In Jesus Holy Name March 8,2026
Text: John 4:4-7 Lent III – Redeemer
“The Woman at the Well”
There are two kinds of water in the Middle East: dead water and living water. Dead water is still water; living water is moving water. Water in a cistern, doesn’t’ move. Jews living in Galilee would often travel to Jerusalem to worship at the temple for the great Jewish feasts. But they would along the Jordan River, even though the shorter route would be to travel through Samaria. Jews would not travel through Gentile territory of Samaria unless there was no other option.
The Jewish /Samaritan schism was proximally 700 years old when Jesus came on scene. Jews and Samaritans worshipped in two separate temples and used two different scriptures. Jews tracing descent from Judah and accepting the whole Hebrew Bible, while Samaritans descend from the northern Kingdom of Israel, accepting only the Pentateuch (Torah) and viewing Mount Gerizim as the holy site, not Jerusalem.
Hundreds and hundreds of years later Jesus chose to travel through Samaria.
He sat with a Samaritan woman at Jacobs well. It is still there today. The well was dug in the days of Patriarchs. ( Abrham and Jacob)The well was a gathering place for the local women, while there they would catch up on local news or gossip and help each other raise the rope tied to a bucket This woman was an outcast which is why she came alone. Like the others she would have to crank the rope alone in order to draw the water up from the well.
Jesus the Jewish rabbi was breaking two rules: 1. He was traveling through territory not acceptable. It would require days of purification before he could enter the temple in Jerusalem. and He was talking to a woman.
The encounter of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well was not a random meeting. It was planned by God and it demonstrates Jesus’ mercy, passion and love for us, resulting in joy. Four invisible walls stand between Jesus and the woman at the well in Samaria. There is a religious wall, a gender wall, a racial wall, and a moral wall. Yet Jesus found a way through all of them. He found her, and then she found him! What does this story tell us about God?
First, that a Jew would speak to a Samaritan. Second, that a man would speak to a woman he didn’t know in public. Third, that a Jew would drink from a Samaritan’s cup. In the first century, it was almost unheard of for a man to speak to a woman in public. Asking for a drink of water was even more unusual since Jewish rabbis taught it was a sin to touch a utensil that a Samaritan had touched.
John writes: Jesus left Judea and departed again for Galilee. He had to pass through Samaria. What? He HAD to pass through Samaria. Were his feet too tired to cross the Jordan like most everybody else? Was there some kind of traffic accident or road construction which forced Him to go through the land populated by these religious rejects? There is only one reason Jesus HAD to go through Samaria. He had an appointment with a lady at Jacob’s well.
The conversation begins with a simple question from Jesus: “Will you give me a drink?”
He was thirsty and knew it.
She was thirsty and didn’t know it.
The woman did not come to the well seeking Christ, but he came to the well seeking her. He had an appointment to keep. As I noted last week God always acts first. To keep that private appointment is why Jesus sent his disciples into town to buy food. To keep the appointment is why Jesus sat by Himself at the well and waited. He knew she would come in the middle of the day.
She came alone to the well at noontime. This was potentially dangerous and somewhat unusual. Women normally came together to the well in the morning or the evening. It was something of a social event. The fact that this woman came alone means her checkered past was well known to the villagers.
This lady was shocked to see Jesus sitting there, It was obvious by his dress that he was a Jewish rabbi. When she arrived at well, Jesus asked: “”Will you give me a drink of water?” What could she say? Why did he speak to me? “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.” She said. She could not believe that this man broke tradition and actually requested a drink of water from the unclean cup of an unclean woman. Some of you may well remember the days of “drinking fountains” for “whites” only. Thank the Lord that is no longer a reality but it is part of our American past. It may help you understand the situation at the Samaritan well. A Jew would not drink from the cup of a Samaritan.
After a brief exchange, Jesus told her that He was the Water of Life and if she drank from the water which He had, she would never be thirsty again. Thinking that she’d never have to come in the heat of the day again to draw water she said: “Sir…I’d like that kind of water. That way I won’t get thirsty and I won’t have to come back here.” Living water is the refreshing news that God loves us even if we have a checkered past.
Now that Jesus had her full attention, .” Jesus cuts right to the chase. , “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” Perhaps she had been ostracized by the other women. You know the feeling of condemnation, She felt shame so she tried to change the subject. When the Messiah comes He will explain everything. 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Shocked at the question. She said, “I have no husband.” Jesus knew. “You are right….you have had five husbands and the man you are with now is not your husband Jesus said to her
This is the first time Jesus reveals Himself as the Messiah.
