Over the past couple of weeks we’ve discussed the conflict between the world and God regarding truth. The world accepts truth only with the idea of its being flexible and subject to opinion or one’s point of view. The world adamantly rejects the very idea of "absolute truth" and ends up in moral confusion.
By contrast, God expects... no, He DEMANDS that we embrace the idea that there is truth - absolute truth. A truth that can only be found in Jesus Christ.
In the "Youth Worker’s Journal," Will Eisenhower tells of a typical experience he had as a counselor at a youth Bible camp: "It had been an exhausting day; the guys in my cabin were asleep, and I was dead to the world. Then there came a dim awareness: Ants were crawling all over my body. I was so tired, and sleep felt so good, that I actually resisted rousing myself. I knew that if I were roused even a little bit, I would have to acknowledge that my sleeping bag had become an ant freeway. I didn’t want to know the awful truth, so for at least several seconds I tried to fight it. At some deep level, I told myself that sleep was the reality and the ants were a dream."
God’s Truth can be like ants in our sleeping bag. His Truth attempts to rouse us out of our sleep and confront us with reality. Many people keep trying to ignore what God says and go back to the comfort of their sleepy lives. Waking up would mean that they have to face reality and see the truth about themselves. It would mean they’d have to change.
THE STORY:
Jesus had just been in Jerusalem for the Jewish Passover and was headed home to Galilee when He stopped with His disciples at Jacob’s well to rest.
Jesus sent his disciples on into the village of Sychar for food while He remained there alone. Perhaps because Jesus often went off by Himself to be alone, His students had gotten used to seeing their Master withdraw to a quiet place to pray.
And it was a good place to be alone. The 6th hour was what we call noon. And in that country, noon was a very hot time of the day.
Cities of that day were built around wells and water sources. I’m told that women would often come down to these wells during the morning hours (while the day was still cool) and gather their water into jars while they visited and gossiped with the other women.
This well of Jacob’s, however, was out in the country and noon was not a time when women gathered for such tasks.
So, here was Jesus all by Himself - perhaps focusing on prayer - setting by the well. Then along comes a woman with a jar on her head. She’s a little surprised to see him. Because of the well’s location and the time of day it was, no one should have been there. But here is a rabbi standing beside the well she intends to use. She thinks: "What’s He doing there?"
But, more to the point - what is she doing there? Why didn’t she go get her water durning the morning hours at the well located in the town square? There, she could have gossiped and hobnobed with the village women. Why go way outside the city in the heat of the day to fill her jar? Had the city well gone dry? Had she run out of water and just felt this water would simply taste better?
Probably not. It’s a good possibility that she didn’t go in the morning to the town’s well to gossip with other women... because all the gossip would have been about her. She was the town fluzzie. The woman of loose standards & easy morals. Had she lived today, she’d have been a guest for Jerry Springer or Maury Povich.
She’d had 5 husbands and the man she was living with now wasn’t even hers. (It makes you wonder who’s husband this one had been). Every woman in town probably watched their own husbands VERY closely when this girl was near at hand. Putting it bluntly - she wasn’t well liked or respected.
Generally, she avoided talking to much of anybody in town, but this man posed no threat. Not only was he an outsider who wouldn’t know her reputation, but he was obviously also a Jewish Rabbi - those men never talked to a woman, much less a Samaritan half breed like her.
BUT, THEN - He talks. It’s a polite question "Will you give me something to drink?" It’s a polite question, but a shocking one - Jews just didn’t talk to Samaritans. And she says as much.
"You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (4:9)
That was the only excuse Jesus needed to talk to this woman about her soul. Jesus answered her, "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" (John 4:10). Jesus went on to say: "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:13-14).
I’ve read many commentaries on this conversation between Jesus and this woman and the majority have presumed this woman’s comments were innocent conversation on her part. Now I don’t want to offend anybody, but that’s not what I see happening here. This woman wasn’t born yesterday. She looked at Jesus and thought to herself: "This boy doesn’t even have a bucket to draw water from the well."
She’s a worldly woman who’s been used to the attentions of men and I believe that her lifestyle would influence what she thinks is happening here. I think she believes Jesus is making a pass at her. I think she believes Jesus’ comment to be a come on... a creative pick up line.
Years ago, in my first ministry, I had taken some kids from the youth group to the local beach for a group swim. Seated on a blanket nearby was a fairly attractive woman. I was new to town and was attempting to talk with her and casually invite her to church. The conversation didn’t go far until it became apparent that she thought I was attempting to "pick her up." Then she asked what I did for a living. It kind of changed the whole nature of the conversation when I told her I was a preacher at the local Church of Christ.
