"From Hardened Hearts To Living Water: Being Known By God And Learning To Worship In Spirit And Truth”

Introduction -Where the Story Begins

The Ordinary Setting

Our Gospel reading this morning begins without drama. Jesus is travelling, and he is hot and tired, and decides to stop at a well. … It is the least comfortable time of day — when the sun is high, and the shade is thin.

Weariness and Readiness

The apostle John begins this scene with weariness. Jesus was tired and thirsty. He was human after all. Yet even in his weariness he did not miss the opportunity to proclaim the Gospel. Here, in the heat of the day, when his strength was running low, he meets this woman at the well and uses that moment to share the good news.

A Request That Changes the Direction

Crossing Social Boundaries

When the woman arrived at the well, Jesus spoke first and asked for a drink. In those days this was not a small request, nor a safe one to make, because it crossed the accepted boundaries, for in that simple request, Jesus crossed three barriers at once: the barrier between Jew and Samaritan, the barrier between man and woman, and the barrier between the respectable and the outcast.

A World Not Our Own

And the woman recognises this immediately. She is not rude, but she is alert … a Jewish man openly speaking to a Samaritan woman, with a questionable reputation — simply did not happen.

From Water to Grace

Yet Jesus begins the conversation. He does not argue with her or explain the social rules. He simply continues the conversation and presses the matter further. … For this conversation is not really about water at all; it is about grace. It is not about social custom and distance, but about salvation.

Thirst That Goes Beyond Water

Beginning With the Ordinary, Thirst That Goes Beyond Water

Jesus then begins to move the conversation from the water drawn from the well to another kind of water — water that gives life. At first the woman hears Him in practical terms, and He allows her to remain there for a moment.

She is thinking about the daily task of returning to the same well again and again, because that is the reality she knows … but it is through that ordinary moment that Jesus points to a deeper thirst — the thirst that does not disappear even when our daily needs are met. … It is that deeper longing within us: the desire for a true and wholesome life; to be accepted and made right with God.

And then Jesus comes straight out with it, exposing her, he reveals that He knows the truth about her life — the parts she would rather keep hidden. Yet he does not imply that he is repulsed by her; rather, he uses her past to continue revealing his grace, because grace does not retreat from human brokenness — grace meets our frailties and disasters head on.

The Wells We Choose

This is where our passage begins to touch a nerve … because Jesus is speaking about returning to wells — the wells from which we all try to satisfy our spiritual thirst. And I am not speaking about the wells of the Church. I am speaking only about the wells we choose for ourselves: wells which are pressed upon us by society, by television, by the media, by our culture, even the wells of politics from which so many have suffered and even died.

There are many such wells from which we drink. Some we are fully aware of … others we drink from without even realising it. Television and advertising are among the most powerful of these, for they reach us when we are at rest, when our guards are down, and when we are most susceptible.

Searching and Returning

We all do this. We have all searched for different gurus, philosophies, movements, and trends — hoping for that little bit of enlightenment, a little clarity … an edge. And there is nothing inherently wrong with searching or researching, because we are, by nature, thinking beings. We are all learners — some more than others, and some of these wells are enlightening and relatively harmless … but some are not.

But all of them — all of them — promise far more than they can deliver. And I have found that whatever I have searched for, whatever I may even have agreed with, from whatever well I have drunk, I always return to the Bible and to the teachings of Jesus. And I suspect you have too … or you would not be here.

But think of the many who do not know the truth. Think of the many who never return … let alone those who deny the cross. What sustains them through life? Where are their hopes anchored? What do they do in times of distress? Where do they turn for direction?