The Samaritan Woman: Finding the
Water of Life
Pastor Mathew Magera – 8/11/19 – Sermon 361
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
The woman at the well. She’s the only one of the
women we’ll hear from this summer that does not have a name. Her encounter with
Christ is described only by her heritage as an outcast of Jewish society. A
Samaritan. Nevertheless, she has a unique encounter with Christ that changed
her life. Not by anything that she had done but by everything he had done. She
came for something to preserve her physical life but it was in fact Jesus that offered
her something more. This begs the question, how often are we open to the work
Jesus wants to do in us? How can this woman’s story come to change our own?
Grace and peace to you from God our Father, from our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I want to start out this morning by triggering your
imagination and perhaps your stomachs. I want you to imagine your favorite
family recipe, something perhaps that has been in the family for a long time or
something you could just never compare to anything else. Don’t worry if you’re
not the one who prepares it. I want you to imagine yourself as the one who eats
it. Think of your favorite family recipe. Imagine yourself sitting in a room
all by yourself with that dish sitting on the table. Perhaps it’s something
sweet, a dessert, a plate of your grandma’s cookies, or a cake. Maybe it’s a
main course, a special casserole or a holiday meal. Let your mouth start to
water now as you think about this recipe. You’ve enjoyed this for so many
years. You can’t wait to dig in, to taste it, to allow all the memories to materialize
in your mind as the flavor floods your mouth. Now, think about how good and
delicious that recipe is and now bring your imagination back into this
sanctuary as I tell you this: I can make it better. I can make it better. If
you’re thinking of your grandmother’s cookies that really aren’t her cookies
because they were her grandmother’s cookies, yeah, I can make it better.
Before you get too offended about this, I want you
to hold onto that feeling. You are absolutely against me right now, aren’t you?
Pastor, there’s no way you can make this recipe better. There’s just no way.
What you’ve said is not only offensive to me but to everyone in my family who
cherishes this recipe. Yes, this feeling in your mind, hold on to that. Let it
eat at you a bit. This feeling you have is precisely the reason that the
Samaritan woman is such an extraordinary character in the Bible and why she is
an inspiration to us.
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. He’s taking a
direct route which takes him through the land of Samaria. He sends his
disciples on ahead to find a place to stay when the evening comes. It is about
this time that a woman from that village comes out to draw water. It is here
that this conversation between her and Jesus begins. “Will you give me a
drink?” Jesus asks. She begins to question his motives as a Jew interacting
with a Samaritan but Jesus ignores this and goes straight into the heart of the
problem. If she knew who he was she would have asked him for a drink and he
would have given her living water, better water. Here is where things could’ve
spun out of control.
You see, she starts to wonder with Jesus a bit,
wondering if he is better than Jacob whose well they were standing near. The
Samaritans may have been a mixed race of Pagans and Jews but they knew the
scriptures. They knew their history, they knew the importance of their ancestor
Jacob, how he had bought this land and used it as his home base. They knew that
Abraham had been the first person to purchase this land in order to bury his
wife Sarah and they knew that this was the place where the remains of Jacob’s
favorite son Joseph were laid to rest. This was a very important place.
The water drawn from this particular spring had been
around for centuries of history. And now Jesus comes on the scene offering
something better. How dare you Jesus? How dare you say your water is better
than the water that comes out of Jacob’s well. How dare you offend our family
history, how dare you insult me with this claim. This could have easily been
her response, but it wasn’t. She wants this living water. This is what makes
her special.
Jesus often interacted with two types of people:
ones who were open to what he was teaching and ones who would rather him leave
town and never be heard from again. Ones who would receive him and his promises
and ones who would reject them. This is where the Samaritans really shine in
scripture. You see, while they had a sordid past, while they were not liked by
Israel, they knew the scriptures and they had a special confidence that God
would be sending them a Messiah. The Jewish leaders, on the other hand, were
skeptics. The Messiah had to fit within certain categories, possess certain
skills and talents. The Messiah would only be who they thought the Messiah
would be. There was no room or margin for difference. So, when Jesus would
often have contact with these religious leaders, they would do everything in
their power to shut him down. They were absolutely offended that he would make
the claims he was making. We know what God is sending, they would say. We know
what is good for us. You, Jesus, are not worth our time.
When I made the claim that I could take your
favorite family recipe and make it better, you were more than likely pretty
offended at that claim, perhaps even a bit argumentative and judgmental.
