Holy Water

Holy Water

John 4: 1-15 March 3, 2002

Have you ever been working in the yard on a hot summer day and find yourself almost dying of thirst… I have… I’ll never forget the day I put down sod in my front yard… It must have been 90 plus degrees that day – I had bought 3 pallets of sod and once you buy it, you’ve only got about 3 days to lay it before it starts turning brown & dying…

I was determined to get through that afternoon so I was working like mad… but I was working so fast & so hard that I wore myself tired… I knew I needed to stop & rest & cool off with a few glasses of water, but I didn’t have time to stop for that – I had work to do…

So I continued working until I started seeing these little monkeys flying around – I’m serious… When you start seeing monkeys flying around, I’m afraid you’ve gone too far… Well, I had gone too far… In fact, I couldn’t even make into the house… I was so tired & so hot, & so thirsty, that I couldn’t walk… So, I just laid down on the porch to rest for a minute…

After laying there for several minutes, I heard a car pulling in the driveway & I opened my eyes just long enough to see it was Lori – but I was too comfortable to get up, so I just laid there…

When Lori got out of her car, I could hear her saying, Mike, Mike, Mike – are you okay, are you okay!!! I think I scarred her to death – she thought I had stroked out or something… I got up & walked in the house & set there in front of the air conditioning & drank about a gallon of cold water – and it was just what I needed… It literally brought me back to life…

When I finished sodding the yard, I vowed never to lay sod again – and to this day, I’ve kept my vows…

In our scripture this morning, John tells us the story of Jesus traveling from Judea back to Galilee – the Bible says that He had to go through Samaria… but it’s interesting to know, most Jews traveling this route chose not to go to Samaria… In fact, they went out of their way, adding distance to their trip to avoid Samaria – Yet, the Bible tells us that Jesus had to go through Samaria…

That’s our first clue that Jesus is no ordinary Jew – He’s the messiah… Why did Jesus choose to go through Samaria? Well, according to scripture, we can assume that Jesus went through Samaria to share some Holy water with a Samaritan woman…

Verse 6 tells us that about the noon hour, Jesus, tired out by His journey, was sitting by the well known as Jacob’s well… That’s our second clue that Jesus is no ordinary Jew – Not only is He the messiah, but He is human – for He was tired out from traveling… He was tired & needed to rest… He was thirsty & needed a drink…

Our scripture tells us that a Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well & Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)

This is no ordinary meeting… First of all, woman didn’t usually come to the well until after sundown in the cool of the day… Yet, here we have a woman who has come to draw water during the noon hour – but of course, she is no ordinary woman – perhaps she has to come to the well at the noon hour because she is an outcast – perhaps the noon hour is the only hour that she is allowed to draw water – socially, she is probably not comfortable or not welcomed to join the other woman as they draw their water at sundown in the coolness of the day… if she wants water, she has to draw it during the hottest hour of the day…

But this particular day, as she comes to the well, she meets a man named Jesus… and she quickly discovers that this is no ordinary man… This man spoke to her… He asked her for a drink of water… And she was quite taken by this request… She replied, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”

And then Jesus does what He always does, He turns the table… He said to the woman, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is asking you for water, you would have asked Him… and He would have given you living water…”