Word Count: 2464,
This sermon was delivered to both St Oswald’s in Maybole, and St Johns in Girvan, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 23rd March 2014
(Scottish Episcopal Churches in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries).
Summary: The story of the woman at the well tells us why we must confess our sins to the Lord, and why we must believe we are instantly forgiven to free us from ourselves.
Exodus 17:1-7 Romans 5:1-11 John 4:5-42 Psalm 95
“Please join me in my prayer.” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength, and our redeemer. Amen. (Ps. 19:14)
There is a region with Galilee to the North, and with Judea to the south called Samaria … and in Jesus’ day, the Jews would do whatever they could to avoid travelling through there, even if it meant taking the longer route around it; … because the Jews and the Samaritans just did not get on.
The Samaritans were a mixed race, and the Jews being so holier than thou by their allegiance to the Law, considered Samaritans impure … and unclean.
The Samaritans, on the other hand, refused to accept the Jewish law, and in particular, the great Temple of Jerusalem as a place of worship and so, tensions between these two were ever present.
In spite of this, or perhaps maybe because of it, Jesus decided to pass through Samaria, where he arrived at a city named Sychar; and when he arrived there, he understandably felt hot and tired and sat down by a source of water, known as Jacob’s well. After all it was mid day, and the sun was at its hottest, and the city was deserted, with everyone indoors having a siesta.
Now the water gathering normally took take place at dawn or at sunset when the sun was at its coolest, but midday was the perfect time for this certain woman, to gather water, when nobody was about. So it took no great revelation from God to tell Jesus that this woman had problems, her attire and attitude certainly revealed one thing or another.
Anyway, this woman must have been quite startled to see a Jewish man sitting there at the well; as she must have wondered what he was up to, or what he was after … as she was probably used, and abused by men; but all Jesus asked for was a drink of water.
But that too was strange in itself … ok Jesus was thirsty, but to the woman, Jewish men just did not talk with Samaritan women, because Jewish men were all superior to all Samaritans, particular the women.
But unlike every other man that this woman has ever come in contact with ... Jesus wasn’t on the take, Jesus wasn’t trying to take something away from her ... Jesus was trying to give her something; Jesus was trying to help her ... and as she was of dubious character, Jesus proceeded cautiously, and he must have said, something like, “Could you get me a drink, as I have no means of doing so, the well is deep and I have no bucket”.
The woman then must have heard something in his voice, as women do, which suggested that he was sincere, and she asked him, and I paraphrase, I will do a lot of that today, she asked him “How is it that you a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria”? But Jesus turns the tables and tells her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is speaking to you, you would ask for living water in return".
The woman replied, "But Sir, you have no bucket to return this living water and the well is deep. Where are you going to get living water? What is living water anyway … and who are you to talk about such things … are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well in the first place?
But Jesus replied, "Everyone who drinks this water in the well will be thirsty again, but those who drink my water, the living water … will never thirst again. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life."
Jesus is obviously using the water as an analogy for the Holy Spirit, as even today, the Holy Spirit is difficult to talk about and understand.
But Jesus is talking to this woman about being born again, or born of the Spirit, so she can enter the kingdom of God, just like Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3: “That which is flesh is flesh. That which is Spirit is Spirit. You should be … born again.” So understandably, the woman did not know what Jesus was talking about and replied, "Ok then, give me some of this water, so that I may never be thirsty … so I don’t need to keep coming here to to this well.".
She must have hated this chore of going to the well … she must have hated meeting people, particularly women who must have shunned and taunted her. She wanted free and she obviously did not understand what Jesus is talking about, but somehow she has faith in him … she was comfortable with him … and she was ready to listen to him; … so Jesus then tried to draw her … he tried to get her to open up by saying, “Go, and call your husband and come back here to me”.
But she replied, “I have no husband”; but could you imagine her face when Jesus, a complete stranger replies … “You are right in saying, `I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband”.
This must have totally disarmed her, this she was hiding, just how did he know, and more importantly, if he knew this, what else does he know about me. This man Jesus has me, this man has me beat. So she could only reply, “What you have said is true … but Sir, I see now that you are a prophet, a man of God”.
And so Jesus replies, "The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him”.
And you can see from this reply that the woman is now switched on, engrossed in what Jesus has to say … and quick to point out that the “Messiah is coming and when he comes, he will proclaim all things to us"; … the ”us" meaning the Samaritans are included. And so from this reply, Jesus was impressed and ready to tell her that "he is the one whom she is speaking to"; and somehow she believes him.
There must have been more to this conversation, but this I am sure this the jist of it … but their conversation must have been very intimate and personal, and although Jesus revealed her innermost secrets, he did not judge her, nor condemn her, in fact he freed her from her prison of sin, and guilt, and shame … and he opened the doors and let her go free.
And she did … “Then the woman left her water jar, (obviously in a hurry and excited), and went back to the city. She said to the people, "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done and kept hidden. He is the Messiah, and so the people left the city and were on their way to meet him. This woman was suddenly anointed as an evangelist for Jesus, and by the wording in this passage, I am sorry to say, she has led more people to the Lord than I have,.
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But do you see the process that has went on here … that is what I want to speak about this morning.
