Because we switched computer systems, I helped put together the bulletin. So I wouldn’t be surprised if someone found a typo or blooper. Periodically a list of church bulletin bloopers circulates around the internet. In the, “you’ve probably heard this before” category here are a few.
Bertha Belch, a missionary from Africa, will be speaking tonight at Calvary Memorial Church in Racine. Come tonight and hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa.
Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don’t forget your husbands.
The sermon this morning: ’Jesus Walks on the Water.’ The sermon tonight: ’Searching for Jesus."
The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to conflict.
Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
Thursday night will be a potluck supper. Prayer and medication to follow.
This is one of those sermons that could turn into a history lesson, but I don’t think that we can understand what is going on here without some background on who the Samaritans were and what the cultural issues of the first century were. The story really begins back when David was King, about a thousand years before the time of Jesus.
There is a disclaimer that I need to offer. Most of the history in the Old Testament is written from the point of view of the tribe of Judah. If there ever were histories from a Samaritan perspective, they are lost to us.
Prior to the monarchy, the nation of Israel was an affiliation of 12 tribes. These tribes formed a fairly loose confederation, but conflict with the Philistines caused them to seek a unified government, first under Saul and later under David. During David’s time, Israelites worshiped and offered sacrifices at local family shrines. David was successful militarily. One of his conquests was the city of Salem (which means “peace”). David renamed that city Jerusalem (which means “peace of God”) and he moved his capital there. David’s son, Solomon built both a palace and a Temple in that city. The Temple at Jerusalem quickly became the center of Jewish worship.
With the death of Solomon, the nation split in two with the northern ten tribes separating from the southern tribes. This split was religious as well as political. In the south, there was a central religious hierarchy centered around the teaching of the Law of Moses and worship at the Temple. Eventually, in Judah, it became illegal to offer sacrifices anywhere other than the Temple.
The people of the north went a different direction. They accepted the Torah as their central scripture, but they focused more on the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) and on the ritual of sacrifice than on the law. Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes was especially revered. Sacrifices were offered at sacred sites throughout the country, but Mt.Gerazim, Jacob’s place of worship, was considered one of the most holy. With less structure, the people of the north were much more likely to include elements from other religions of the region into their practice. At times, the God of Jacob became just one of several deities who were worshipped. Like the south, the north believed in a coming Messiah, but they thought of him as a human leader after the model of Moses.
About 200 years after the split, the northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians and many of the residents were taken away in captivity. Foreigners moved into the region. The population became a mix of those who had escaped captivity and deportation, foreigners who had relocated to the region, and retuning captives.
Those in the south saw the Samaritans as half-breeds, not just racially, but religiously as well. One supposes that the Samaritans must have had a low opinion of the Jews, and especially of the Temple as well.
Why does John tell us this story when none of the other Gospels do? Are the other Gospels reluctant to tell a story that puts Samaritans in a positive light? Matthew and Mark, both of whom are Jewish, fail to mention any interaction between Jesus and Samaritans. Luke, the only gentile author in the New Testament, mentions Samaritans three times, and each time puts them in a positive light. John has this account of a Samaritan woman. His only other mention of the word is when the Pharisees use it as a term of derision directed against Jesus.
Jesus clearly did not suffer from the racial bias of his culture. Jesus was also not subject to the same gender bias as his culture. It was unthinkable for any observant Jew, especially a Rabbi, to have a conversation with a woman. It was even considered inappropriate for a man to have a public conversation with his own wife. (If only that were the case today.)
Often sermons on this text focus on the need to overcome bias as we express our faith. Jesus here models a willingness to breach any barrier that separates people from the love of God. He did this, even to the chagrin of his own disciples. It is incumbent on each of us to follow that example and move beyond any bias that we have that prevents us from sharing the love that God extends to all people. Jesus did not come to die for a select few – He died for all and offers new life to all. It really is that simple.
While the breaking down of barriers is an appropriate lesson to take from this passage, it really isn’t the point that is being made. To understand that point, I think that we need just a bit more history.
In 70 AD, about 40 years after Jesus’ time, there was a failed Jewish rebellion against Roman Rule and the city of Jerusalem was destroyed as a result. This event changed the character of both Judaism and Christianity. Judaism changed because the Temple was destroyed. That meant an end to the entire Jewish sacrificial system. That is why Jews don’t offer sacrifices to this day. Think what a blow that must have been to observant Jews in the first century.
The destruction of the Jerusalem also caused a fundamental change in the character of Christianity as well. During the early years of Christianity, the church in Jerusalem was clearly viewed as the mother church. Even churches filled with gentile Christians saw the church and its ministers as the preeminent leaders of the faith. When Jerusalem was destroyed, the church there was scattered. Churches were forced to look elsewhere for leadership and the churches in Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria became prominent.
