This reading from John 4 uses something from everyday life that is intended to give us a powerful connection to spiritual truth. It’s supposed to touch our head and our heart and impact our emotions. But I fear that it is lost on us. What am I talking about? It’s just plain water. Well, I guess drinking water specifically.
Here is what I mean. In the account of Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, water is a central theme. And it’s important for us to know that in the setting of our Gospel Lesson it took effort to get water. It wasn’t always clean. And it wasn’t uncommon for people to get sick and even die because of not having safe water to drink. Although there are perhaps many things that we take for granted in our modern world I think one of the biggest items is water that is safe to drink, easily accessible, and relatively inexpensive.
So, friends in Christ, what can we do to connect with the important truths found in our Gospel Lesson? First of all, it might be good to have a reminder of how fortunate we are to have the drinking water we so easily take for granted. And then, perhaps more importantly, we need to identify the things that make us “thirsty” in other ways that have nothing to do with water.
According to statistics from the World Health Organization over 2 billion people live in water-stressed countries. Also, globally, at least 2 billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with feces. Microbiologically contaminated drinking water can transmit diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio. Those account for almost 500,000 deaths each year. Those facts might help to open our eyes to its context and connect our thoughts with our Gospel Lesson—in which, once again, water is used to teach a spiritual lesson.
There is some good news to report regarding drinking water. In the most recent analysis 74% of the global population used a safely managed drinking-water service—that is, one located on premises, available when needed, and free from contamination. Since we are among those who have safe and clean drinking water it might be most helpful for us to transition from physical water to the numerous things that make us thirsty in other ways—that is wanting satisfaction or fulfillment in some person, place, or thing and not finding it.
So, let’s dig into the Gospel Lesson for this Sunday from John 4 and use both ideas of “water” and “thirst” as the central ideas for our sermon together. Let’s use this theme to guide our focus on Jesus’ interaction with a Samaritan woman at a water well as you hear the invitation to:
QUENCH YOUR THIRST WITH LIVING WATER!
I. Recognize the thirst sin causes in you
II. Drink the living water Jesus offers you
Perhaps it goes without saying, but this is a lengthy Gospel Lesson! I’ll have to be brief as I give you some of the background information. Following John’s “paradigm of personal interaction” we have another “one on one” situation. Most of the Gospel Lesson for today is just about Jesus’ and a Samaritan woman. You may recall how that is one of the things that makes John’s Gospel a little different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Larger sections of John are dedicated to Jesus’ interaction with individuals. Think of how John 3 records the familiar one on one encounter between Jesus and Jewish leader named Nicodemus. John 4 has the Samaritan woman introduced in our Gospel reading this morning. It also has the account of one “royal official” who came to Jesus asking him to heal his son. John 5 tells us about a crippled man Jesus healed at the pool of water called Bethesda. All of John 9 is the account of Jesus healing one particular blind man. John 11 tells us about Jesus’ conversations with Martha and Mary and then his raising of Lazarus from the dead. And then five chapters of John’s Gospel records Jesus’ conversation with just his disciples on Maundy Thursday.
Now for the immediate context of our Gospel Lesson. John tells us, “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 noon.” Although I am sure many people recognize the meaning of the words “good Samaritan” far fewer people know the history of the Samaritans referenced in the Bible. The Samaritans were a racially mixed people that lived in the central part of Israel. They were the descendants of non-Jews who were forcibly settled in Israel by the Assyrians hundreds of years before Jesus. Not only were they a mix of races their religion was also a mix of Judaism and other ideas outside of the Bible. We hear about some of these significant racial and religious realities separating the Jews and Samaritans in our Gospel Lesson.
I.
As we observe Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman, we’ll notice what made her thirsty and then bring that around to our lives and think about what makes us thirsty. “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.) Although physical thirst is a “fact of life” it is compounded and made more difficult because of sin in this world. Going to a well with a bucket under the hot sun likely wasn’t easy for this woman. Perhaps Jesus recognized the effort that he and the woman had to put into getting water. He then used that to lead the woman to recognize what she was actually thirsty for—which really was not water after all.
Although water was the starting point our Gospel Lesson records two attempts by Jesus to get the woman to stop thinking about physical water and start thinking about water in a spiritual sense. First Jesus says, “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.” It seems like the woman is perhaps a little offended at Jesus’ words. She may have been thinking along these lines. “You ask me for a drink. And then you tell me that you have better water than what’s in the well next to us. You don’t have a bucket, or another container. Who do you think you are anyway?” So Jesus answered, “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.” Since Jesus doubled down on the idea that he had better water to give the woman she basically says, “Okay, mister give me this water!” Then, Jesus had her right where he wanted to her. She was ready to recognize the thirst Jesus was talking about. It’s the thirst that sin causes in a person!
Our Gospel Lesson continues, “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.” Wow! Jesus was as “blunt as a spoon,” as the British say, with this Samaritan woman. But she had been trying to quench her thirst for love and meaning in men, lots of men apparently! These failed relationships just made her thirstier! Sin separated her from the truth about God. She longed for answers and a right relationship with God. Although the woman seems to have tried to change the subject in the end, she got the point. She realized what was making her thirsty and received living water from Jesus. We’ll have to wait for another time in a sermon or Bible class to examine the brief conversation Jesus had with the woman about worship. We need to bring this idea home to our own hearts and lives.
