Scripture: John 4:1-26; James 1:9; Proverbs 18:13
Theme: Connecting With Others (Woman at the Well)
The Apostle John reveals to us some ways that we can effectively and efficiently connect with people not only in the 1st Century but in the 21st Century.
Beginning #1 – INTRO:
You would have liked to be in our house around supper time when I was growing up.
Mom was an excellent cook. You could count on there being either some homemade biscuits or rolls. And then you could count on there being some mashed potatoes, green beans (at times with a little bacon in them), some corn and then some kind of meat – chicken, roast, ham, hamburger or pork chops. And usually there was some kind of dessert – it could be an apple or cherry pie, it could be a chocolate cake or angel food cake or it could be banana pudding.
That’s what mother brought to the meal.
Dad aways brought a story of some kind. It might be something that happened during his day or a story he just wanted to share. He was a great storyteller. Sometimes the stories had a point he wanted to make and sometimes they were just good stories that he wanted to share.
Our writer this morning the Apostle John was a great storyteller. At times he shares stories that are just great stories. At other times he shares a story to make some very important points.
The story we have today has both. It’s a great story and it has a point or two to make as well.
John reveals to us some ways that we can effectively and efficiently connect with people not only in the 1st Century but in the 21st Century.
Beginning #2 – INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
You and I live in an interesting period of human history. It is a fascinating time. There are so many things at our disposal. One of those things is how we are able to communicate with one another.
Think about it for a moment:
+We can use the traditional methods of just talking person-to-person.
+We can write someone a note or a letter.
But we live in a world where we can do so much more:
+We can send someone an email or a text message.
+We can use social media like X (formerly Twitter), Snap chat, Instagram or Facebook.
+We can do a Zoom Call or use Messenger to connect.
It seems each day there is a new way or platform being invented so that we can communicate more effectively or efficiently with one another.
And yet, for all our advances we also live in a time in human history where while we may be able to share words with others it is not always clear that we understand one another’s words or even receive one another’s words.
That is especially true in our nation. We seem to be losing the ability to hear one another and have meaningful communication.
How many times have we watched people talk over one another or totally disregard what the other has wanted to say. It seems that there is an ever-growing amount of people who are quick to judge and dismiss one another instead of taking the time to peel back the layers and truly talk to one another.
Our Gospel lesson this morning focuses on the need to be a good listener and a good communicator.
If we are going to win others to Jesus, we have to learn how to be able to listen and talk to people efficiently and effectively.
Our story surrounds two people –
a. The Woman who comes to the Well
b. Jesus who is already at the Well
The well was near the city of Sychar and had been there for a very long time. The Apostle John tells us that Abraham’s grandson Jacob had been the one who had first dug it out and had given it to his son Joseph.
That means that it had been a place to get water for over 1700 years by the time that Jesus meets the Samaritan woman. Their conversation wasn’t by any means the first that had happened near that well.
It wouldn’t be too hard to conjecture those others like Joshua, King David, Elijha and Elisha along with others had more than once while traveling had stopped by this well and had enjoyed its water.
So, in some ways two people meeting one another at this well was by no means an earth-shattering event. But as you read the story you begin to understand that what John was trying to get us to understand was how we as the Church and as individuals can learn how to communicate more clearly with those who don’t share our world view or even with those who don’t like us.
The two people who John writes about couldn’t have been more different.
1. One was male and the other female.
2. One had been married five times while the other one was single.
3. One was a native Samaritan while the other was a purebred Jew.
4. One believed that they had the truth – and that truth was in a holy mountain not far from the well while the other person (Jesus) was Truth embodied. He knew the Truth because He is the Truth.
5. One had the means to get water from the well (the woman) while the other one (Jesus) could not.
If you think about it there wasn’t really any reason these two people would have talked to each other. In that day men usually didn’t talk to women especially women who were had a Samaritan heritage.
The deeper we read into the story the more we see some important things about this woman:
+She is Courageous – she didn’t mind coming to this well all alone. That was quite unusual for women at that time. Usually, the women came in either pairs or in a group. More than once a band of bad shepherds or evil men would attack a woman at the well and physically abuse them if they venture out alone. (See Genesis 29; Exodus 3)
+She is Confrontational and Challenging – she doesn’t shy away when Jesus first speaks to her. She stands her ground and begins to challenge him. She gets quite confrontation. She shares her opinion of him and of the situation.
She knows how to stand up for herself and she doesn’t mind speaking her own mind. She is quite bold to say the least. If Jesus thought his line about wanting a cup of water was going to be a “Pick up” line, then he had another thing coming. This woman had not come out to the well to be picked up by any man.
What Jesus does is rather interesting. What He does and how He does it I believe can help us in talking to others that either don’t like the Church, don’t have time for the Church or don’t think the Church or Church people are really that important.
And today more than ever we in the Church need to be able to efficiently and effectively talk to people.
+How else are we going to fulfill the Great Commission?
+How else are we going to help people experience the New Birth, the Abundant Life and Everlasting Life.
If we don’t talk to people or communicate with people, then we have no future. I know that perhaps harsh but it is reality. We must be able to talk to people and share the message of Jesus.
So, what did Jesus do that can help us as individuals and as a congregation.
1. Jesus went to the well
While the others went off to a nearby city, Jesus stayed at the well.
If you have ever wondered why the disciples didn’t leave Jesus the means to get water from the well it wasn’t because they didn’t have one.
