Happy Thanksgiving everyone! In Canada, Thanksgiving has always had a connection with the fall harvest. It is a time to give thanks to God for the bounty He has provided. And truly, there is a lot to be thankful for, but today, as we continue in our Mountain Moment series and climb Mount Gerizim, I want us to think about the thing that God has given us that we should all be most thankful for.
Please turn with me to John 4
As you turn there, I want you to think about grace for a moment. You have probably already guessed that I was referring to grace when I talk about the thing we should be most grateful for, and you are right. You are such a bright and wonderful bunch of people!
Now, we most often identify grace with the free gift of salvation given through faith in Christ and His work upon the cross, but the gift of grace doesn’t end with our salvation. In fact, our salvation is only the beginning of the gift of God’s grace in our lives. Grace is a state or a condition we live in as followers of Christ. Grace is God’s power and God’s intention at work in our lives
In 2 Corinthians we get a wonderful insight into grace when Paul gives us a very personal insight into his life. Paul suffered from some kind of a physical aliment which he called his "thorn in his flesh". Paul tells us that three times he prayed for God to remove the thorn and three times the Lord said no.
Now this is where things get interesting. Listen to the reason the Lord said no to Paul. He says: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 9:12). OK, so what do we learn about grace from this passage?
1. God’s Grace is sufficient--first of all, God’s grace is sufficient. It is all we need. It is enough. There are times when we may not think it’s enough. There are times when it doesn’t feel like it is enough, but the Lord says it is indeed enough! The Greek behind the word that the NIV translates as ’sufficient’ refers to strength. The idea is that God’s grace is strong enough to accomplish what needs to be accomplished. Jesus says, "My grace is strong enough to get the job done!"
2. Grace doesn’t remove the problem--the next thing we learn from Paul is that God’s grace doesn’t always remove the problem. Paul keeps his thorn. Paul has to deal with the thorn. Paul has to work with the thorn. If we put point one and two together we could say that God’s Grace is strong enough to help us overcome the problems and the trials we face in our lives. Our problem may not be removed, but God, through His work of Grace in our lives, will give us the strength to overcome, work through, and deal with whatever it is we are facing.
3. Grace is unleashed through our weakness--finally we also see that in order for this kind of living- coping-overcoming grace to be unleashed in our lives, it requires us to acknowledge our weakness. Jesus tells Paul that His gracious power is perfected, or it will accomplish its work in the context of our coming to terms with our weakness. Keep all of this background in mind as we jump into John 4.
Beginning with verse 4 we read: "Now he had to go through Samaria. 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." (John 4:4-6)
Notice how verse 4 begins. "Jesus had to go through Samaria." You could simply take this to mean that Jesus had to go through Samaria because he was travelling from Judea in the south to Galilee in the north and going through Samaria was the most direct route, but the fact of the matter is that, unless a Jew was in big hurry, they would have never considered going through Samaria.
The reason for this was that Jews and Samaritans hated one another. Jews looked down on Samaritans as a contaminated race and Samaritans despised Jews as self-righteous rats. They were also divided by religious hostility. Jews worshipped in Jerusalem, on the original site of Solomon’s temple and Samaritans established a rival temple on Mount Gerizim, the site of the original tabernacle.
We get a glimpse into the common attitude of the Jews toward Samaritans when in John 8:48 the Pharisees, angered by Jesus’ teachings, blurted out this accusation: "You Samaritan devil! Didn’t we say all along that you were possessed by a demon?" I guess it wasn’t enough just to call Jesus a devil. They had to come up with something even more insulting than ’devil’ and the adjective they picked was the term ’Samaritan’!
Now, obviously Jesus didn’t have the same prejudices of his people at the time, so he wouldn’t have had a problem just heading north through Samaria, but I think there is something more intended here when we are told that Jesus "had" to go through Samaria. I mean if John was just telling us the route that Jesus was taking to Galilee, wouldn’t he have just written: "Jesus went through Samaria on his way to Galilee"? Obviously John is telling us something about this trip. There was something intentional about Jesus’ trip through Samaria.
