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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you know the gift of God and Who it is that speaks to you? So Jesus asked the woman of Samaria in today’s Gospel Reading, and so He asks you and me. And, what Jesus told her, He also tells us: If you do know the gift of God and Who it is that speaks to you, you will ask Him, and He will give you living water. The gift and the Giver are closely connected! On this Third Sunday in Lent, we consider Jesus’s at times riddle-like conversation with the woman of Samaria in today’s Gospel Reading, and we consider it under the theme, “Living Water from the Christ”.
In last week’s Gospel Reading from John chapter 3, we heard Jesus converse with Nicodemus about being born from above, of water and the Spirit, in order to see and enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:1-17). In the verses that follow last week’s Reading and precede today’s Reading, St. John by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit reports more about Baptism and tells of Jesus’s passing through Samaria (John 3:22-4:4). Perhaps recalling today’s Old Testament Reading and the people’s thirst for water in the wilderness (Exodus 17:1-7), Jesus came to the outskirts of Sychar, and, wearied from His journey, in a field given to Joseph (Genesis 48:21-22), He was sitting upon Jacob’s well. Reportedly, the well—a rock-faced shaft that descends more than 100 feet before intercepting an underground spring or stream—was the deepest in the land at the time and is still there today, providing animals and people water to drink.
When a woman of Samaria came to draw water, Jesus asked for such a drink—seemingly less to slake His own thirst and more to meet the need of the woman of Samaria (see Matthew 10:42). Jesus seeks her: He wants her to know the gift of God and Who it is that speaks to her. Jesus seeks her: He wants her to receive “Living Water from the Christ”. Their conversation centers both on what Jesus is offering her and on Who He is, as the two are closely connected. In some sense, she could—and we can—only appreciate the gift when she knew—and we know—the Giver. More than “a prophet”, Jesus is “the Messiah”, from the Hebrew, or “the Christ”, from the Greek. And, He offered her—as He offers us—living water that wells up to eternal life. But, as is often the case with ordinary water, she needed to realize her own thirst before she drank of that “Living Water from the Christ”.
The Samaritan woman came to draw water about the sixth hour (or, about noon). She was a Samaritan, and Jews ordinarily had no dealings with Samaritans. She was a woman, and some demeaned women. And, she came to draw water at a time others normally did not draw water. St. John does not tell us, but commentators often suspect her many men (husbands or not) had something to do with that. As a Samaritan, she arguably was unfaithful and not a believer, like the people to whom God prophesied through Jeremiah, saying they had forsaken Him, the fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2:13). At a minimum, she as an individual was living in sexual sin, and Jesus—by telling her to go, call her husband, and come back—leads her to understand and confess her sin and guilt (to know who she was in relationship to God) and so to thirst for what He offered her.
We may not live as openly a sinful life as the woman of Samaria did, but by nature our lives are no less sinful. By nature, we know neither the gift of God nor Who it is that speaks to us. We deserve to die in our spiritual thirst, and, on our own, we would, as we cannot seek Him. But, as Jesus sought the woman of Samaria, so God seeks us—leading us to understand and confess our sin and guilt (to know who we are in relationship to Him) and so to thirst for what He offers us. God calls us to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep on sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin: whatever our sin might be, and even our sinful nature. God forgives us for Jesus’s sake.
There was another “sixth hour” when Jesus was wearied and thirsty: the “sixth hour” when Jesus hung on the cross for the sins of the woman of Samaria, for your sins, and for my sins (John 19:14, 28). On the cross, Jesus gave up His spirit and (arguably “living”) water flowed from His pierced side (John 19:30, 34). God in human flesh that could become weart and thirst, Jesus Christ died for us at the right time, today’s Epistle Reading said (Romans 5:1-8), while we were still weak and sinners, the Righteous One for the ungodly ones. To the woman of Samaria, Jesus showed Himself to be God in human flesh by telling her all she ever did (John 4:39; confer Luke 7:39), and, by the end of their conversation about living water, He explicitly identified Himself as the Messiah, the Christ. She and other Samaritans came to believe because of His Words (John 4:39-42). By grace through faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice, they received that living water—justification, the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, whatever you might call it—and we can so receive living water, also.
We might wish that there were only one term for such things and that the Bible always spoke in one way, with clear and consistent images. But, the multitude of terms and overlapping images ultimately are for our benefit: they are part of and refer to the gift of God that is living water (confer Acts 2:38). Living water is the Father, His Word, and His Spirit, all in one. Not only is “living water” fresh and flowing, but also it creates and maintains life. Living water gives us birth from above, and we think of Holy Baptism. Even though we do not drink baptismal water, St. Paul can write that in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body and all were made to drink of one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13). Living water is the gift of He Who speaks to us, and we think of preaching and Holy Absolution. The Resurrected Jesus gave His apostles the Holy Spirit and the authority to privately absolve the sins that those who individually confess know and feel in their hearts (John 20:21-23). Jesus told the woman of Samaria that whoever drinks the living water that He gives will never be thirsty again, and Jesus likewise spoke elsewhere of Himself as the bread of life (or, “living bread”) and said that whoever comes to Him shall not hunger (John 6:35). So, we think of Holy Communion, in which we receive bread that is Christ’s body given for us and wine that is Christ’s blood shed for us, and so we receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. We hunger and thirst for righteousness and here are satisfied (Matthew 5:6), no matter how you put it.
As the woman of Samaria recognized her sin and knew both the gift of God and Who was speaking to her, she explicitly asked about worship, seeking and receiving the forgiveness of her sins. The Greek word for worship and related words are used ten times in five verses of today’s Gospel Reading! The Samaritans and Jews had different places and procedures for worship, but Jesus distanced Himself from both of theirs, in some ways that are more obvious in the Reading’s Greek text. Jesus marked the time to worship God in spirit and in truth, with faith in the heart (Augsburg Confession Apology XXIV:27). However, in answering the woman of Samaria, Jesus did not “spiritualize” worship in such a way so as to separate it altogether from specific places and procedures, from everything external. Rather, Jesus spoke of true worship of God the Father, revealed by God the Son (Who is the Truth), by the power of God the Holy Spirit (see John 1:14; 14:6; 1 John 5:20). Such worship is not legalistically “necessary”, but such worship flows out of our recognizing our sin and knowing both the gift of God and Who it is that speaks to us.
We realize our thirst and appreciate and so receive “Living Water from the Christ”. Today’s Epistle Reading reminded us that we are justified by faith, have peace with God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, and have received the Holy Spirit. We rejoice both in the sure and certain hope of the glory of God and in our sufferings, for we know that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame. Jesus is the beginning and the end; now and for eternity, He gives to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life (Revelation 21:6). In St. John’s vision of the heavenly Jerusalem, the water of life is no mere spring but a river, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, through the middle of the street of the city (Revelation 22:1-2). We long to be there, and we know that as we drink now so we already have that eternal life.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +