This sermon was delivered to Holy Trinity in Ayr on the 26th March 2017
(A Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries,
(It is a revised version of an older sermon but for a larger congregation).
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. (Psalms 19:14)
There is a region between Galilee on the North, and Judea in the south called Samaria … and in Jesus’ day, every Jew would do whatever they could to avoid travelling through there, even if it meant taking the much longer route around it; … that is because the Jews and the Samaritans did not get on.
The Samaritans you see were a mixed race, unlike the pure blooded Jews who were so holier than thou by their allegiance to the Law, and who considered Samaritans impure … and unclean.
The Samaritans, on the other hand, refused to accept this Jewish law, and in particular, the great Temple of Jerusalem as the place of worship and so, tensions between these two were forever present.
In spite of this, or perhaps 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 so 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, so midday was the perfect time for a certain woman to gather water, that is, 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 at that time of day; and she must have wondered what he was up to, … or what he was after, because this women was obviously used and abused by men; … but all Jesus asked her for was a drink of water.
But that too was strange in itself, … ok Jesus was thirsty, but to the woman, Jewish men did not talk with Samaritan women because Jewish men were all superior to all Samaritans, particularly the women.
But unlike every other man that this woman had come in contact with, ... Jesus wasn’t on the take, … Jesus wasn’t trying to take something away from her or use her, ... no, Jesus was trying to give her something; Jesus was trying to help her. ... And so as she was of dubious character, Jesus probably 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”; and because of his manner, the woman must have heard something in his voice, … as women do, … which suggested that he was sincere, and she asked him, and I paraphrase, ()and I paraphrase a lot today), “How is it that you a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria”? But Jesus turns the tables on her and tells her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is speaking to you, you would ask me for living water in return".
Startled by this, 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 here 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 … and so that I don’t need to keep coming here to this well.".
This woman, (we don’t know her name), must have hated this chore of going to the well … she must have hated meeting people, particularly the other women who must have shunned and taunted her, … and so she must have wanted to be set free from the way she was treated. … But we can be sure she felt something radiating from Jesus which suggested that he was onto something, something she did not understand. Somehow she has faith in him and was comfortable with him, … and so she was ready to listen to him, as he said, “Go, and call your husband and come back here to me”.
By asking this question, Jesus was beginning to open her up, as she replied, “I have no husband”; but could you imagine her face when Jesus, … a complete stranger replies … “You are right in saying, `you have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband”.
The tone changed here, and this must have totally disarmed her, because this she was hiding, … just how did this stranger, a Jew, know this, and more importantly, … if he knew this, what else did he know about her. … So she had no choice but to reply, “What you have said is true … but Sir, to know this you must be a prophet, a man of God”.
Jesus agrees with this and 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 “true worshipers”.
And you can see from this woman’s reply that she is now switched on, and engrossed in what Jesus has to say, … and is quick to point out that the “Messiah is coming, and when he comes, he will proclaim all things to us"; … notice the ”us" meaning the Samaritans as well. 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 for her, 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 everything that I have 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 probably led more people to the Lord than most of us here. She was leading people to Jesus and I am sure she continued to do so.
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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 lack of hope for the future, … and she did not challenged these failings, she did not justified herself, she did not even challenge Jesus for revealing them, … because Jesus was not judging her, … she was judging herself.
And that is what the Holy Spirit does, he reveals our sin to ourselves, … so that we maybe forgiven, and so we can all 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 these our sins to the Lord, … we tell our Lord what we have failed to do, and that we are truly sorry. …
Now I am sure we do not feel sorry for every sin as we say it, but we are unafraid to admit our failings to the Lord, and by doing so if become a habit for us, because we know that his word tells us that if we do so … he will forgive us … which he does. … And this act of regular repentance carries on in us to our every day lives, and everyone can see our openness, and our Christian character which brings its rewards, and I will show you.
We are comfortable with that, but do you know, and it never fails to amaze me that so many people in this world are not comfortable with repentance, and that includes many of our friends and families. … Watch out for that one, people generally will do somersaults rather than admit they got it wrong, and when they do that, watch them struggle; you cannot help them because they won’t listen, and the consequences can be sever. … I have been watching this for years, and I still cannot believe the states some people get into, all because they will not admit their failings, and move on.
You see most people in this world have secrets of some kind that they want to keep secret, particularly from themselves, let alone God, and especially form others. … They are basically prisoners of themselves, … and that is why God must first forgives our sins, so that we can be useful to him, useful to others, and useful to ourselves.
We are not here this morning to worship this church or those around us, we are here to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, and by doing so, in his presence, there is certain things he demands from us, and the first is truth and honesty, … this he demands; he demands we confess our sin, to him and only to him, and in turn, God will forgive us.
I personally find it easy, you too probably, because the bible tells us that God knows everything anyway, … Luke chapter 12 verse tells us, "even the very hairs of your head are all numbered", … so who are we kidding, … but in the passage today, this is made even more clear. … Jesus revealed the woman’s 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, … and 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 be able to confess our sins in all their horror; … and open to him so that we can receive our forgiveness, … and allow him, … to clean us up.
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 forgiven. … 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, (and still do at times), 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 this 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 making it unhealable.
Jesus did not analyse this woman’s sin in depth. It was enough for him to hear her admitting her sin, and admitting that she knew it was wrong, … it was enough for him to hear her sincerity and remorse; … … it was then enough then for him to forgive her.
And so our church service reflects this process, we first confess our sins … and then we receive absolution. There is no need to extend this part of the service … as 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 need to be quick 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 well and truly forgiven.
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 especially”; or was his death 2000 years ago enough to cover all sin for all mankind, for ever. As Christians, one of these two statements is true. … The bible tells us that Christ died once and for all, that his sacrifice was enough; … whether we feel forgiven or not. … And to refuse forgiveness is to deny the Lord Jesus Christ, and what he did for us all those years ago.
Some people say the devil reminds us of our sins to keep us down, but I think it is more the Lord who like to show us how far we have come, because by remind us, we cringe, we know how wrong that sin is, and so we will never commit that sin again. If it does not bother you, you will sin that sin again.
Yes I am aware, that what I have just said was easy to say, and so difficult to do, but I too get constantly reminded of past sin, … 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, enough to cover all sin.
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And by her forgiveness, the joy and surprise of this 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 self-worth and dignity, feelings 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, (and they certainly knew 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 in her heart, … but for a purpose; … verse 39, “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 a despised, rejected, sinful woman to save many souls, and we read that she became one of 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 forgive us of our sin … and free us from our own condemnation.
Father according to your word, we now receive our forgiveness, and that we never need to confess these sins again to you. Cleanse our hearts Father in the mighty name of Jesus, Amen.
