John 4:5-29
5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 When 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.) 9 The 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.) 10 Jesus 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? 12 Are 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?" 13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but 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." 15 The 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." 16 He 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. 18 The 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." 19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." 21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." 25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." 26 Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he." 27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?" 28 Then, 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?"
“I Do, Part II – The Proposal”
When Reed Harris asked Kaitlin Whipple to marry him, he didn’t plan it out that well. First he took to her a Wendy’s to do it. Second he hid the ring inside her Frosty milkshake. Third he invited her friends and one of them challenged her to a race eating the Frosty. What happens next is probably no surprise to anyone. She swallowed the ring whole. Reed drove her to the hospital to find out if she did in fact swallow the ring… and she had. Two days later she got her ring and the two are set to marry around early June… when it is warm and Frostys melt!
A London man named Lefkos Hajji, wanted to “pop” the question to his fiancée… literally. His idea was to hide her $12,000 engagement ring inside of a helium balloon. He would pop the balloon… and then pop the question. Now some of us would see the potential danger in placing something so valuable inside of a helium balloon… however, Lefkos didn’t, and like something out of a slapstick comedy… the second he walked out of the balloon store… a stiff wind blew the balloon away, carrying the $12,000 ring with it. The balloon and the ring have never been recovered… and his girlfriend has refused to say yes until he gets her another $12,000 ring.
One young man's creative marriage proposal apparently triggered several UFO reports in a small town in Germany. Bavarian police say several people called Wednesday night to alert them to strange lights floating above the sleepy town of Plattling. It turns out the lights were 50 paper lanterns sent aloft by a 29-year-old man proposing marriage to his girlfriend. Neither the man nor the 27-year-old woman were identified. However, police did report that the woman said "Yes."
It takes a lot of guts to pop the question. There is so much thought that needs to go into it… besides the pressure to come up with something original… besides the pressure to find something romantic and memorable… there is also the lingering question. Is this “the one?” Is this really “the one?” It’s a question that every couple must ask themselves at some point. You weigh the pros and cons… and ask yourself… “Could this be ‘the one?’” Do I love them? Are they a good mate for me? Will they be a good parent to work with? How good will they treat me? On and on… until we make up our minds… and if we decide they are good enough for us… we arrange to make our proposal.
However, isn’t there something a little wrong with this approach… isn’t there something a little backwards? Isn’t there something that young couples so often miss in this entire process? Do I love them? Are they a good mate for me? Will they be a good parent for me to work with? How good do they treat me?
Is this what a marriage is about? Is this what finding a partner is really about? Many people believe it is! Will you make me happy? Will you fulfill me? Will I be attracted for you forever and ever and ever! Now a relationship based on looks is a terribly dangerous premise isn’t it! The older we get… the more things end up where they’re not suppose to be… some of us never had it there to begin with! In some ways… it’s no wonder that almost 50% of marriages end in divorce… I mean really, who can live up to our standards for the perfect mate?
On the flip side, imagine… what it would be like… if all of us had to take a test before getting married… where we put all of our partner’s needs in a long list… and had them rate US on a scale of 1 – 10 on how well we met their every need and desire. I don’t want to see those results. Especially not when I’m supposed to be thinking about ME and MY needs!!! Yet… perhaps a test like that is exactly the sort of thing that we should be considering when making the kind of proposal that marriage truly is!
- Will I be willing to get up with screaming kids in the middle of the night to let my partner sleep?
- Will I go to an activity they love… but I hate… for hours… and hours… and hours?
- Will I take the time to listen about their day, and be willing to share openly about my day?
- Will I give up control of the remote control?
- And a million other things where you put your partner first and you own desires last. Can you say “I Do!” that?
With that… I’m going to switch gears pretty fast here, and like last Sunday… take this illustration of what it is like before a marriage proposal… and apply it to what it is like when facing a different kind of proposal… a proposal to follow Christ.
In our scripture text this morning, Jesus is in a little town of Sychar when he meets a woman at the well. Now, he does several things right in fetching this woman’s attention… he initiates contact by asking for some water. When she is shocked he could be talking to her… he responds, “"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." Great line, it flips the entire conversation.
“Hold on a second… you just asked me for water… and now you’re telling me that you’ve already got water that is even better?” Right there… she’s hooked. They have some more discourse and Jesus shows her just how much he really knows her… SHOCKED… she leaves Jesus and runs into the town, 29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" Could he be “the one?” Is he the messiah? Is he worth giving up everything else and following?
You and I probably think this is an easy question to answer… a slam dunk… a no brainer… just for example… to start us out on this proposal to follow Christ… raise your hand if Jesus Christ is your savior. Everybody.
This part IS easy, right? We’ve met him at our own personal well somewhere along the line, have seen the truth in his words, have decided to follow him, and now we can call him our Savior. But… let me push this forward just a little bit. What is required of you to be allowed to call Jesus your savior? Specifically… what do we believe you need to do in order to get into heaven? Faith alone through grace! That’s it. For the price of faith… you can call Jesus your savior and make a vow to “follow” him.
To me… this seems like a one sided relationship. We give Christ our faith, and he gives us eternity in heaven… pleasures forever more… salvation from destruction… peace of mind and comfort in knowing who holds our future. You know what this is beginning to sound like. Me… me… me… me… me… all over again. Is that really what this proposal to follow Christ is truly about?
Just like a couple deciding to wed… there is another side of it all. It doesn’t stop with Christ being our savior… it starts their… and continues even further to our response to his grace. Let me simply this just a little… Paul, whenever he wrote a letter had a specific salutation that he used over and over… “Greetings in the name of our
Christ as our Lord. Now that is an entirely different title isn’t it. Savior doesn’t require anything from me… servant to a powerful Lord… well… that’s a different story. To put it in perspective… one of the teachers of the Law… impressed with Jesus pushed him on which of the commandments was greater… and in Mark 12:29-30 Jesus responds:
Mark 12:29-30
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
And in case you didn’t think it was really important… the word savior appears 55 times in the Bible. Not bad right? The word Lord, appears 8,000 times in the Bible. The single most important thing we can do, says Jesus… is honor him as our Lord.
Honor him as the Lord of our heart, honor him as Lord of our soul, and honor him as the Lord of our mind… and do it with all of our strength. Now that is an entirely different proposition when you thinking about signing up to follow him isn’t it. You’re no longer focused on what Jesus can do for you… no, no, no… the focus is all on, “Just what do you think you can offer your Lord as servant?”
The kind of proposal that Marriage truly is… requires a strong commitment. Likewise… the kind of proposal that following Christ is… requires a strong commitment. When we commit to become followers of Christ, let us move beyond just calling him our savior and become content in receiving all the benefits without sacrificing at all… instead let us strive to become his servants with him as our LORD. Let’s say “I Do” to that!
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
