Lent 3 (27 March 2011)
Theme: Jesus and Sinners

Last Sunday we heard about the encounter of Jesus with a Pharisee named Nicodemus. This morning we hear of another encounter of Jesus – not with another religiously upright, educated, wealthy or a respectable person of society - but a woman with doubtful character from Samaria. Nicodemus sneaked into the house where Jesus stayed at night, while this woman met him as she went to the well at noon time. Though they have chosen two different times, they did it out of the same reason – i.e. in order to avoid being seen by others. Nicodemus did not want other Pharisees or religious people to see him with Jesus who they regarded as a false teacher and therefore, an enemy. The Samaritan woman went to draw water from the well at noon day because she did not want to meet other women who despised her.
When John put these two stories one after another, I believe he has one purpose in mind – that is to let us see that irrespective of where you stand in the eyes of society this morning you need Christ Jesus. The religious and the irreligious, the moral and the immoral, the educated and the uneducated, the rich and the poor, male and female – all need Jesus Christ.
It is not easy to describe the life of this Samaritan woman. As a man I cannot possibly understand her feelings as an outcast. But there are a few things which we can understand. First, as a woman in those days, she was dependent on a man for her identity as a human being. We are told that she had been married five times, and the man she was living with was not her legal husband. We do not know how her marriages to the other men ended, whether by death or divorce.
She knew the life of an outcast to the point where she had to go to a well far distant from the city on at noon day. No woman would come to the well to wash their clothes or draw water at noon day: it would be too hot. They would come in the early morning or evening when it would be cooler, and that was when they would fellowship and chat with one another. This Samaritan woman could not join the other women because they would have nothing to do with her – to them she was an outcast, an immoral person and object of gossips.
Imagine her loneliness and the inner pain – the men looked down on her and the women rejected her friendship. She knew their gossips. She heard their conversations. She was familiar with her reputation, the stares and the snide remarks. 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 at the well. Imagine yourself to be in that position: it is a dreadful place to be and an awful situation to find yourself in. Hiding away from people for fear of what they might say and what they are thinking.
How did Jesus end up meeting this woman? We are told that the encounter took place while Jesus was on the way from Judea to Galilee. In order to reach Galilee travellers from Judea must travel through Samaria. This was not something the Jews would do unless they had to because the Samaritans were considered by the Jews as enemies. Some strict Jews would even travel hundreds of miles through other regions outside Samaria in order to stay ritually clean. This 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. When the northern region was conquered the Jews of that land started to marry people of other races, and hence lost their racial purity and their religious purity, and came to be known as the Samaritans. Around 400 B.C. the Samaritans built their own temple at Mt. Gerizim because they could no longer worship in Jerusalem. This is the background to this story.
John tells us that Christ Jesus was tired from the travelling and so he sat down at the side of Jacob’s well (v. 5-6), whilst the disciples headed off to the nearest town to purchase some food (v8). Whilst they were away a woman came to the well and Jesus asked her for a drink of water (v.7).
To us this seems like a simple request but considering the hatred between Jews and Samaritans, it means crossing over social barriers. And for Jesus, a Jewish man, to speak to a woman, in public was forbidden – and worse still a Samaritan woman. Some Jews would even speak to their own wives in public. That was why the woman was so shocked when Jesus spoke to her (v9). She said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?”
Even her own people in the village of Sychar despised and rejected her, and yet here was Jesus, a Jewish man speaking to her. She must be thinking, “If this man knows my reputation he will not speak to me. And he certainly will not ask me for anything”. Most of us will never tell anybody what we really go thorough in life because we fear what they will think of us. We keep our pains, hurts and longings to ourselves because we fear people may no longer want to be our friends, if they know who we are. When this woman answered Jesus, ‘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. “If you know what sort of woman I am, you will not speak to me, let alone ask water from me?”
In reply to her question Jesus made an offer (v10). He said, “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.” Water is a symbol of spiritual blessing, and Jesus spoke to her about ‘the gift of God…and living water.’ But she could not understand what Jesus was saying. Even when Jesus restated the offer in even more vivid terms, in verses 13 and 14, but once again she failed to understand. While Jesus was talking about the spiritual thirst of her soul, she was talking about her physical thirst. He talked of the eternal and she was focused on the things of this world. But then, why should we expect her to understand? Her life was all about fulfilling her physical hunger and thirst. Wasn’t her entire adult spent on seeking to quench her thirst for love, acceptance and security in one failed marriage after another? Hadn’t she been thinking, hoping, maybe even praying all these years that the next husband would be the one to fulfil her longings?
