective: To encourage the congregation to draw near to Christ in order to find a genuine quenching for their spiritual thirst.

Supporting Scripture: Exodus 17:1-7; 1 Corinthians 10:1-4; John 7:37-39

4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

16He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

17"I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers.

42They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."

Have you ever noticed that across the centuries people have always gathered where beverages are available? It used to be the soda shop or the malt shop. For some it’s a pub. Our generation has seen the rise of the coffee shop. They have sprouted up all over the place. Vickie and I just spent part of our vacation in New York City; we walked a lot of the West Side and were NEVER out of sight of a coffee Shop – specifically Starbucks. I could not help but notice that regardless of where we were I could look ahead, behind or down a side street and see a Starbucks green medallion somewhere. “Watering holes” are part of our lives; they are where we meet to talk light business, go on first dates, and just share in relaxing and everyday conversation.

It was not much different back in Jesus’ time. Granted, they didn’t have Starbucks but people gathered around the most basic place for refreshment, the village well. It was the town watering hole where everyone gathered two times a day, and where people lingered a bit to tell some tales, catch up on news, talk about their lives, and stay current on all the juiciest town gossip.

In our gospel reading today, we are introduced to a woman who was probably the subject of some of this town’s most infamous gossip. Needless to say, when she would show up at the well in person, a lot of conversation ceased, eyes were averted, and maybe even a few dirty looks were shot her way. Judgmentalism was high.

So eventually she gave up. She stayed home when everyone else was out, and she went out only when everyone else was home.

In the past, many have assumed that she got what she deserved. Well-intentioned preachers have chalked her up as a sleazy, sinful woman. But she may have been a victim, too. Don’t forget that in Jesus’ day, women had almost zero social standing. They certainly could not be the initiators of divorce. Only the men in her life culd do that … she wasn’t all at fault. All a man had to do was haul his wife out into the street and then say to her three times, "I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you" and that was that.