Scholars have very strong disagreements about the dating for the authorship of the various Gospels, but according to the scholarship that I find most persuasive, John is the only Gospel that was authored after that change. Obviously, Jesus’ conversation occurred decades earlier, but I think that John was led to include it because it addresses an issue that was central to the people of his time. Where are we to worship?
This is Jesus’ longest conversation about worship with anyone. Jesus breaks the ice by asking the woman for a favor, he wants a drink of water and needs her help to get it. She reacts out of the prevailing cultural bias, but Jesus continues by talking about living water.
The woman misunderstands the turn that this conversation is taking. The phrase “living water” may well have been a term used to differentiate a stream or a spring from a cistern or a well. It may have been a synonym for flowing water. It was understood by this woman as a slur against the well and against Jacob who dug it. The woman is still caught in her culture. She hears a slur because she was expecting one, not because one was uttered.
Jesus makes it clear that he is talking about something spiritual, not physical. The water he gives does not come from any well or any spring. There is no special place that anyone needs to go. Instead, the true water of eternal life is like a spring within each individual believer.
It is understandable that the woman still does not get the point. Jesus is talking about moving beyond an attachment to any specific place. At the time, worship was very tied to the shrine and to ritual. Each believer had to go to a sacred place and say the sacred words in exactly the right way. The right kind of sacrifice had to be offered in exactly the prescribed manner. It was the ritual and the sacred ground that created the connection with the divine. For them, worship was very much like going to a well. One goes and gets refreshed and leaves. Before too long, that same person becomes thirsty again and must return. The implication is that God is only in that place, not with us wherever we are.
Sometimes we have exactly the same feelings. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that you don’t need to come to church. You do. We all need the support of others. We all need to come together to learn and grow. We do need to express worship as a corporate act. But Jesus is warning us against compartmentalizing our lives. The same Spirit of God that enriches our corporate worship is just as much within us on Monday morning as Sunday morning. Our lives are to be lived in response to God’s love no matter when it is or where we are. This is God’s world and we are God’s people wherever we go. Paul puts it this way, “I am asking you to offer up your bodies to God while you are still alive. Your bodies are a holy sacrifice that is pleasing to God. When you offer your bodies to God, you are worshiping him.” When Paul says “body” he means all that we are. Offering all that we are to God is true worship.
The woman asks for some of this wonderful water, and Jesus asks about her husband. She says that she has no husband, because she has had five husbands and is currently living with a man to whom she is not married.
It is always this way. When we get a glimmer of what it is that God is offering to us, we find that there is something that is preventing us from connecting with God. It always seems to be a barrier of our own making. Here, the problem is sexual impurity and relational infidelity. Clearly this woman had a deep thirst for love and acceptance. Like many if us, she sought to quench that thirst in whatever way she could. What is that old country song, “Looking for love in all the wrong places.” She thought that she could satisfy her need by gaining acceptance from a man. When the first marriage failed to meet the need, she just changed wells. Marriage after marriage failed and she finally gave up the pretence of commitment, choosing to just live with someone after that.
It is important to notice how Jesus responds to this woman. This woman’s past is a barrier, but Jesus does not condemn her for it. He expressed God’s love for her, before leading her to confront her circumstance. Even then, he does not beat her up with it. Instead, he is focused on helping her to move forward.
The basic truth of Christianity was in one of the verses that we read last week. “God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world. He sent his Son to save the world through him.” As always, whenever we begin sincerely to seek God, we suddenly become aware that God was diligently been seeking us.
The symbolic language and indirect speech are put aside. The woman, no longer blinded by her past, now sees Jesus for who he is. Jesus now speaks plainly about worship “But a new time is coming. In fact, it is already here. True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. They are the kind of worshipers the Father is looking for. God is spirit. His worshipers must worship him in spirit and in truth."
Having truly experienced the Christ, the woman feels compelled to share her experience with others. She leaves her water jug and runs to town where she announces that she has met the Christ and invites others to come and see for themselves.
One of the signs of a true experience with God is that people want to share what happened, even if it costs them. And not only does she share with others, she is successful. When one takes a drink of the “living water”, a change happens and people see the difference. Citizens of the community saw the difference and came to hear. We don’t have Jesus’ address to them included, but we do have the result, “Many of the Samaritans from the town of Sychar believed in Jesus. They believed because of the woman’s witness”
There is one more thing that we need to see in this story. Jacob’s well is not located in the city, but outside the city at a major crossroad. The woman found the source of living water while she was on the way somewhere.
People rarely encounter Christ when they are sitting still within their comfort zones. Before they ever drink from the well, they often find themselves sitting at a crossroad. They are seeking. They are on the move.
Are you at a crossroad? Are you tired of all the attempts to find meaning in things that are meaningless? The more you seek to satisfy, the more absurd the effort becomes. Jesus still offers that drink of living water that wells up within your soul. He invites you to drink deeply and discover the life that only He can offer. Are you thirsty?