Ask yourself this question, “What thirst(s) do you have in your life? What has sin caused you to be thirsty for in your life?” Better yet, ask yourself what people, places, and things, have you attempted to use to satisfy your thirst? Was it in human relationships like the Samaritan woman that had been married five times? The world tells us that it has what we are thirsty for is more everything--more money, more fame, and the latest one of these or the newest one of those. And then think of how we try to satisfy our thirst. In our sinful nature we think we can satisfy our own thirst which leads to pride, selfishness, and addictions of various kinds. But, of course, all those things leave us thirsting for more. Nothing in this fallen world with quench our thirst.
King Solomon attempted to satisfy his thirst for something that would satisfy him. He literally tried to find satisfaction in everything this world offers. But he was left thirsty! And he tells us why in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Or as the early church father St. Augustine stated it, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” When you get down to the deep recesses of the human heart the only thing that will satisfy our spiritual thirst is a right relationship with God. He offers that to us through the living water of salvation found in Christ alone.
II.
The closing words between Jesus and the Samaritan women tells us what we need to know about drinking the living water that Jesus offers. “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, the one speaking to you—I am he.” The woman put her faith in Jesus. In that way she “drank” the living water Jesus had been talking about.
Following these verses, we are told that the woman left her water jar at the well and went into the town where she lived. She invited everyone to come out and meet Jesus. John tells us that many Samaritans were brought to believe in Jesus. They too drank the living water that Jesus offers.
It might be helpful for us to understand this idea of “living water” by listening to some of the Old Testament prophecies that predicted how the Savior would bring living water for the whole world. Once again, we are at a slight disadvantage because we are among those who fortunately have safe and clean drinking water.
The Prophet Joel used the image of water to illustrate the salvation that the Savior would bring. In Joel 3:18 we read, “In that day the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk; all the ravines of Judah will run with water. A fountain will flow out of the LORD’s house and will water the valley of acacias.” Also in Zechariah 14:8 the prophet declared, “On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.” The Holy Spirit recorded a similar thought through the Prophet Ezekiel. First, he saw this, “…and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar.” In his vision Ezekiel saw that flow of water turn into a huge river. And that river made the desert bloom. It transformed the landscape. The river was full of life and fruit trees sprang up that were good for food and healing. Wherever the water from the temple flowed in turned salt water into fresh water. This was a symbol of what Jesus’s suffering and death would do. Wherever the message of salvation through Jesus flows it brings life. And then in the last book of the Bible this same picture appears. Revelation 22:1 tells us, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”
But how exactly does a person drink the water of life? I want you to imagine for a moment that you were here at church working outside on the lawn or the flowerbeds. You worked up a thirst raking leaves, mowing, or spreading mulch. No, this isn’t a commercial for our upcoming work days. I am using this story to make a point. Let’s say someone left some cold drinks on the counter in the kitchen. What would your reaction be? You would probably just grab one, right? They are there. You are thirsty. They must be for “everyone” right? But how would you know? Maybe they are for a baby shower, or a church group meeting, or something like that. Even if there was a note by the drinks saying, “These are for you.” How would you know you are the “you” on the note? But suppose the person who brought them was standing there and said, “Yes, these are for everyone. Please, take one!” When it comes to the water of life we might wonder if it’s for us and how we drink. Thankfully, Jesus comes to us and says, “Yes, the water of life is for everyone. It’s for you! Put your faith in me as your Savior.”
And there is something else we need to know about the water of life quenching our thirst. As long as we live in this sinful world we will continue to thirst for other things. How do we handle those thirsts? Maybe we could picture it this way. There was a man who had struggle with alcoholism. He had been sober for a number of years. One hot day in the summer he was walking on main street, and he was tempted to go into the local bar and have a cold beer. He knew that this would send him back into his addiction of alcoholism and all the problems that came with it. As he found himself drawn to the bar and a cold beer he stopped himself and ducked into the ice cream shop. But he was still feeling drawn to the bar next door. So he ordered 5 root beer floats and pounded them down. He was so full he was no longer tempted to quench his thirst at the bar. He went home instead. In a similar way when we face the thirsts caused by sin, we need to fill ourselves with the living water found in God’s Word. All of those sinful things that make us “thirsty” for something other that God are going away. As long as we live in this sinful world those “thirsts” will pop up again and again. So we again and again drink the Water of Life—salvation found in Christ alone!
Water and thirst. Those are two powerful pictures that we find in Jesus’ interaction with a Samaritan woman at a well. May God the Holy Spirit enable us to recognize the thirst that sin gives us. And that thirst will never be quenched. Sin is never satisfying. And then let’s ask God the Holy Spirit to move us to drink more deeply from the water of life our Savior offers us. Yes, today, and every day, let’s quench our thirst with the Water of Life. Amen.
