Just Add Water
Rob Sack
April 14th, 2024
Holy Joy English Worship, Ttangeut Church
John 4:6-15
Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
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.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Introduction
She cannot stand the staring. She cannot stand the wave of silence that goes before her. They stop talking when she arrives, so there is no conversation to join. They start talking again as soon as she leaves, and she knows that they are talking about her. None of them want to be associated with her. It’s as though her sin were contagious, as though it could be passed to them through conversation. None of them want their husbands to be targeted by her.
So she comes to the well at noon.
Life in the desert is dry. Everyone needs water to survive, and everyone from the town of Sychar goes to Jacob’s Well for their water. You will find the women of the town there every morning, around sunrise, while the air is still cool from the night. But not her. She remembers going in morning with her mother, and when she first got married. The first time she got married. The friendly greetings, the casual laughter. The gossip.
But when her husband divorced her everything changed. She no longer had a place with the other women. She had no home, no family, nothing but shame. She had nothing to offer except her body. She knew she was lucky when her second husband took her in. It did not feel very good or last very long, but it was a kind of safety. The third husband was not much better, and by the time the fifth grew tired of her, she gave up on the idea of being a wife.
She stays with any man who will give her shelter. When men talk to her it is never good.
Her life is dry. Dusty and dry, like those dead bones in the valley that God showed to Ezekiel.
The Encounter
Then Jesus enters the picture. And wherever Jesus goes, he breaks the rules. He meets this woman who has been rejected by her hometown, declared worthless, made invisible. And he sees her. He truly sees her. Maybe it’s the first time she’s been seen in a long, long time. He sees her and he does something audacious, something that no one else would think of doing.
Korea has just had an election. I’m going to do something that is a little bit dangerous here: For a moment, let’s imagine that Jesus was acting as a politician in this story. He would have had to follow his party's guidelines. One party says that she has gotten what she deserved: she made choices that brought her to this situation, she has brought this upon herself. If she works hard, she can get out of it. This version of Jesus offers her thoughts and prayers.
Another party decides that this is an injustice, and that the solution is to give her power, the opportunity for justice. Maybe even revenge. Take something away from the people who took from her, to even the score. This version of Jesus offers her money, power, status.
But Jesus is not a politician. The politician sees everything in terms of right and left, liberal and conservative. Jesus is not looking left or right. Jesus is looking directly at her, directly at us. Jesus comes to her, and he sees her. Jesus doesn’t even think for one second about what is acceptable to the townspeople, or the political powers, or even his own disciples. Those are the world’s rules, and Jesus doesn't mind breaking them. Because Jesus is here to bring life.
Breaking the Rules
The first worldly rule that Jesus breaks is that he sees her. He sees her deep, real thirst. A thirst that Jacob’s well cannot satisfy. Because the kingdom of this world has rules about who is seen and who is invisible. Not just first century Judea, but every worldly kingdom, including ours. Poor people? We don’t see them. The homeless? Invisible. When someone with tattoos and piercings and wearing lots of leather walks into your church, do you talk to them? When you ride the subway and a dirty, smelly person gets on and talks to themselves--not on a bluetooth headset, but just talking out loud to themselves--what do people do? They ignore that person. That person is invisible. That’s the rule, and Jesus breaks it all the time! In Jesus’ kingdom, no one is invisible!
The second worldly rule that Jesus breaks is that he talks to her. When she says to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” she is appealing to the only authority she knows: the same worldly kingdom that placed her at the bottom, with no friends, no family, no respect, and no love. The world says that men do not talk to women, and Jews do not talk to Samaritans. She does not yet see that she is dealing with a new kingdom. But she will!
The third worldly rule that Jesus breaks is suggesting the impossible. Water that quenches your thirst forever! When someone suggests the impossible, our usual reaction is to reject it. But Jesus is offering this woman something that she has not had for a long, long time. Hope. Every day, for years, she walked by herself in the heat of the day to Jacob’s well to get water. Every step a reminder that she was dry; an outsider, not acceptable, not part of the community. Until Jesus offered her an impossible hope: the water of life.
Alternate Interpretations
In this sermon I have been telling you some things that I did not get directly from the Bible. These details about the women going to the well early in the morning, and the Samaritan woman’s life and feelings, are all my best guesses based on research and experience. It is my attempt to read the New Testament with 1st century eyes, to see the words in the page as real, living people.
The Bible tells us what people said and did, but rarely tells us how they felt, or what they were thinking. Real, living people use tone and emotion in their voice, and we usually have to guess at that, too. For example:
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 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.” -Mark 4:16-18
Oh, the guesses I’ve heard about these verses! In sermon after sermon I have heard people give Jesus a judgmental voice: “Damn right you ain’t got no husband!”
I’ve also heard people give Jesus a dry, detached, factual voice: “That is correct. And, in fact, you have had five husbands.”
