JOHN 4.4-26: BROKEN VESSELS
Show Broken Vessels Video Clip from SermonSpice.com
Do you recognise anyone in that video clip? Could you identify with any of the emotions stated? Maybe the words of the song resonated in your heart. This morning I want to take a few minutes to share with you from John’s gospel an incident at a well when Jesus met a woman who would not have been out of place in that video clip. Turn with me to John 4 verses 4-26. As you turn to the passage let me set the background to it for you.
John places this incident immediately after Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus, a religiously upright, educated, wealthy man of society. The stark contrast comes in the form of a woman from Samaria with a flagrant disregard for the Law of God, especially in the area of relationships. John wants us to see that irrespective of where you stand in the eyes of men this morning you need Christ Jesus. The religious and the irreligious, the moral and the immoral, the educated and the uneducated, male and female – need Jesus Christ. Jesus has left Judea (vs 1-3) and in order to reach Galilee he must travel through Samaria, not something a Jew would do unless they had to. The hatred of the Jews towards the Samaritans and vice versa stretched back over 700 years to the time immediately after the death of Solomon and the conquering of the land by the Assyrians. The people of the north, thus conquered, soon intermarried and lost their racial purity and their religious purity in the eyes of the Israelites. Around 400BC the Samaritans, as they came to be called, built their own temple at Mt Gerezim. The Jews and the Samaritans had no dealings with one another. Some strict Jews would even travel many 100’s of miles out of their way rather than stray into Samaria and so avoid becoming ‘unclean.’ So that is the background to this incident in John 4.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
I am sure you have on many occasions said or thought ‘there is something different about … but I can’t quite put my finger on it.’ That is exactly what happens here. John tells us that Christ Jesus is weary from the travelling and sits down at the side of Jacob’s well (vs 5-6), whilst the disciples head off to the nearest town to purchase some provisions – v8. Whilst they are away a woman comes to the well and Christ asks her for a drink of water (v7). To you and I this seems like an innocent enough request but set against the background of the hostility between Jews and Samaritans it meant crossing over social barriers. Then added to this for Jesus, a Jewish man, to speak to a woman, no mind a Samaritan woman, in public was forbidden. One rabbi had even gone as far as to say that man should speak to a woman in public, not even his own wife. That is why the woman is so shocked when Jesus speaks to her (v9). She points out the obvious anomaly here. She is taken aback that Christ should speak to her – not because she is aware of who He is, she isn’t, but because He is a Jew and she a Samaritan. Isn’t it funny how people can be looking straight into the eyes of Christ and yet see only the reasons for Him not to speak to them, not to associate with and to have nothing to do with them. This woman could not raise her eyes above the temporal and yet there was something different about Jesus.
Here was a man speaking to her in public. The rest of the village of Sychar despised and rejected her, hence coming to the well in the heat of the day when no one else is around. She knew their gossip. She heard their whispers. She was familiar with her reputation, the stares and the snide remarks. They hurt her deeply. They wounded her spirit and hardened her heart. She would rather face the fierce heat of the midday sun than risk meeting one of the townspeople in the street. What a dreadful place to be. What an awful situation to find yourself in. Hiding away from people for fear of what they might say, what they are thinking and those piercing looks. Truth is that is some of you right here this morning. You may not be afraid to go out in public but this is how you feel in your heart and soul this morning. This woman thought – if this man knew my reputation he would not speak to me. He would not associate with me and he certainly would not ask me for anything. Some of you this morning are thinking that right at this moment. Some of you have thought that at least once in this past week, and many times in this past month. If people really knew me they would not want anything to do with me. Even worse some of you have bought into the lie (of satan) which says ‘even God doesn’t want anything to do with you.’ When this woman responds to Jesus request with: ‘How can you ask me for a drink?’ she was stating more than the social barriers between them – she was revealing something of her heart to Jesus.
SOMETHING OFFERED
In reply to her question Jesus makes her an unbelievable offer (v10) which she fails to understand. Just as in chapter 3 water is used as a symbol of spiritual blessing. Jesus speaks to her of ‘the gift of God…and living water.’ What an offer? Do you understand what He is saying to her here? She certainly fails to understand – verses 11-12. Jesus restates the offer in even more vivid terms (verses 13-14) but once again the offer is misunderstood (verse 15). On both occasions He is speaking about the spiritual thirst of her soul and she is talking about her physical thirst. He is talking of the eternal and she is focused on the temporal. She cannot lift her eyes above the here and now, beyond the physical world around her and her physical needs. But then why would she – she has spent her entire adult life trying to satisfy the physical thirsts of her life. She has sought to quench her thirst for love, acceptance and security in one failed marriage after another. Thinking, hoping, maybe even praying each time – let this be the one which quenches the thirst of my life. Now let me ask you a question – Are you any different this morning? Honestly, are you any different? Don’t you search for one thing after another to bring satisfaction into your life only to be disappointed time and time again. Be honest, are there not times when you think there is ‘something is missing in my life’ and nothing that this world has to offer satisfies for any length of time.