The woman at the well was flattered... she still had it. Men still found her attractive. Maybe this man would supply what she had lacked in her life for so long. SO, she decides to play along. She smiles, bats her eyes & coyly replies- "Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." John 4:15
She thought He was interested in her... and He was. Just not in the way she thought. Jesus had come to THAT well on THAT day - just to meet her. He knew where she had been and how she had lived. He knew how she’d been treated, and how she had grown weary of the rejection and the whispering that went on behind her back.
She desired... no, she thirsted for change. She wanted it with all of her heart, but she just didn’t know how. However, for the kind of change she needed in her life to take place, she needed to face the truth about who she was and what she had done. And that is just Jesus is about to give her.
Jesus smiles: "Go, call your husband and come back" (John 4:16). His comment was like somebody throwing a bucket of ice on her. In spite of the heat of the day, her voice turns cold as she says - "I don’t have a husband."
"Well, now, that’s true," says Jesus. "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had 5 husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband" (John 4:17-18).
You can sense the ants in this woman’s sleeping bag. She thought she’d been safe, she thought he wouldn’t know, but here the ugly truth of her past - and her present - is staring at her. Staring at her in the face of a Jewish Rabbi. The truth was ugly, and she didn’t want to talk about it - so she sought to change the subject.
It shouldn’t be hard to get a Rabbi going - they all liked to argue about theology and (hey!) what better topic to argue about than whether worship at the Temple in Jerusalem or here on the mountain in Samaria was acceptable.
Coyly she changes the subject - "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem" (John 4:19-20).
Here, Jesus wanted to talk to her about her life and she ducks into theology. Jesus isn’t about to be thrown off the track. In essence He tells her: "Lady, this isn’t about religion - this is about being honest with God.
He tells her: "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth" (John 4:21-24).
In other words, He’s rebuking her: "don’t try playing games with God. God’ll have no part of it. If you can’t be honest with Him, it won’t matter where you worship."
Let me repeat: If you can’t be honest with Him, it won’t matter where you worship. If you insist on living a lie - there isn’t a thing God can do to help.
"Make a choice lady (He seems to be saying) - but don’t take all day."
Once more she tries to deflect the conversation. Almost apologetically she offers: "I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us" (John 4:25).
THEN Jesus quietly says: "I who speak to you am he" (John 4:26). In other words - if you want God’s mercy and God’s forgiveness and you want to change your life into something that you don’t have to be ashamed of = then you need ME.
Something happened to her at that moment. It’s hard to say what. But having been confronted about her sin and about her need for truth, something breaks inside of her. Finding a convenient opportunity to slip away when Jesus’ disciples appear, she runs back into town and corners everyone she can find: "You must come and see this man. He’s the messiah. You need to hear what He has to say!"
Maybe she was asked: "Why should we believe you?"
"He told me everything I ever did. He knew about my past - and it didn’t matter. He didn’t care. I suddenly felt so at peace, and so forgiven - This must be the Messiah!"
As a result of her comments and relentlessness - the entire town turned out to see Jesus. And once they met Him, they were so impressed by who He was and what He said that they begged Him to stay with them. And Jesus dwelt with them for 2 more days and many came to believe in Him. It’s suspected that these people became part of the early Church.
Now, what’s this all mean to us? What can we learn from this story?
1st - The only thing that will heal the hurts in people’s lives is the truth. Jesus said: "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free" (John 8:32). What kind of truth do people need? That they are sinners. As Romans tells us - we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). The other part of that truth is that Jesus came to set us free from that sin and its unpleasant side effects.
When the woman at the well had been confronted by her sin and came face to face with the idea that Jesus was the Messiah, she ran back into town. The people she had avoided all these years now became the very people she told about her experience. Being confronted by truth freed her from the shame and guilt that had kept her isolated from others for so long. Her new found freedom was so exhilarating she literally ran to everyone she could with her good news.
The 2nd thing that this tells us is that people rarely face their sin on their own. Most people suffer from what I call the "deceitful heart" syndrome. Jeremiah writes: "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). People usually don’t want to face the pain of their sinfulness and will often seek anyway they can to avoid it.
ILLUS: Years ago, in my 1st ministry, a preacher that met with me regularly suggested that I should listen to the tapes of my sermons. He told me that it was a good way of improving my delivery and recognizing patterns that might become annoying to others.
Well, I didn’t really think I needed to improve all that much - I was already pretty good. But, I decided it couldn’t hurt and there might be small ways in which I could enhance my delivery.
I put a tape in the player and began to listen to my most recent sermon - and I nearly quit the ministry right there and then. The sermon wasn’t anything like I remembered it. There were awkward pauses and odd phrases and badly timed jokes. And then there was the timbre of my voice. My voice had to be deeper and more distinguished than I heard from that recorder. It was terrible.