Ultimately I think it is reasonable to conclude that Jesus specifically wanted to meet with the woman from Sychar. Interestingly enough Jesus ends up in Sychar, tired from the hard two-day walk from Judea, so He sends His disciples into town for some food. What I find interesting is that Jesus is alone in Samaria. It wasn’t very often Jesus was alone. Jesus was only alone when He wanted to be alone and I would gather that Jesus had to do a bit of persuading to send all the disciples on their way when they were in unfriendly territory. My point is that Jesus purposely shows up in Sychar at a well, at noontime, and He makes sure that He is alone. It was probably the fact that it was noontime and no one would be at the well that convinced the disciples that Jesus could be left on His own, and yet, surprisingly a woman shows up at the well. So, Jesus purposely came to Samaria to give the woman He knew He would meet at the well, His personal, undivided, attention.
Picking up the story with verse 7 we read: ’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.)’ (John 4:7-9)
It is hard for us to understand how truly out of the ordinary Jesus’ question was. First of all, He was a Jew and she was a Samaritan: that was enough to suggest that there would be no dialogue between these two whatsoever--even if she were a Samaritan man, let alone a Samaritan woman. Jesus was crossing the line on several cultural taboos. You can see it in her reply: "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" If we were to paraphrase her comment it would be something like: "What, are you a crazyman?"
Now the parenthetical statement at the end of verse 9, which the NIV translates as (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans) can be equally translated as (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) The Greek word translated "associate" in the NIV literally means "to share the use of." The point being that for a Jew to share a cup with a Samaritan would be to commit an act that would make them unclean--at least as far as their culture was concerned. No wonder this woman is perplexed by Jesus’ request.
There is something else going on here that we need to notice: There is a well closer to Sychar than the well described in this passage and women usually got water in the evening--not at noontime when the day was at its hottest.
Remember that to get water from a well would have been difficult, heavy work. We are talking about clay pots filled with water. So the question is, why did she go past the closest, most convenient well and get her water at the time of day that she would be least likely to see anyone else?
Obviously, she didn’t want to deal with any other women, but somehow Jesus just happens to be at this out of the way well at noon, by Himself and he then breaks a bunch of cultural standards in order to begin a conversation with her. Here we see a glimpse of God at work: Jesus is purposely extending Himself to an outcast member of an outcast culture.
But isn’t that what Jesus was famous for: touching the untouchables? Jesus constantly outraged the religious leaders of His day by hanging out with the people they viewed as spiritual riffraff. It was this kind of association with untouchables that got Him labelled as "a glutton and a drunkard" (Matt. 11:19; Luke 7:34). Eventually they simply called Him by the name that they considered the ultimate put-down, but I think Jesus wore as a badge of honour: He was called "a friend of sinners"!
OK, so far we have a meeting between a woman who was doing everything she could to hide and a man who, by all rights shouldn’t have been there and certainly He shouldn’t have been talking to her, and worst still, asking her for a drink. Already the woman had to be taken in by the uniqueness of the situation, but Jesus works hard to draw her in and make her even more engaged in the conversation.
’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." . . . "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."’ (John 4:10, 13-15)
How can you not be drawn into a conversation with Jesus? Jesus offers her a gift from God, a gift associated with Himself, a gift Jesus called living water, a gift welling up into eternal life.
What is living water?
Well in Isaiah 55 we read: "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the water; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost." (Isaiah 55:1)
What a great image of grace: the promise of a satisfied, sustaining life, without hunger, without thirst, given without cost.
In the book of Jeremiah, God says: "My people have committed two sins; they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." (Jeremiah 2:13)
God Himself is living water. So Jesus is promising Himself. He is promising a satisfying, refreshing relationship with Him, freely given through Him. You can’t help but see Jesus reaching out to this woman, trying to be as winsome and gentle as He can. He wants to connect with her. He wants to help her. He cares about her. He had to come to Samaria because of her, but she isn’t quite sure what to do with Jesus. She is listening, but she is not hearing, at least completely. She is missing out on the spiritual element of what Jesus is offering here, but in the very least she is there, talking to Him. I wonder when she had her last meaningful conversation with another person--particularly with someone who treated her with as much respect as Jesus did?