When Jesus spoke to her, he didn’t say anything about her circumstances, or how others had treated her. He didn’t promise her forgiveness, or justice, or punishment. But I think that in the voice of Jesus she heard a trickle of water. Something to convince her that he was telling the truth about this living water, and never being thirsty again. I can only conclude that she heard love and compassion, tenderness beneath his honesty.
“You are right when you say you have no husband. 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.”
Her response is this:
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet." Mark 4:19
She sees that Jesus is a prophet because he is doing what prophets do: he is breaking the rules of the world, bringing water to those who are thirsty. He understands that God does not want anyone to be thirsty. Jesus then breaks another rule by predicting an end to worship only at the temple. The Priests and Scribes will not be happy to hear about this one! Then…
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” -Mark 4:25-26
I believe that that is the moment when she knows that the water is real. Reading it today, and in the early church, we hear echoes of “I AM” from God introducing himself to Moses. But I don’t think the Samaritan woman heard it that way. Instead, she heard Isaiah’s promise of water gushing up in the wilderness. The promise of an end to thirst. After that, the Disciples show up,
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him. -Mark 4:28-30
“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.” Such an amazing response. Under the rules of the world, we hide our problems in shame. The Samaritan woman was at a well in the desert, under the burning sun, at noon, because it was not as hot as the shame she felt from the other women.
Shame is a powerful beast. It rides us, and controls our actions. It can motivate good behavior, but it will never regulate the heart. Shame is not the voice of God. Shame is not the movement of the Holy Spirit. Shame will leave you thirsty every time.
Why was she so ready to bring the whole village to meet Jesus? And how does she convince them to risk exposing their own dryness? Because her shame was washed away in the living water of God’s Truth.
There must have been something in Jesus’ voice that took her story of shame and changed it into something else. Something beautiful. Something so thirst-quenching and wonderful that she rushed off to the very people who had dried her out in shame, ready to share the gift of living water!
The Disciples
In the middle of this interaction, the disciples return and see Jesus having a conversation with this woman who he clearly should not be talking to! They think, “There goes Jesus, breaking the rules again,” but they don’t say anything. By now they are getting used to Jesus breaking the rules.
Instead, they have a conversation with him that is remarkably similar to the conversation with the Samaritan woman. This time instead of water it's about food. Jesus says he has food that they don't know about, and they're confused. While Jesus was tender with the Samaritan woman, he's a little bit harsher with his disciples. After all of this time with him, they should know better.
Our story ends with the entire town coming out to meet Jesus and believing in him, accepting his gospel. Drinking of the well that springs up eternal. They literally invite him to stay in their town, which he does.
The townspeople end up saying to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” But never doubt that they first came to Jesus because of her!
This is not usually considered an Easter story. But I think of it as one. The people of Sychar had killed this woman with shame. She was still walking around, breathing, going through the motions of life. Much like all of us used to do. Then Jesus came to visit, bringing life. We can’t know for sure, but I believe this story shows us the end of the Samaritan woman’s death, the beginning of her new life.
The resurrection is real, and it's more than just your body coming back to life after you die. It's your heart coming back to life, now. It's your dry bones coming back to life, NOW. It's the river of life flowing into you and out of you, NOW and FOREVER.
Conclusion
Most of the time, we, like Jesus, are also on our way. Sometimes we get to choose our direction, but more often than not the world pushes and pulls at us: to work, to school. We are pushed and pulled by friendships, the need for status, the desire to be cool, the fear of not blending in. The never ending thirst and frequent shame always drive us to something.
Sometimes we are the Samaritan woman, on our lonely way to the well to satisfy our thirst, avoiding those who have hurt us, or remind us of our pain, even strangers who might add to our shame. We are so resigned to our thirst that the idea of escaping it never occurs to us.
Sometimes we are the Disciples, doing our best to follow Jesus, but forgetting or misunderstanding that the water is right. Here. Close enough to touch, ready to refresh. But we just miss it. By that much. Or maybe a little more.
Last week we celebrated the Lord’s supper here together. We reminded ourselves and each other that we drink from the well of Jesus. Like the Samaritan woman so long ago, we have died to our old lives and been raised to the new. If you are like me, you need to be reminded every day that you have, inside you, that spring of water welling up to eternal life! You, living in Jesus, are an oasis in this dry, thirsty world!
It doesn’t mean that we won’t get tired. Jesus got tired.
It doesn’t mean that we will be good at it all the time. The Disciples certainly weren’t.
It does mean that you are walking with Jesus, the source of our life!
See the invisible ones! Break through the shame! Suggest the impossible! It's all possible through Jesus!
Jesus is the spring of water welling up in you!
River of Life
I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me,
Makes the lame to walk and the blind to see,
Opens prison doors, sets the captives free.
I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me.