Pastor, how dare you make such a claim? I get it. I mean, how could you trust
my cooking or baking skills over those that have been in your family for
generations. But, and here is my point, I would posit to say this is also the
way in which we respond to Jesus’ claim on our lives as being our Lord and
savior. It is the natural response to
Jesus saying he can take the best in this life and give us something even
better. You think that water is good? Let me give you living water. You think
that bread is good? Let me give you the bread of life. Just as we hold tight to
our family recipes, we speak well of them, we preserve them, and long for them,
we also hold tight to the sinful life, we speak well of it, preserve it, and
long for it so much so that when confronted with Jesus saying that he comes to
bring us something better we are offended.
We treat our physical life and our physical
possessions like they are the water from Jacob’s well, among the best things
ever. They hold sentimental value to us, we protect them, we protect their
places of honor in our lives. Even our theology, our very belief in God can
often be held so close to us that when we hear of something that conflicts with
us, we find it offensive because what we believe about God is certainly better
than what the scriptures say. Those sinful desires we have, those places we
don’t want Jesus to know about. Jesus’ claim to be better than those sins
outrageously offends us. Because we hold such a tight grip and appreciation for
all of this, when Jesus comes on the scene it is difficult to receive him and
the eternal gifts he offers. We often meet Jesus with an argument. I like what
I have, thank you very much. I don’t need you coming into my life and changing
it. We may not be any better than the religious leaders in Jesus’ day. But,
this Samaritan woman opened right up to him. This person who would have been
despised by any God-fearing Jew, receives Jesus. She wasn’t offended, she was
opened.
Jesus came to share himself and his eternal benefits
with the world. Some received him and some didn’t. It is far easier for people
like this Samaritan woman to see the Messiah in Jesus when her heart is attuned
to his coming into her life. It is far easier to see the Messiah in Jesus when
our hearts are attuned to him and not to that which we hold closest to us.
Jesus was not saying that the water she came to draw was bad. Water is a
necessary source for our physical life. But, he had come to tell this woman
that he had something better. A water with eternal benefits. A spring that
would last longer than any in the history of time, water that would satisfy us
for good. People like this Samaritan woman would receive Jesus and reap the
benefits of his coming into the world. John even talks about this in the first
chapter of his Gospel too, not too much prior to writing this story. John says,
“[Jesus] was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world
did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not
receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God.” Those who put their trust in him.
Those who believed he was better than any earthly possession or security they
ever had. These would be the ones who would reap those benefits he came to
offer.
The Samaritan woman at the well is an inspiration
for us because she received Jesus. She could’ve easily been offended and
started arguing with him, even to the point of trying to send him away. But,
she didn’t. We might strive to be this woman at the well, to receive Jesus with
open arms but we, far too often, end up like many who were offended by him and
rejected him. They took it so far that they nailed him to a cross. That’s what
we do with the eternal gift of life, our easily offended selves, we nail him to
a cross. At this point it would be so easy for Jesus to walk away from us, to
just let us die miserable lives away from him, having rejected the truth he had
brought. But even from the cross itself, Jesus is working for us. Luke recounts
the words Jesus said to those who pierced him when he said, “Father, forgive
them for they know not what they do.” Offended, irritated, frustrated, they
nailed him to a cross and Jesus still asks for their forgiveness. Offended,
irritated, frustrated we reject Jesus’ claim on our lives but from the cross he
still echoes those words to us, “forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Though our sinfulness may eat away at us, Jesus
still prays on our behalf. Jesus still brings us that living water. Jesus still
brings us that forgiveness. Jesus still brings that life. Himself. To us. For
us. For the record, I would certainly never claim that I could take a family
recipe that you love and make it better. That claim is pretty ridiculous. But,
Jesus is claiming that his eternal spring of living water is better than
anything you rely upon to live and his claim is true. Jesus’ living water is
better than our best days at work, than our paychecks or social security.
Jesus’ living water is better than our best doctors or pills, better than our
closest and trusted friends. Jesus’ living water is better than all of these
because Jesus’ living water will outlast all of them.
We may fall into our sinfulness and struggle to be
the Samaritan woman in this case but by Jesus’ steadfast word and communion
with us we can be transformed to live for him. We have been forgiven in Jesus’
name. We have been given a fresh start. We can start right now, having been
transformed by the power of the Gospel, to receive his gifts with open arms, to
be living examples to our neighbor just as the woman at the well is an example
for us. We have been called and equipped to be this example in the world and we
can be confident that, even when we fall short and find ourselves offended once
again, Jesus’ forgiveness is still there, that within the pages of scripture we
will find the true hope he brings us. Jesus comes to us right now and says,
“Hey you, I’ve got something better than your grandma’s cookies.” It’s a gift
he brings us. It’s a gift that comes with eternal benefits, freely for us. Let
us receive this gift today and be filled with this living water that satisfies,
that preserves us and sustains us for life in his kingdom. To God be the glory,
now and always. Amen.