Now let us ask ourselves a question – Are we any different from this woman? Have we not been thinking and hoping and praying for the next thing that can bring us satisfaction in life, but only to be disappointed time and time again? It may not be relationship issues: it may be a job that we hope will satisfy our ambition; or that we are hoping for more money to come in that will fulfil our needs; or it may be some project that we hope to accomplish that will bring names for ourselves. Are there not times when you think there is ‘something is missing in your life’ and that you have not found it until now? In our story this morning, Jesus was trying to make the woman to take her eyes away from the things of this world and to look at the spiritual, and she couldn’t do it. Are you like that woman, stuck with your particular needs, and having no idea how to get out?
When the woman asked for a drink of this ‘living water’ which would quench her thirst, Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” Why did Jesus do that? That is how Jesus often deals with our thirsts. He went directly to the source of the problem. (I am not saying that the sixth husband is the problem). But look at her answer. Up to this point she had been quite talkative but now her answer is short and too the point, ‘I don’t have a husband’ (v17). Her answer is truthful but evasive. She still refused to talk about it because it was a painful subject to talk about.
Have we not been there? Have we not been evasive in some areas of our lives because they are too painful or hard to confront? Sometimes we blame other people or circumstances for our miseries and our failures. But look here: Jesus did not stop from confronting her with a personal issue. He said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
The question I want to ask you is: was Jesus being cruel by revealing something so personal and opening up the past wounds? You need to remember that in a few weeks time Jesus would die on the cross for this woman. Jesus wasn’t being cruel to her: he was doing this 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, and living in shame in the future.
But it was hard for her to accept. She tried to divert the conversation once more. “Sir,” she said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” She did not want to talk about her personal life, instead tried to change the subject to a religious question. It is easy to be critical about this woman. But don’t we often talk about religion when God wants to talk to us about relationship? This woman asks a question concerning the right place to worship God: was it Jerusalem or Mt. Gerizim? She talked about place of worship not because she was religious: she was simply uncomfortable with the topic that has to do with her moral life. Don’t we do the same?
I have attended several hundreds of committee meetings in Churches all over the Diocese and Province during the course of my ministry. Most of the things that were heavily discussed or debated upon have to do with material things – money, buildings, lands, vehicles, number of people and list of physical activities and programs. And when it comes to dealing with spiritual matters, things that concern our relationship with Jesus and things that matter the most – only few people dare to give their opinions.
It is significant that Jesus refused to be drawn into this argument as to what place was the acceptable for worship. And Jesus told her that a time is coming when neither the temple in Jerusalem nor the temple on Mount Gerizim will be needed or considered as acceptable place to worship God. After the Ascension of Jesus, God is worshipped all over the places, and all over the world. The important thing is not where, it is the attitude of the hearts which matter - that God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. It is all about the Spirit of God and truth of God’s Word. It is not dependent on places or things.
Then she answered, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” And Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” It was at that point that the disciples returned. Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
Many of you have heard this story many times and you have heard many explanations from various preachers, so much so that our hearts can be hardened, and say that there is nothing more to learn. Let us ask ourselves: are we happy and contented with our lives, or are we always feeling something are missing deep within our hearts? Sometimes we connect this sense of emptiness with something we hope to find in this world. It may be human friendships; it may be material wealth; it may be change in our status; but if that emptiness has something to do with the living water Jesus was talking about, no amount of money, friendships and whatever things can fulfil the emptiness. But how often we are like this woman: seeking to fulfil her needs, and yet when she is confronted by Jesus on the very issue of her problem, she wants to change the subject? Every time Jesus wants to talk to us about renewing our relationship with him, we change the subject: we talk about church buildings, or money, or about maintaining traditions, rituals or rules. And when we are confronted with the issues of our own sins, we talk about what is wrong with other people.
If we come to church this morning, feeling almost exactly like this woman who stood before Jesus, please know that Jesus is also speaking to us, also wanting to offer us this living water. You know that he knows the sin in our lives, the mess of our past lives and he is not going to let us brush them aside. If my sharing this morning makes you feel somewhat uncomfortable or even angry, it may be because Jesus is speaking to your heart, telling you something is not right with your life. This Sunday is already the 3rd week of Lent and if you have really reflected upon your personal life, you may come to conclusion that there is something that is not right with your life.
This morning Jesus gives us an offer – the forgiveness of our sins, the cleansing of our souls and the quenching of our thirst. Our longing to be forgiven, to be loved, to be accepted, to be free from the past and to have another chance can be realized this morning. But there is a condition for it: Jesus will not, and he cannot, evade the issue of our sin. Jesus also comes to us with the living water that can satisfy the thirst that lies deep within us and cries out for quenching. He knows the poor decisions each of us have made in life, and yet he accepts us for who we are, and loves us still.
Earlier during the service we have heard the Ten Commandments and said our general confession. Now we take a more personal step to confessing a particular sin that that has become a barrier to our relationship with Jesus; and have that burden lifted, our sin forgiven and the thirst of our soul quenched. Let us pray this sinner’s prayer:

“Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.”