Jesus then does something risky, but necessary. Beginning with verse 16 we read: ’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."’ (John 4:16-18)
After Jesus offers her living water, he drops a bomb of sorts. He asks about her husband. He asks about the very thing that has brought her so much shame. She has had five husbands and was living with a six man who was not her husband. The specific terms John uses for the man suggests that he was not considered her husband because he was still someone elses’ husband! This kind of batting record is still outside the perimeters of society’s acceptance even today, but in Jesus’ day, it was unheard of. Her life exhibited the combined scars of tragic circumstances and foolish choices.
We don’t know if she went through five husbands because of decisions she made or because five different men grew tired of her. We only know that life had been a struggle for this woman, and thanks to small-town Sychar, where everyone knew everything about everyone else, so public humiliation was something she knew all too well. Now we know why she walked past the closer, more popular well in the hottest time of the day to get her water--she couldn’t deal with her shame.
Her relationships betray a life of deep thirst for love, for acceptance, for companionship, but with each attempt she just got thirstier. She was a broken and as hopeless as you can get. I would have loved to have been there to hear the way that Jesus said these words. Jesus doesn’t avoid her sin. How can He? He is trying to help her! He is trying to give her living water. But, we can be quite sure that He isn’t condemning her either.
His words aren’t harsh. His words aren’t accusatory--instead, they are full of understanding.
Of course that doesn’t make the subject any more comfortable for her. So she changes the subject. "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshipped 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. (John 4:19-21)
You almost have to laugh at her comment. "Sir I see you are a prophet." We can paraphrase her words, "How do you know so much about me?" Then she changes the subject. You can see the gears in her mind working away, "Let me see, he’s a Jew, let’s talk about the temple wars. Jews love to tell us Samaritans about how wrong we are worshipping at our temple, so that should get him off topic!"
I have seen this kind of ploy happen before. You start talking to someone about their need for living water and all of a sudden they start asking about whether you really believe in Creationism or if Adam and Eve were real, or what we think about Noah and the Ark. It is much easier to talk about theology then it is to talk about the things that are inside us that are broken and in need of living water.
Of course you know what happens next. We have Jesus’ famous remarks about worshipping God in spirit and in truth, but for the purpose of today’s message let’s jump to verse 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."’ (John 4:25-26).
What an amazing conversation! Over and over again the religious leaders tried to get Jesus to openly declare His identity and He refuses, but to a Samaritan woman at a well, He declares that He is indeed the Messiah. This is why He had to come to Samaria. This was His plan. He came to give her living water. He came to reveal Himself to her. He came to help her redefine and redesign her life. But now it was up to her. She had to make a choice. She had to choose to either believe Jesus’ claim or reject it.
And it is at this point that the disciples come back and they look at Jesus and they look at the woman and then they look at each other and then they look at the ground and then they look at each other again and this is one of those moments that is just too weird to comment on or ask about. The situation is so weird that even Peter keeps his mouth shut.
The woman leaves her jar behind and she runs into the town and she does something that she probably hadn’t done since husband two or three. She starts talking to people. She runs up to them and starts talking about this Jesus that knew everything about her.
That’s an interesting comment isn’t it? Jesus knew everything about her, but He still talked to her. He still offered her living water. He still offered her eternal life. He still revealed Himself to her. He revealed himself to a woman no one else would talk to. He revealed himself to a woman that no one would even marry. He revealed himself to an outcast woman from an outcast people and instead of condemning her, or ignoring her, He treated her with love and respect.
What is it that changed this woman from someone who was so broken that she went to the well in the heat of the day to avoid the other women in her town to someone who ran up to people to tell them about Jesus? She was ashamed, but after being with Jesus, she couldn’t help but run directly to the people she had been avoiding for who knows how long! Why? Was her life any different? No. Was the opinion of people around her any different? No. Well then, what changed? Her circumstances didn’t. The people’s opinion of her didn’t. That only leaves one thing--somehow she had changed.
Somehow meeting with Jesus didn’t erase any of the bad stuff in her life, but He did enable her to face her life and deal with it. Somehow she was no longer trapped or defined by her failure or fear. In fact she could talk about it. "Come see Jesus, He knows everything about me--E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G! And He still gave me living water. I believe He is the Messiah! I couldn’t hide from Him, and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel like I had to hide either!