Any group of people who traveled in that day always had a way to get water out of a well. Someone would have overseen having a long piece of rope with a leather cup attached to it.
You can’t travel in the Middle East without having the means to use a well if you come across one.
The truth of the matter is that would not have taken any water from the well in their day even though it was a well built by the Patriarch Jacob.
It was now under the control of the Samaritans; people who were seen as racially diverse (mixed race) – half Jewish and half something else – Greek, Roman, Assyrian, Babylonian it didn’t matter. They were not true Jews.
They also didn’t believe in the Temple in Jerusalem. They believed in this so-called holy mountain nearby.
The disciples had gone into town where they knew other true Jews would be so they could get their supplies from kosher (genuine) Jews. They were probably a little upset that Jesus had decided to walk through Samaritan soil at all. Most Jews would take great pains to wash their feet and bath if they had to touch anything that a Samaritan owned or touched (including the dirt under their feet).
Jesus knew what he was doing sitting near that well. He knew that he was in “unholy territory”. He knew that if he waited long enough someone would come to the well to get water.
He waited just so he could talk to someone and that someone was this woman.
If the Church of Jesus is going to make it here in the United States and in many places in the world, we are going to have to be willing to put ourselves in places where the world meets. We must be willing to put ourselves in places that are a little unorthodox. We must go to the world and not expect that the world will come to us.
2. Secondly, we must be willing to listen to what people have to say to us even if we don’t like what they have to say.
Jesus took all that this woman had to give. He didn’t start preaching to her about her dress or her lifestyle.
In fact, he took her by surprise asking her to help him. He asked her to share with him her cup so that he could have a drink of water.
It’s here that she confronts Jesus, contradicts Jesus and challenges Jesus.
Who does he think he is asking her for water?
Who says that the Jewish way of doing things – worshipping God in Jerusalem is the only way?
Who says that even being Jewish is better than anyone else?
Jesus just listens. He lets her talk. He lets her vent.
At times we are going to be called to do just that. To let people vent. To let them tell us all the good and not so good about the Church even the one we go to and love.
Jesus let’s her talk because through her talking he is able to:
3. Connect and even correct some of her misgivings
Jesus is not there to harm her or to tell he she is in the wrong or that she is going to bust Hell wide open someday.
Jesus doesn’t back down from her either.
He takes all that she has to say and then very calmly and directly begins to correct some of her misgivings and misunderstandings.
+He is not there to judge her.
+He is not there to treat her like others have treated her; especially like the ones who had previously married her and then threw her away.
+He is not there to be superior to her.
+He is not there to back down to her as well.
When Jesus hears her saying certain things that are not correct, He doesn’t go silent. Instead, He listens and then corrects some bad theology.
And that is the key.
We live at a time when people are being told lie after lie after lie. Not just those outside the mainstream church but sadly there are some mainstream churches that have chosen to accept some lies rather than retain the truth.
They have rejected the authority of God’s Word and have instead chosen to cut out different parts of the Bible that does not agree with their modern-day agenda.
They have chosen to reject the Apostle’s Creed in the name of higher criticism or the idea that modern man should no longer hold to such faith statements as the Apostle Creed holds.
We must understand that what Jesus does here with the Woman at the Well is a template of how we are to converse with those who want to reject the Bible and Biblical truths.
Just because the world wants to adopt a certain lifestyle and a certain mindset does not mean that it is suddenly okay with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
This woman at the Well suffered from some bad theology. And she did her best to try to trap Jesus into a corner so that he couldn’t say anything.
But here is another key to this passage:
Jesus knew things that she knew he couldn’t know.
He knew about her past.
He knew about living water.
And more importantly she could feel the holiness that He possessed.
When the Early Church was threatened with being quiet and was told to basically go over in a corner and be quiet, they went to prayer. You can read all about that in Acts chapter 4.
They prayed for strength, power, insight and miracles. They prayed that God would do something in them that no one could deny or reject.
Jesus’ words – words of truth, holiness and righteousness opened the eyes and the heart of this woman. Jesus’ ability to know things further open the door for this woman.
What does all of this tell us?
+We need to pray for People at the Well encounters – we need to pray for opportunities to be able to connect with people and listen to them.
+We need to pray that God would give us supernatural insight and a holy presence that can literally be felt by those around us – where they know that what we say is the Truth.
+We need to pray for people who have been taught the wrong thing, the wrong ways to live that their eyes will be open and that their hearts will be transformed.
Not an easy job but if we are going to be the Church of Jesus in the 21st Century we must become the Jesus that goes to the places where people gather and make ourselves available.
We must ask God to send people our way – perhaps its person to person, perhaps its family members, perhaps it’s through social media – whatever means it is so that we can share the light of Jesus with them.
Jesus took the time to wait for this woman to come to the well.
Jesus took the time to listen to her and to converse with her.
That all happened of course because Jesus loved her. In the midst of her present condition and her spiritual state Jesus took the time to do all he could to help her see the truth, experience the truth and then be able to live out the truth.
Today, that is what we are called to do.
So, as we go out this morning – where is our well?
Who is the person or persons we are to connect with?
I want to challenge you this morning – begin now to ask God to give you a person – go for one person over the next six months that God will allow you to connect with that desperately needs the love and the forgiveness of Jesus.
Then ask the LORD for power, for supernatural insight and strength to connect with that person.
The Bible says that her encounter with Jesus transformed not only her life but the lives of those living in her village.
That’s what happens when people come to Jesus. They share with others.
Invitation to Holy Communion
