Third Sunday in Lent
March 8, 2026
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
John 4:5-26
Fresh Encounters
A story is told about a pastor meeting with a contractor about installing air conditioning for the church. The man asked the pastor a number of questions about seating capacity, square footage, ceiling heights, usual attendance, etc., while he took notes. Then he crumpled up the paper and started over.
“What’s wrong?” asked the pastor. “I was figuring to a theater instead of a church,” replied the contractor. The pastor questioned him, “What’s the difference? Wouldn’t they be the same?” “No, not really,” answered the contractor.
“In a theater, with the sound and all that’s on the screen, there are biological changes that take place: heart rate is elevated, blood pressure increases, and body temperatures begin to climb. In other words, there is a greater need for cooling when people get excited. On the other hand, in the church…”
Without even realizing it, this contractor portrayed a common view of worship. It is widely believed that nothing exciting ever happens when people worship. Nothing that would elevate anyone’s heart rate, increase blood pressure or body temperature.
On the whole, we have to admit that most Sundays fit this description. [Illustration from Chris Genders, “Feature Presentation” sermon, SermonCentral.com]
But, what if we came here on a Sunday morning prepared for a fresh encounter with God? We prayed for it. We prepared our hearts and minds for it. We hear the Scriptures read and preached with a mindset that there is something new and life-changing in them for us. We come to church prepared to sing the hymns with our hearts and minds fully engaged, desiring to reach God through the music that we offer to Him.
Is it possible to have the level of engagement in our worship that elevates heart rates, and increases blood pressure and body temperatures? Or is that just for Pentecostals, Charismatics, and some other evangelicals?
What biological changes to you think were occuring inside the Samaritan woman at the well when she met Jesus Christ?
vv. 5-6 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
At the beginning of the chapter, John says that Jesus left Judea to go to Galilee, and “he had to pass through Samaria” (v. 4). Through Samaria was the most direct route, and on that route, Jesus comes to Sychar. Jerome, a priest who died in 420 AD and whose greatest work was his translation of the Bible into Latin, what we know at the Vulgate, identified Sychar as Shechem, as did a Syriac manuscript of the Gospel of John. Shechem in only 250 feet from Jacob’s well.
Jesus is tired from his travel, so He sits by the well. It’s about noon.
vv. 7-9 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
Jews and Samaritans did not mix for a variety of reasons. One reason was that Samaritans had married non-Jews and this was offensive to Jews. Second, Samaritans refused to worship in Jerusalem. Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies.
In the second century B.C., the Samaritans collaborated with the Syrians against Israel. In 128 B.C., the Jewish high priest had the Samaritan temple of Mount Gerizim burned. Given this background, is it any wonder that the Samaritan woman was surprised that Jesus would speak to her?
v. 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
Living water is flowing water from a stream or river, but obvious to us, Jesus meant much more.
vv. 4:11-12 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
While the Samaritan woman isn’t grasping His real meaning, she does think that Jesus is implying that He is greater than the great patriarch Jacob.
vv. 13-14 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The living water that Jesus gives quenches thirst forever. This is the gift of God that Jesus has been speaking about since the beginning of this conversation.
v. 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
Jesus has been moving this conversation to a spiritual level, but the Samaritan woman is stuck on the material, physical level.
vv. 16 Jesus said to her, “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.”
Now, Jesus gets personal. There’s no more room for misunderstanding. Here is a woman who has had five husbands and is now living with a sixth man. In that culture, at that time, this was scandalous and gross immorality. Even in our time, being intimate with six men, even serially, is not a mark of a righteous life.
Talking about water was fine. We can have a nice theoretical back and forth about water, living water, whatever. But now, the conversation is deeply and pointedly personal.
vv. 19-20 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
How could this stranger know so much about her life? He must be a prophet. Jesus must be a holy man, so she asks him a religious question.
vv. 21-24 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Jesus doesn’t engage with the issue of where to worship. Instead, He predicts that a time will come when the place where you worship isn’t important. In 70 AD, the temple in Jerusalem will be destroyed. The most holy and sacred place of worship in the world will be no more. What then?
Jesus says that what will always be important is that the one, true God be worshiped in spirit and truth. Jesus first spoke to this woman about living water that is a gift of God. This living water is the Holy Spirit who comes into the lives of every true follower of Jesus Christ. God the Holy Spirit leads all true followers of Christ into true worship. True worship is worship in spirit and truth, and that can only happen by the power of God the Holy Spirit.
In his book, Forgotten God, former pastor, former missionary, now a conference speaker and preacher, author Francis Chan wrote,
I’d bet you’d agree that a group of talented charismatic leaders can draw
a crowd. Find the right creative team, musicians and speakers, and you
can grow a church. It doesn’t even have to be a Christian church.
The fact is that without making a conscious choice to depend on
the Holy Spirit, we can do a lot. [p. 141]
Chan once asked leaders of the church he founded whether he could become an insurance salesman. I’m sure that shocked them. He had led that church to a handful to over 6,000 members. Now he wants to sell insurance? No, he didn’t, but he did want to make a point.
He recognized that he had speaking and people skills. He said, “Because of how I was made, I could be an insurance salesman if I had a little bit of training” (p. 142). He goes on, “And I could probably ‘pull off’ a fairly adequate church on my own as well. But, who needs that?” [ibid.]
Who does need a church that is a human invention without any work of the Holy Spirit?
No one does. No one needs that.
What we need, and what all people need is a church where true worshipers worship God in spirit and truth.
What spirit?
The Holy Spirit.
What truth?
The truth that we receive from God. God is the source of all truth, and the Holy Spirit leads God’s people into all truth. As Lutherans, I am convinced that we have the right teaching, the right doctrine. The Presbyterians have the Westminister Confession. The Church of England and Anglicans worldwide have the 39 Articles of Religion. The Roman Catholics have their catechism and the teaching office of their church. We have the Book of Concord which is comprehensive and thoroughly biblical.
We have worship that is thoroughly saturated with the Word of God.
Do we have the Holy Spirit in us and among us so that we worship God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in spirit and truth?
Truth be told, we don’t have a creative team. We have two pastors, two other elders, and a parish council. Most Sundays, we have one musician. We have preachers. But, if we don’t have the Holy Spirit guiding and directing us, what are we doing?
The gift of God that Jesus speaks about in John chapter 4 is the giver of the new life that Jesus Christ brings in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is the Messiah sent by God His Father, who has come into our world to tell us everything we need to know for salvation.
More than that, Jesus is God in flesh, one like us in our humanity except with no sin, who came to give His life as a sacrifice to God His Father for the sins of this world. When the woman at the well says,
vv. 25-26 “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
Jesus identifies Himself as the Messiah sent by God. He is not the kind of messiah that Israel of the Samaritans expected. Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, is the divine Son of God, who comes to die for this world in order to bring the world to God His Father. To all who believe in Him, He gives eternal life. All who believe in Him are adopted into God’s family - this is for Jews, Samaritans, even Americans. Whoever places their faith in Jesus Christ and what He has done for us on the cross, receives the greatest gifts of God, salvation, new life, eternal life.
The Samaritan woman whom Jesus met at Jacob’s well said to the people of her town,
vv. 29-30 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.
The Samaritan woman had left her water jar at the well - she intended to return to Jesus. She tells her town about what He said to her. She invites her town to go to Jacob’s well to meet Jesus. Her testimony resulted in her entire town going to meet Jesus.
When you have a genuine encounter with Christ, how can you not tell others? What might happen if you pray daily for your oikos and tell them about Jesus? [Note: google “the oikos movement”]
vv. 39-42 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Wow. Her testimony drew her town to Jesus and their experience with Jesus led them to believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world.
Another wow.
Jesus is not just the Jewish messiah. He is the messiah for the whole world, including the Samaritans. Including you and me. Including anyone anywhere who will believe in Him.
Jesus stays with the Samaritans for two days. This must have blown the minds of his disciples. When they first saw Him talking with a Samaritan woman, they “marveled” at this (v. 27). They were astonished. What must they have thought after He spent two days in a Samaritan town?
It is not generally acknowledged as such, but when the woman at the well says that when Messiah comes, he will reveal all things, Jesus responds with the first “I am” statement of the Gospel of John. The words in the original Greek of the New Testament are ??? e?µ?, which mean “I am.” This is obscured by the way verse 26 is rendered in our English translations. In this first “I am” statement of the Gospel of John, Jesus clearly and unambiguously identifies Himself as the Messiah.
Our church gives us this reading in Lent? Why? Why in Lent?
This Lent, in year A of our three year cycle of readings, we are given four gospel readings from John. Each one teaches us something important about Jesus Christ. This Sunday, Jesus is the Messiah who gives living water. The living water that Jesus gives is the Holy Spirit. He tells us that God His Father is seeking people who will worship Him in spirit and truth.
True worship is worship in the power of the Holy Spirit. True worship is saturated with truth.
As we looked in on Jesus with Nicodemus last Sunday, and today with the Samaritan woman, I encourage you to go deeper with Jesus this Lent. Consider His words as words spoken directly to you. Give thanks that He has come to give you living water and the new life that flows from it. Give thanks that He has given you His Holy Spirit as He does to all His followers. Give thanks that by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, you can experience the abundant life that Jesus promises to give to all His followers.
Does that elevate your heart rate? Does that increase your blood pressure? Does that cause your body temperature to climb? If not, I don’t know why not.
My prayer for you this Lent is that you will have fresh encounters with Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior of the world.
Let us pray.
Dear God, almighty Father, when your Son our Savior spoke to the woman at the well, you knew it would be recorded and one used by you to speak to your church. Fill each of us now with the living water that flows from your Spirit. Give us faith in the truth that you reveal to us. Deliver and cleanse us of everything that hinders our relationship to you. Transform and renew our minds by your life-giving Spirit so that the worship we offer you is pleasing in your sight. In Jesus’ Name, and for His sake, we pray. Amen.T