Andy Stanley describes the grace that she received through her meeting with Christ in his book,"Grace of God". She received: "Grace in the form of new life. New life that did not erase her old life. New life that did not justify her old life. This was new life that would sustain her in spite of her past life and throughout the rest of her life." What a tremendous insight from Andy!
She found peace and joy in spite of all she had been through. Peace that was disconnected from her unpeaceful surroundings. Peace that connected deeply with her soul. Nothing had changed. But she had changed. She had found a peace that Paul describes as "the peace which surpasses all understanding." (Philippians 4:7)
Jesus said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient"--every day, all the time! Jesus offered the woman at the well, living water, which would be a constant source of new life helping her to overcome the old. This was grace strong enough to carry her through a life that had previously been crippled by her despair and shame.
But this kind of grace doesn’t come to us automatically. In fact I believe that there are all kinds of Christians who have received God’s grace through faith in Christ for salvation, but they haven’t being living in this kind of carry-you-through-life-grace. Why is that? Well, as we found out in 2 Corinthians carry-you- through-life-grace is only unleashed when we recognize our weakness. The Lord says that His power is made perfect in weakness. Grace requires that we acknowledge our weakness. Notice what Paul says immediately after this revelation from God. He says: "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me" (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Paul says: "Lord you need me to acknowledge my weakness? No problem, you got it. I will surrender whatever you need me to surrender in order that your power might rest on me." What an amazing attitude! The woman at the well may not have been quite as open as Paul, but she admitted the source of her weakness--it was all about the compromises and the hurts and the sin that revolved around her relationship with men. "I don’t have a husband" She admitted. These five words represented everything that had brought her to this place of defeat in her life. She acknowledged the thirst that had never been quenched and with that acknowledgement came living waters.
The writer of Hebrews encourages us to, "Approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)
Let me ask you a question: How often do you pray for grace and mercy in your time of need? If you are like me, I am much more likely to pray for changed circumstances. "Lord, get me out of this! Lord, take away the pain! Lord, rescue me! Lord, change them!" I tend to pray for the things that I need in my time of need, what about you?
Don’t misunderstand me, there is nothing wrong with praying that God might take away your thorn, but the question is: do we ever pray to receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need? Do we ever pray: "Lord, help me through what I’ve got to go through?" Do we ever pray: "Lord, give me the grace to overcome what life is throwing at me Lord, I am weak, I need help. I can’t do it. I need your living water. I need you grace that is sufficient. Help me to know that your grace is sufficient."
One of the foundational things we have to do as Christians is embrace our reality--not hid from it. We can’t overcome what we haven’t faced. We can’t become strong until we admit our weaknesses, but it is so hard for us because our culture teaches us to hide our weakness. Our culture encourages us to compensate, or make excuses for our weaknesses. But, Jesus encourages us to acknowledge our weaknesses and then cling to Him for the grace to function in spite of them.
Think about it this way: when you acknowledge you are weak, you are inviting your Saviour to be strong through you.
A lot of our prayers are wrapped up in promises to God we can do better or that we will try harder, but those are weak prayers because they are based on the illusion that we are strong.
How do we show God that we are thankful? We do it by acknowledging that He has given us much to be thankful for.
Let’s say that I wanted to give you the perfect gift--an Albert Einstein Chia Pet. What could possibly be cooler than that? But after a few years I come by your place and I find that Albert is still in the box and wedged securely under the couch. Do you think I would say to myself, "Wow, I can tell that Rene and Gloria are really thankful for my gift!" Probably not, because how thankful can we possibly be for a gift we have never use?
How thankful are you for grace? Specifically, how thankful are you for the carry-you-through-life-grace that we’ve been talking about today? If you are truly thankful, show it by using it! Start praying: "Heavenly Father, I cannot, but you can. In my weakness be my strength." Then take it a step further by adding specifics. "Father, I cannot but you can. Help me in my weakness. Give me grace in this time of need." Will you start doing that today? If you do, I promise you, you are going to give God the permission He needs to bring living spring that will ensure a harvest in your life for which you will be truly thankful!