“… the words of Jesus reveal a deep-seated loneliness, a hole in her heart no man could fill. Far from being irrelevant, these words of Jesus go to the core of her problem—and of ours. We’ve been raised to believe that if you only find the right man or the right woman, you’ll be happy. If you just have the right toys or more money….you’ll find the hole in your heart filled. So we jump from one relationship to another, or we take a quick trip to Temptation Island, hoping against hope that this time things will be different, this time we’ll make it, this time we’ll be happy..
St. Augustine noted that every person has a God shaped hole in his or her soul. People attempt to fill that cavity with lots of things but nothing satisfies our desire for significance and assurance of redemption….except Jesus the living water from heaven.
We are spiritual beings made for a relationship with God. There is a “God-shaped vacuum” inside the human heart no man or woman can ever fill. We were made to know God, and until we know him through Jesus Christ, we are doomed to restlessness and despair.
Along comes Jesus. In Him, dwells the fullness of the Godhead. He did not just proclaim a truth, he said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
“I am the door”… no one comes to the Father except through me.” “I am the resurrection and the life.” He who comes to me will never be thirsty.
When Jesus states: “I am the living water” He is inviting us to “absorb his
teaching, his values, his very being….he is speaking total assimilation, his passion, cross and resurrection and his commands…” What does Jesus say? “The water I give will be a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” There is nothing in any other religion that even comes close to this profound teaching.
(Ravi Zacharis Jesus Among Other Gods p. 91)
Our greatest thirst is for an intimate friendship with God. Our thirst is for worship…. Worship is not just songs and hymns and prayers… as Rick Warren writes in his book the “Purpose Driven Life” but a soul connection to Jesus.
Jesus took a piece of bread, broke and gave it to his disciples saying… “this is my body given for you”. He was telling his disciples that his body would be broken on the cross, so that our friendship with God would be restored. His blood would cover our sins and transfer to all who believe the righteousness of Jesus. How? I do not know how… that is the mystery of faith. But I do know what Paul said in the Bible.
“Once you were alienated from God, separated from him by your evil behavior, but now God has brought you back as his friends, reconciled you through the blood of Christ, shed on the cross, to present you holy in his sight with out spot or blemish, free from accusation, “if” you continue in your faith….” (Colossians 1:21-22) This is the good news for a thirsty soul.
Jesus Christ solved this human dilemma because he was both God and man. Jesus said, “I have come down from heaven to do the will of him who sent me.” As God he had the power and authority to devise a plan for our salvation. As a man, he executed the plan by taking the punishment upon himself. Jesus died in our place. He suffered the death penalty for us. In so doing he upheld the holiness of God and satisfied God’s demand for justice. (Billy Hybles Contagious Christianity p. 153)
Some will ask, “Why did Jesus die?” Why couldn’t God just forgive and forget?” Suppose you had a brand new car parked in front of your
Home and a neighbor accidentally ran into it. Though you can forgive him and release him from any responsibility, you still have a problem. Who is going to pay for the dent? Since you left the neighbor off the hook you will be left to pay for the repairs.
Similarly, we’ve done damage by sinning against God. He is willing to forgive us and restore our relationship of friendship with Himself. It’s ours for the asking. But he still had to pay for the damage. The death penalty, which He paid…by coming to earth and dying on the cross in our place. (Acts 20:28)
Jesus said, “I am the living water.” He satisfies our soul thirst. Let me ask you a serious question.
Are you sure of your eternal address? If you died tonight can you be absolutely sure you will wake up in heaven? Here is a great promise… look at verse 14 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth. The water I give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” He who believes has everlasting life. I will raise him up at the last day… I am the living water.”
Why do I ask you in the beginning of the each year to read more in the bible this year than last year? Only the words of Jesus can quench your spiritual thirst.
“God packages the Water of life in the words and life of a country carpenter name Jesus and then gives us the cup so that we might drink from the fresh, cool spring of water that truly quenches the thirsty soul.” Give your thirsty friends a cup of cool water. Share Jesus.
Hal David and Burt Bacharach even wrote a popular song in 1965 "What the World Needs Now Is Love".
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No, not just for some but for everyone.
Lord, we don't need another mountain,
There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb
There are oceans and rivers enough to cross,
Enough to last till the end of time.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
Just singing about the need to “love” does not get us out of our dilemma where selfishness controls human nature. Only God in Christ, through the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes we discover it in the least likely places. Mother Teresa was ministering among some of the neediest people on earth. She went into one hovel where she could see the hollowness of the children's eyes and the emaciation of the parents. They had not eaten in days. Mother Teresa had brought to the family a small portion of rice. When she presented the rice to the mother, the mother divided it into two equal parts, and then rose to leave the room. "Where are you going?" Mother Teresa asked. The woman answered "Next door they are hungry also."
