Drinking At the Well of Living Water
Sermon text for February 24, 2008:
John 4:5-42
Dr. Nicodemus is confused and perhaps mortified by Jesus who has just said to him, “You must be born again if you want to see the Kingdom of God.” The image of a grown person crawling back inside a mother’s womb did not present an attractive possibility. Yet Nicodemus very much wanted to see the Kingdom of God.
“Born again”, “born anew”, “born from above” – each phrase describes a phenomenon that some say is the mark of a true Christian. But no one is quite sure what it means.
Three high school youth groups gathered in a mountain resort for their annual “snow camp”. The snow was falling softly outside and the flames from the fireplace cast a warm glow in the room. The speaker that night was talking about being born again. All at once a young girl shrieked and danced to her feet. “I just accepted Jesus” she said. “I am born again”. Other young people followed her lead and danced in joy at being born again. But Jean, a thoughtful fifteen year old in my group, remained seated and began to cry softly. She felt nothing like what the others were describing and she wondered what was wrong with her. Didn’t Jesus love her? Why wasn’t she born again like the others? Jean was inconsolable.
Many of us understand Jean’s questions. Maybe we’ve never experienced anything like what others describe as being born again. Listening to our friends may cause us to wonder if something is wrong with us. Have we missed out on something important? If we wonder about these things, then we are in good company, because Dr. Nicodemus didn’t understand either. Our lesson from John provides a commentary on the idea of being born again. It is not everything we need to know, but it is helpful.
One day a lonely, rejected Samaritan woman made her way to Jacob’s well to get water. It was about mid-day and the other women of the village have long since gone home. The women usually gathered at the well in the early morning to talk with one another and share each others lives. We can imagine the chatter, the laughter, and even the shared tears when one of the women was grieving.
But the woman John describes is not welcome in the company of women. Her living situation is questionable, her morals suspect, and the other women want nothing to do with her. From their perspective she is a husband-stealer and not to be trusted. So she went to the well long after the others have gone home. On this particular day as she drew near the well she saw Jesus sitting there, and she was not happy. A woman by herself had nothing to do with men in public places. To add to her problems, Jews and Samaritans were enemies and had as little as possible to do with one another.
“Give me a drink”, said Jesus. While this seems innocent to us, it was a serious breach of etiquette. “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman from Samaria”? asked the woman. Jesus responded, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘give me a drink’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
“Living water” – the words touch something deep inside of the woman. Her soul is parched, and Jesus offers her the refreshment of “living water”. The woman probably imagines living water to be a spring or artesian well. If there is such a thing, she can draw water any time she wants and she will not have to bear the sarcasm and dirty looks from the other women.
She doesn’t understand, but she is interested. Jesus tells her to go and get her husband. “I have no husband” the woman admits. After five tries at marriage, she is now just living with a man. Jesus responds to her honesty by telling her all about herself.
It is an uncomfortable conversation. She tries to avoid her discomfort by arguing theological differences between Jews and Samaritans. But Jesus knows that the conversation is too important to the woman’s life to join in mind games with her. Finally he tells her, “I am the Messiah.”
It is a turning point in the conversation. Everything depends on what the woman decides to do next. She can continue to argue, she can run away so she doesn’t have to deal with her life, or she can begin to wade in the living water. She is literally at the moment when her life can begin again.
Notice what has happened here. Jesus cares enough to break convention and speak to the woman. He loves her enough to offer her the precious gift of living water. He refuses to play intellectual games with her and he accepts her unconditionally. And the woman who is valued for the first time in her troubled life, allows Jesus to change her life. In this story the change is quick and powerful. Within minutes the woman began spreading the news of Jesus to the people of her village. But this is not the end of the story. We are not privy to how the story ends, but we can say with some confidence that the woman only began a process that would take the rest of her lifetime to complete.
The process of being born, or being born again, begins a lifetime of growth and change. Those who speak of being born again as if it is the end instead of the beginning, miss the point.
Presbyterians have two words that help us talk about being born again, and then the rest of the story. The first word is “justified”. We are justified at that moment when we come to faith. In that moment we are assured of our salvation, but we are far from the end of our faith journey.
The second word we use is “sanctification” which is the rest of the story. It is the process that begins when our salvation is assured and lasts for the rest of our lives. Sanctification is a partnership between us and God that makes us more holy or more like God.
The story of the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well tells us about the moment when she became justified and began the process of sanctification. And the woman’s experience with Jesus may help us understand our own baby steps in faith. Because of the woman, we believe that Jesus cares enough to stay with us, even when we think we have him outsmarted. Because of the woman we look forward to the precious gift of living water. The moment when we have our first immature ideas about Jesus, we receive our first sip of refreshing, cleansing, living water.
Like the woman at the well, let us ask Jesus for the “living water” that “wells up within us” and brings us to eternal life. And then let us allow the water to cleanse and refresh us, in our journey toward holiness.
