Have you heard the latest on the CIA’s snooping capabilities? According to WikiLeaks, the U.S. spy agency is able to activate your smart TV’s internal microphone and record your conversations. You’re probably thinking: “I’d hate to be the agent tasked with listening to my recordings.” “Why d’ya change the channel? I was learning how to make Brussels sprout soup!” “Hey Chris, it’s your turn to get the nachos.” “Dad! Brock won’t give me the remote!” No, I don’t think I’d want to eavesdrop on your conversations either.
But wouldn’t it be interesting to eavesdrop on the conversations of someone famous? Like what exactly did President Trump say about Prime Minister Trudeau after they met? This morning we’re going to eavesdrop on a candid conversation Jesus had with a certain Samaritan woman. Let’s even pretend to be intelligence agents who are trying to make sense of this well-side, well-said conversation.
OK agents. It looks like we’re all here including Agent Jolie with her markers and note pad so let’s get started with today’s briefing. At twelve noon yesterday our listening device on Jacob’s well in Sychar, Samaria picked up an interesting conversation between a Jewish man and a Samaritan woman. Now, as you know, those two peoples, the Jews and Samaritans, never speak to each other if they can help it. But perhaps the Jewish man was desperate. It seems that he had been on the road all day and was tired and thirsty. So when the Samaritan woman approached the well, he asked her for a drink to which she responded: “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (John 4:9)
If the Jewish man was really thirsty, you’d expect him to beg and plead for that drink. Instead this is what our microphones captured him saying: “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” (John 4:10). Can any of you agents make sense of that? The Samaritan woman couldn’t. She noted that the man had nothing to reach down into the deep well with which to scoop out water. Then she seemed to sense that he was perhaps talking about a different kind of water, and so she asked this man: “Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” (John 4:12)
You have to admit. It was a good question. I mean in a dry land like that, it’s impressive that the ol’ well was still pumping out water 2,000 years after this Jacob guy had dug it out. You’d think with a comeback like that the conversation would be over. But the Jewish man replied: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13, 14). What do you make of that agents! A water that quenches thirst forever? Do you see why we’re analyzing this conversation? If such water exists and we can get our hands on it, well, our armies could march across the world and never suffer dehydration! The woman too was keen on getting her lips to this water, but when she asked for some, the man told her to go get her husband and come back. Was there enough of this water for more than one person? Is that why he told her to get her husband? I don’t think so because when the woman reported that she had no husband, the Jewish man said: “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 4:18).
Where did that man get his intelligence because he was dead on and the woman admitted it! While I’d say that this man was some kind of undercover agent, the woman surmised that he was a prophet—you know, one of those religious fanatics through whom God supposedly speaks. Perhaps that’s why she continued with a seemingly unrelated question. She wanted to know where the right place to worship God was: Samaria or Jerusalem? But the man said: “…a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23).
I’m a little baffled by that answer, but so was the woman for she said: “I know that the Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us” (John 4:25). Now, I did a little digging and learned that the Jews and Samaritans were waiting for someone, the Messiah, to save them from their troubles. And here’s the bombshell. That Jewish man we have been listening to? The one who was so tired from walking that he stopped for a rest at this well at Sychar? He said, “I, the one speaking to you…am [the Messiah]” (John 4:26). At this point on the recording you can hear others approaching. Then the woman abruptly stands and her footsteps quickly fade away while a voice calls out: “Hey, you forgot your water jar!”
We thought that would be the end of the contact between the Jewish man and that Samaritan, but she came back and with her were many other Samaritans. It’s reported that they became convinced that this weary Jewish traveler was in fact the Messiah. What do you think?
OK, let me step back into my pastor role now so we can think through this well-side, well-said conversation between the weary Jewish traveler (Jesus) and the Samaritan. First of all you need to know that Jesus was on a mission. In the verses before our text it says that Jesus “had to” go through Samaria on his way back to Galilee. The thing is Jesus didn’t have to go through Samaria any more than you have to go through Calgary to get to Banff. There are other routes. So why did Jesus have to go through Samaria? Because he was on a rescue mission. He wanted to speak with this woman at Jacob’s well. Likewise God wanted to speak to you and so he gave you parents, a spouse, or a friend who pointed you to the Bible. You too are firmly in God’s sights as someone whom he wants to rescue.