I suffered from a "deceitful heart." How I "thought" I sounded from the pulpit wasn’t anywhere near what it really sounded like. I had somehow deceived myself into believing it was better than it was. Most people are like that. Their heart deceives themselves into thinking that they come across more noble and pleasant than they actually do. When someone "plays back" the tape of their lives and they are confronted by the unpleasant realities - they enter into denial. That’s why "sin" has fallen out of favor in our society. That’s why "relativistic morality" and the idea that "no one has the right to pass judgment on others" is so popular. Our hearts are deceitful above all things.
The 3rd thing we can learn from this story is that people sometimes need to be confronted by their sin. This is perhaps the most unpleasant aspect of this lesson. I don’t like telling people they are sinners. Do you? (Ask how many in the audience enjoy telling others they are sinners.)
Why does this make us uncomfortable? Because it isn’t nice. It’s not polite. In fact, it can seem downright rude.
And yet here, Jesus confronted this woman with her sin, and it changed her life. If He hadn’t confronted her, she would have continued to live her life in the same old way, facing the same old fears and hurts. And ultimately she’d have ended up in the worst of all destinations = hell.
ILLUS: Years ago, a preacher told me a story of one of his counseling sessions. He said that a woman had come to him suffering from a "phobia" or fear of crowds. (There’s a fancy $10 word for that fear - I just couldn’t find it). She was upset because it meant she couldn’t get to church - a crowded place, and she hoped the preacher would understand.
What he told her next was shocking. He told her she was a sinner. He told her that fears such as hers showed that she didn’t trust God and that she needed to repent. (I don’t know if I could have told her that - but he did). And she repented. The fear left her. Why? Because she’d never thought of her "feeling" of fear as being sinful before. Once she did, she determined that the emotion of fear was no longer psychologically acceptable and she overcame it.
Had that preacher not confronted her about her sin, she would have continued to live her life in the same old way, facing the same old fears and hurts. I am not sure she would have ended up in hell, but the remainder of her life would have chained to an irrational fear.
Now, it’s important we realize how Jesus confronted this woman’s sin.
1. He didn’t gossip about her. He didn’t talk to others ABOUT her sin - He talked TO her about her sin. If you’ll reread John 4:27, you’ll notice that his disciples hadn’t a clue as to why Jesus was talking to the woman at the well - and He didn’t tell them. In all likelihood, they didn’t discover the truth about what this woman had been like until the town people came out to meet Jesus.
2. He spoke to her in love. Ephesians says that we should speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). There’s no word of condemnation or impending judgment in his comments. He simply confronts her lovingly with what she already knows is wrong.
3. AND lastly, he looked at her thru the eyes of God, not with the eyes of men. Men had always seen this woman as unworthy and sinful. Jesus saw her as a child that God wanted to rescue. He told His disciples: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." (John 4:34) This woman was why He came.
Too often we talk about people rather than talk to them about their sins. We need to start looking at people thru the eyes of God. A lot of times we only see them with human eyes and we discount or cast off individuals that are beneath our consideration of what is valuable.
CLOSE: Tony Campolo tells of the time he was on an airplane traveling from Orlando, Florida, to Philadelphia. "I was settled down in a window seat when I happened to glance across the aisle to the other side of the plane. There, seated next to the window opposite mine, was one of the most sophisticated and attractive women I have ever seen. She was absolutely stunning. It was hard to take my eyes off her.
After a few minutes, a very macho-looking, "with-it" guy got on the plane. He was almost a stereotype of the kind of guy who hangs out at singles bars. His satin shirt was unbuttoned down to his waist so that he could publicly let the "chicks" see the curls of hair on his chest and the gaudy gold chains hanging around his neck. With great interest, I watched as he "moved" down the aisle of the plane. He spotted the empty seat next to the stunning woman who had been holding my attention. He sat down next to her and then he "did his thing." He made moves that a New York "make-out man would have admired. And in no time at all he had the young woman thoroughly involved in conversation, hanging on his every word. As a sociologist I was fascinated with this interactive process. But then an unexpected and exciting thing happened. When he had her completely engaged, she made her move and pulled a reversal, suddenly extracting a Bible from her shoulder bag. Before the guy could figure out what was happening, she was laying the gospel on him. Her eyes sparkling with excitement, she began telling him all about Jesus. She pointed out verse after verse that showed the way of salvation. I must admit that this sudden turn of events amused me. At one point, I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing. But this was no laughing matter. Brilliantly and seriously, she told the story of God’s salvation, and after his initial shock, he began to listen to her with genuine interest.
The plane landed in Philadelphia on schedule and rolled up to the reception gate so that the passengers could disembark. Everyone squeezed into the aisle and stood in the usual convoluted fashion, waiting for the people up front to get off. It was as I was standing in the aisle that I noticed that the "make-out man" and the gorgeous woman were not standing. Instead, they were both seated with their heads bowed in prayer.
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
Ants In The Sleeping Bag - John 4:4-4:42
The Rejection Of Truth - Genesis 3:1-3:10
The Search For Absolute Truth - John 18:33-18:38