That mother did not enjoy the affluence that you and I take for granted, but she could teach us something about what it means to follow Jesus.
So what then did Jesus mean when he said that we are to love God and neighbor? Jesus said: “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself (that natural human tendency to be selfish) and follow me.
Scholar Douglas Hare points out that "love" in the biblical tradition is a concrete, unmoveable commitment. To love is to have an unwavering commitment to another, a commitment that expresses itself tangibly. "Love," as Jesus uses it here, is a call to commit oneself fully and concretely to both God and neighbor. It is a choice we can make everyday.
Luther understood the importance of beginning every day with a God focus. His morning prayer goes like this:
“I thank You, my heavenly thru Jesus Christ Your dear Son that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger and I pray that You would keep me this day from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please you. …. Let your holy angel be with me so that the evil foe may have no power over me.”
Loving others is not always easy. Sometimes it is easier to love those far away than those near and not always so dear…. selfishness tends to be our nature… I know it is mine! Only God’s love can break us out of selfishness and thus live in the image of Jesus.
The biggest challenge for the first century disciples beyond the event of the cross… was embracing, accepting and loving Gentiles as fellow believers. The first break through came when a Roman Centurian Cornelius had a vision. Luke tells us about it in Acts 10.
This event is a blueprint of four principles for learning how to cross boundaries to share God’s love.
#1 Other people are listening for God…. We don’t always know who they are…but the Holy Spirit does.
Cornelius was a God believer. That means he did not believe in the numerous “Roman or Greek gods” nor worship in their temples. He accepted the Jewish belief… “the Lord our God is one.” Luke writes: “Cornelius was a devout man who feared God” and who “gave alms generously” and who “prayed constantly to God.”
#2 Resistance to boundary breaking is normal.
Even after Peter had seen Jesus cross ethnic boundaries: the woman at the well of Samaria; the leper; the tax collector Zaccheaus; and others, Peter still had trouble. Peter was a good Jewish man who practiced kosher food laws. One day he fell asleep and the Holy Spirit gave him a vision of a picnic of food filled with unclean animals. God told him to rise and eat. He of course objected, until God gave him the vision three times.
There came a knock at the front door, Several of Cornelius’ soldiers arrived and told Peter of the dream that Cornelius had had. Now Peter was no fool. He took other Jewish believers with him to Caesarea. Listen to Peter’s first remarks when he arrived at the home of this God – seeker. He was thinking about this without an answer until: said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. 29 So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?”
Only then did Peter realize that God was not partial…”and that in every nation God is at work…..” the Holy Spirit was at work not only in Jewish hearts but in the hearts of Gentiles as well.
#3 God is already at work in the hearts of people we do not yet know. They may be “like us” or they may “be different”. Just going to the rescue mission might be a boundary you are afraid of breaking or visiting with those who are at the Margie Mason Center.
Too practice the commands of Jesus to love our neighbor no matter their etnic background or skin color, we may have to cross unfamiliar boundaries.
#4 When Peter told them about Jesus the Holy Spirit “fell upon all who heard.” Conversion is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit… but we must not fail in ours…. Which is to “tell the story” “all around the neighborhood.”
“Love Is” Paul writes in I Corinthians “patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.” “Love does not insist on its own way.” “Love does not keep score of the sins of others.”
Look at these words… envious, boastful, arrogant, rude…. These are not the behaviors Jesus expects…. Patient….this is a relationship word between people. It also works between people and horses, I know. Patience is time. It is a fruit of the Spirit….that means it is also produced in us over time, like any fruit that grows on a tree.
All parents wait for their child to learn to tie their shoes. All parents wait for their child to put on a coat because they know that these tasks, accomplished independently leads to maturity.
There is a story about a man who had a huge boulder in his front yard. He grew weary of this big, unattractive stone in the center of his lawn, so he decided to take advantage of it and turn it into an object of art. He went to work on it with hammer and chisel, and chipped away at the huge boulder until it became a beautiful stone elephant. When he finished, it was gorgeous, breath-taking.
A neighbor asked, "How did you ever carve such a marvelous likeness of an elephant?"
The man answered, "I just chipped away everything that didn't look like an elephant!"
If you have anything in your life right now that doesn't look like love, then, with the help of God, chip it away! If you have anything in your life that doesn't look like compassion or mercy or empathy, then, with the help of God, chip it away! If you have hatred or prejudice or vengeance or envy in your heart, for God's sake, and the for the other person's sake, and for your sake, get rid of it! Let God chip everything out of your life that doesn't look like tenderheartedness or patience or selfishness. This is the season of Lent, we are encouraged to repent.
Jesus said: “for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited men in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” (Matt. 25:35-36)