Copyright © 2008 by Dwight R. Blackstock
John 4:5-42
Dr. Nicodemus is confused and perhaps mortified by Jesus who has just said to him, “You must be born again if you want to see the Kingdom of God.” The image of a grown person crawling back inside a mother’s womb did not present an attractive possibility. Yet Nicodemus very much wanted to see the Kingdom of God.
“Born again”, “born anew”, “born from above” – each phrase describes a phenomenon that some say is the mark of a true Christian. But no one is quite sure what it means.
Three high school youth groups gathered in a mountain resort for their annual “snow camp”. The snow was falling softly outside and the flames from the fireplace cast a warm glow in the room. The speaker that night was talking about being born again. All at once a young girl shrieked and danced to her feet. “I just accepted Jesus” she said. “I am born again”. Other young people followed her lead and danced in joy at being born again. But Jean, a thoughtful fifteen year old in my group, remained seated and began to cry softly. She felt nothing like what the others were describing and she wondered what was wrong with her. Didn’t Jesus love her? Why wasn’t she born again like the others? Jean was inconsolable.
Many of us understand Jean’s questions. Maybe we’ve never experienced anything like what others describe as being born again. Listening to our friends may cause us to wonder if something is wrong with us. Have we missed out on something important? If we wonder about these things, then we are in good company, because Dr. Nicodemus didn’t understand either. Our lesson from John provides a commentary on the idea of being born again. It is not everything we need to know, but it is helpful.
One day a lonely, rejected Samaritan woman made her way to Jacob’s well to get water. It was about mid-day and the other women of the village have long since gone home. The women usually gathered at the well in the early morning to talk with one another and share each others lives. We can imagine the chatter, the laughter, and even the shared tears when one of the women was grieving.
But the woman John describes is not welcome in the company of women. Her living situation is questionable, her morals suspect, and the other women want nothing to do with her. From their perspective she is a husband-stealer and not to be trusted. So she went to the well long after the others have gone home. On this particular day as she drew near the well she saw Jesus sitting there, and she was not happy. A woman by herself had nothing to do with men in public places. To add to her problems, Jews and Samaritans were enemies and had as little as possible to do with one another.
“Give me a drink”, said Jesus. While this seems innocent to us, it was a serious breach of etiquette. “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman from Samaria”? asked the woman. Jesus responded, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘give me a drink’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
“Living water” – the words touch something deep inside of the woman. Her soul is parched, and Jesus offers her the refreshment of “living water”. The woman probably imagines living water to be a spring or artesian well. If there is such a thing, she can draw water any time she wants and she will not have to bear the sarcasm and dirty looks from the other women.
She doesn’t understand, but she is interested. Jesus tells her to go and get her husband. “I have no husband” the woman admits. After five tries at marriage, she is now just living with a man. Jesus responds to her honesty by telling her all about herself.
It is an uncomfortable conversation. She tries to avoid her discomfort by arguing theological differences between Jews and Samaritans. But Jesus knows that the conversation is too important to the woman’s life to join in mind games with her. Finally he tells her, “I am the Messiah.”
It is a turning point in the conversation. Everything depends on what the woman decides to do next. She can continue to argue, she can run away so she doesn’t have to deal with her life, or she can begin to wade in the living water. She is literally at the moment when her life can begin again.
Notice what has happened here. Jesus cares enough to break convention and speak to the woman. He loves her enough to offer her the precious gift of living water. He refuses to play intellectual games with her and he accepts her unconditionally. And the woman who is valued for the first time in her troubled life, allows Jesus to change her life. In this story the change is quick and powerful. Within minutes the woman began spreading the news of Jesus to the people of her village. But this is not the end of the story. We are not privy to how the story ends, but we can say with some confidence that the woman only began a process that would take the rest of her lifetime to complete.
The process of being born, or being born again, begins a lifetime of growth and change. Those who speak of being born again as if it is the end instead of the beginning, miss the point.
Presbyterians have two words that help us talk about being born again, and then the rest of the story. The first word is “justified”. We are justified at that moment when we come to faith. In that moment we are assured of our salvation, but we are far from the end of our faith journey.
The second word we use is “sanctification” which is the rest of the story. It is the process that begins when our salvation is assured and lasts for the rest of our lives. Sanctification is a partnership between us and God that makes us more holy or more like God.
The story of the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well tells us about the moment when she became justified and began the process of sanctification. And the woman’s experience with Jesus may help us understand our own baby steps in faith. Because of the woman, we believe that Jesus cares enough to stay with us, even when we think we have him outsmarted. Because of the woman we look forward to the precious gift of living water. The moment when we have our first immature ideas about Jesus, we receive our first sip of refreshing, cleansing, living water.
Like the woman at the well, let us ask Jesus for the “living water” that “wells up within us” and brings us to eternal life. And then let us allow the water to cleanse and refresh us, in our journey toward holiness.
Copyright © 2008 by Dwight R. Blackstock
posted by Dwight Blackstock | 7:49 AM
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