This woman, who has obviously led a dreadful, sinful life, has met with Jesus. In her conversation, Jesus has uncovered her past, her sin, her shame, her rejection, her failure, and her hopes, or lack of hope for the future …but she has not challenged these failings, she has not justified herself. She hasn’t even challenged Jesus for revealing them … because Jesus was not judging her, but she was Judging herself.
That is what the Holy Spirit does, he reveals our sin, and we can relate to this woman, as we are not perfect either. We have sinned in the past, we are sinning now, and we will sin again in the future, whether we want to or not, but … at the start of every service we all admit our sins to the Lord … we tell God what we have failed to do, we are truly sorry; … because his word tells us that if we do so … he will forgive us … and he does.
So we are comfortable with that, do you know many people in this world are not and I would guess that many of our friends and neighbours are also uncomfortable with that. Most people in this world have secrets that they want to keep secret, particularly from themselves, let alone God. They are prisoners of themselves, and therefore useless to the Lord … and that is why he must first forgives our sins, so that we can be useful to him, and useful to ourselves.
You are not here this morning to worship me. You are not here to worship this church or those around you, you are here to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, and in his presence there is certain things he demands from you.
The first is truth and honesty … this is his demand; he demands we confess our sin to him, and in turn, God will then forgive us. We are so used to this, but it truly amazes me the number of people who cannot to this; and who even refuse to do this.
We know that God knows everything, we cannot hide anything from him. In the passage today, this is made clear. He revealed the woman sin; but what is brilliant and powerful is, he did not condemn her, he forgave her, and in return, he empowered and endeared himself to her. This is exactly the same for us today. God needs us to be clean and pure, and he wants us for himself, and to do that we must first confess our sins in all there horror; so that we can receive our forgiveness from him; and then allow him to clean us up.
Think about what you were like before you knew the Lord. Do you want to go back to that person? I don’t!
Now there is something else in this story which took me years to work out and it is this. You can almost see the relief this woman felt when her sins were forgive. Do we see or feel that relief in ourselves, well mostly no? We have to accept that we are forgiven by faith alone; and I used to find this difficult, but notice, Jesus forgave this woman … then she left his presence almost immediately.
How many times have you, confessed the same sin over and over again. I know I have … and it is wrong … and to do so is like taking a wound, a bad cut say, opening it up and examining it every minute or so to see if it is healed; … and guess what, by doing so, it only makes the wound worse, and it just never heals.
Jesus did not analyse this woman’s sin in depth. It was enough for him to hear her admitting them … it was enough for him to hear her sincerity and remorse; … it was then enough then for him to forgive her.
And so our service today reflects this process, we first confess our sins … and then we receive absolution. There is no need to extend this part of the service … it is not required. With a sincere and broken heart … we confess our sin to the lord … but just as quick as we confess them … we are to receive our forgiveness. We are not to beat ourselves up over them, we are not to do penance, because we are told that Jesus died to save us from ourselves … and that means that our sins are truly forgiven.
If we confess the same sins week after week after week, that is the same as opening up a wound that should be allowed to heal. The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified that our sins be forgiven, and we in turn belong to him, and we are free to worship him because we love him as he loves us.
What if, you may ask … I do not feel forgiven, well ask yourself this question, Is the Lord going to come back to this earth, suffer and die on another cross so that you maybe forgiven specially; or was his death 2000 years ago enough to cover all sin for all mankind, for ever. One of these two statements is true, and if you think Jesus is going to come back and do it all again for you, you are deluded. The bible tells us that Christ died once and for all, that his sacrifice was enough; and therefore we are told to believe this … whether we feel forgiven or not; and to refuse forgiveness is to deny the Lord Jesus Christ, and what he done for us all those years ago.
And I am aware, that what I have just said was easy to say, but so difficult to do at times … but Christine will tell you how much I beat myself up over such things … but the thing is, we must force ourselves to believe what the New Testament tells us, particularly in this case, from the book of Hebrews, that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was enough.
The joy and surprise of the Samaritan woman’s conversion was so great that she couldn’t hold back the desire to share it with others! She had seen the light! She had been saved, and her new faith gave her feelings of worth and dignity that she had never experienced before.
And on the people of Samaria, what about them, well the people who had known her and rejected her … well something truly amazing happened to them as well, this woman who lived in such shame, came back to her town with confidence, with authority, with joy, with peace, with happiness … but for a purpose.
Verse 39 tells us, “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him, because of this woman’s testimony”! That must have been an incredibly powerful testimony! God used this despised, rejected, sinful woman to save many souls, and she became the first woman Evangelist to share the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ our lord, Amen
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank you for Jesus, and we thank you that he suffered and died all those years ago to free us from our sins, and free us from ourselves.
Father, we thank you that like this Samaritan women we can meet you face to face and confess our sin regardless of it severity. Father we thank you that you understand us … that you understand how we have gotten into a mess, and yet you do not judge us, nor condemn us.
We thank you that even though we do not deserve it, you forgive us anyway by the process you call grace.
Father we confess to you now our sin. Sin we have been holding back. … Sin that we will never speak to others about … … sin that we are ashamed of … … sin that we can only confess to you.
… … Father we thank you that you can laugh at our sin … that you can forgive us of our sin … and free us from our own condemnation.
Father according to your word, our Lord Jesus Christ, we now receive our forgiveness, and that we never need to confess these sins again to you. Cleanse our hearts Father in Jesus mighty name, Amen.