But why this woman at that well? It wasn’t because she had done anything to earn God’s love. Jesus hadn’t made a beeline to Sychar to give her an award. Do you remember her life’s story? She had already been through five men, and now she was living with someone outside the bonds of marriage. But that was all the more reason Jesus had to go to Sychar. This woman was in trouble, for if she continued on that path, she would be condemned to eternal judgment. But do you see what this true story teaches us? It teaches us that your past doesn’t disqualify you from Jesus’ love and attention. No matter what it is that you are or have done, Jesus is as interested in you and your eternal future as he was interested in the woman at the well.
But when Jesus shows such interest we often think he just wants something from us. Isn’t that what the woman concluded when Jesus asked her for a drink? She figured that the only reason this Jewish man had “lowered” himself to speak to her is because she had something he wanted. And don’t we feel that way too when we’re encouraged to come to church, or stay for Bible study, or be faithful in our stewardship of time, talents, and treasures? But what did Jesus say in reply to the woman? “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” (John 4:10). You see, when Jesus asks for our attention it’s because he wants to give us something! Remember that when you’re invited to come to worship, or stay for Bible class, or sit down for a devotion. Jesus isn’t trying to take your time—he’s wanting to give you his love through his Word which calms and empowers. He wants to give you living water that forever quenches our thirst for peace and purpose.
Of course the woman thought Jesus was speaking about some sort of magical water that would quench her physical thirst forever. And aren’t we like that woman? When we turn to Jesus, we want him to take away our physical ailments and shortcomings. We want him to top up our bank accountant, and guarantee a pain-free life, for we think this is the biggest challenge we have. Not so. That’s why Jesus told the woman to come back with her husband. He wanted to prick her conscience to realize that sin was the biggest problem in her life.
What sin would Jesus expose if he was having a candid conversation with you? Do you, like the woman, play fast and loose with relationships? Is the person you spend overnights and weekend getaways with not your spouse? Or are you perhaps like the disciples who must have walked right past that woman on their way into town to buy lunch, but instead of engaging her as Jesus did, they may have gossiped about her looks, or why she was fetching water on her own in the middle of the day?
How should we deal with our sin? Ignore it? Make excuses for it? The woman didn’t. She confessed that Jesus was right about her sinful life. But she also believed Jesus’ offer of living water that would put out the fires of her guilty conscience. Jesus offers you that water again this morning. In fact if we were to open our sanctuary doors right now you’d be able to hear the water of forgiveness cascading down our baptismal rock and washing over your baptismal stone. Yes, in the name of Jesus, for the sake of everything he did in his life and death, you are forgiven.
So now what? The Samaritan woman sets the example. When Jesus announced: “I am the Messiah,” she ran back into town with the news. In her haste she forgot her water jar, but she didn’t leave without water—living water was bubbling up inside of her just as Jesus said it would. Friends, like that woman, we also have every reason to leave behind our water jars, that is our chores and our to-do lists to run errands of mercy for the Savior (The Devotional Bible, p. 364). Like Jesus we will look beyond our own needs to the needs of others so that we pray for them, help them, and most importantly have a well-said conversation with them by sharing this eternal life-giving water of God’s Word with a thirsty world. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
(2 questions) Why was Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman surprising? Why wasn’t it surprising?
When Jesus gets our attention we often think he just wants something from us. How does our text show this isn’t true?
(2 questions) The Samaritan woman was eager for water that would forever quench her physical thirst. How are we like this woman? What better gift does Jesus offer?
(2 questions) What sins would Jesus expose if he was having a candid conversation with you? What should you do about those sins?
Explain: We should be like the Samaritan woman and leave behind our water jar to run an errand of mercy for the Savior.