Jesus wanted her to lift her eyes away from the temporal to the spiritual and she couldn’t. Are you any different this morning?
SOMETHING ELSE
Now comes the uncompromising realism of Jesus in dealing with the thirst of our lives. When the woman asks for a drink of this ‘living water’ which will quench her thirst Jesus asks her to go and come back with her husband (v16). I can imagine the scene – her eyes quickly look away, her head is lowered and there is a moments silence and then she speaks, quieter and more slowly than before – ‘I don’t have a husband’ (v17). Her face flushed with embarrassment. Up to this point she had been quite talkative but now her answer is short and too the point. Her answer is truthful but evasive. ‘I wonder will he realise. Please change the subject. This is too painful and area for me to go into. I haven’t lied.’ You have been there haven’t you? I have. Seeking to be evasive in some area of your life because it is too painful or you just don’t want to confront the issues raised. Listen to what Jesus says to this woman – verses 17-18. They may initially seem to you to be harsh words but remember this morning who is saying them – the One who will die on a cross for this woman. Jesus has lifted the veil of secrecy over her life. Jesus has moved the conversation to the personal, not to embarrass this woman but actually to save her. To save her from the consequences of her past and to save her from having to continue in such a spiral of broken relationships, unsatisfied thirst, in the future. She once more tries to avoid going into this area of her life and changes the subject to a religious question – verses 19-20. Funny isn’t it how often God wants to talk to us about ‘relationship’ and we want to change the subject to ‘religion.’ This woman asks a question concerning the place to worship God – hotly disputed issue between Jews and Samaritans. Once again she is focusing on the temporal and failing to see the spiritual and eternal. She is seeking to steer the conversation away from the uncomfortable topic of her sin. Don’t we do the same?
In his answer (verses 21-24) Jesus wants her, and us, to understand that God cannot be limited to a place nor to some impersonal concept. He speaks to her about the truth of a relationship with God – it is about Spirit (of God) and truth (of God’s Word). Jesus speaks of the essential nature of God (spirit) and of the worship that should be offered Him (truth). It is not dependent on places or things. Jesus refuses to be drawn into this argument and solemnly predicts that a time is coming when neither the temple in Jerusalem nor at Mount Gerezim will be needed or acceptable God as places of worship.
In response to all that Jesus has said the woman makes one last attempt to evade the challenge which Jesus is forcing upon her. She does not dispute what he is saying but her ‘He’ in verse 26 is emphatic. It suggests that only the Messiah is capable of answering such questions. In words of simple dignity (v26) Jesus discloses the truth of his identity to her. ‘I AM’ – the name of God he applies to himself and with it there is an invitation to come to him in light of all that they have discussed up to this point and his offer of living water to quench the thirst of her life. With this affirmation of his messiahship the conversation is brought to a climax and to a close. There remains only the recounting of the effect of this on others – the disciples, the woman and the villagers.
APPLICATION
Friends what is there really left to say this morning? Some of you have heard this passage many times and the meaning of it has passed you by many times before. Some of you this morning know deep in your hearts an emptiness that nothing this world offers has satisfied or fulfilled. Some of you here this morning are standing exactly where this woman stood 2000 years ago, before the gaze of Christ and you know he has spoken into your life this morning and has offered you this living water. You know that he knows the sin in your life, the mess of your past life and try as you might to evade his gaze but he will not let you. You are in an uncomfortable position this morning because you know and feel the conviction of your sin right now and you know it is Jesus speaking to your heart this morning. This morning Jesus makes you an unbelievable offer – the forgiveness of your sins, the cleansing of your soul and the quenching of your thirst. Your longing to be forgiven, to be loved, to be accepted, to be free from the past and to have another chance – he offers you that this morning. But here is the crux of the matter this morning he will not, he cannot, evade the issue of your sin. He brings it to the forefront this morning, not to embarrass you, not to shame you or humiliate you but to free you from it. It is only by confessing that sin to him this morning and drinking from the living water of his grace that you can be free and your thirst can be quenched. You can argue about religion all you want this morning. You can evade the issues of your life all you wish this morning. You can go on hiding away from the world this morning. Or this morning you can come to Jesus and have that burden lifted, your sin forgiven and the thirst of your soul quenched. The question is: Will you now come?
AMEN.
