woman of Samaria? (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)

2017 05.21 John 4:5-42 5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria? (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, 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. 11 The woman said to him, Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it? 13 Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. 15 The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water. 16 Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband, and come back. 17 The woman answered him, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You are right in saying, I have no husband ; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true! 19 The woman said to him, Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem. 21 Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in 1

spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. 25 The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming (who is called Christ). When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us. 26 Jesus said to her, I am he, the one who is speaking to you. 27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, What do you want? or, Why are you speaking with her? 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he? 30 They left the city and were on their way to him. 31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, Rabbi, eat something. 32 But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. 33 So the disciples said to one another, Surely no one has brought him something to eat? 34 Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, Four months more, then comes the harvest? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, One sows and another reaps. 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor. 39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman s testimony, He told me everything I have ever done. 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world. 2

Living Water As an undergraduate I majored in English and American literature. One semester I took a class on the British poets of the Romantic era. The Romantic era was basically the first half of the nineteenth century. One of the better known Romantic poets was Samuel Taylor Coleridge [SLIDE]. Coleridge s most famous poem is The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is about a ship that veers off course and ends up in the Antarctic. An albatross [SLIDE], a large sea bird, appears and leads the ship through the ice to safer waters. Yet without rhyme or reason, one of the sailors shoots the bird with his crossbow, killing it. The ship is soon haunted by spirits and is again driven off course into unchartered waters, this time near the Equator. The wind grows calm, the ship s sails hang lifelessly. The ship sits motionless on the still sea. Without fresh water to drink, the crew are driven nearly mad with thirst. It s this section of the poem that contains the most famous lines [SLIDE]: Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean. Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. The lines convey the irony of a ship that is surrounded by water, yet there is no water suitable to drink. Water. It covers more than two-thirds of the Earth s surface. It s essential for life. The human body can go several weeks without food, but not more than a few days without water. That s because an adult human body is about 50-60 percent water. 3

Our internal organs, like the brain, heart, and lungs, are composed mostly of water. Water. It s a precious commodity, and it s only going to become more so as global warming changes weather patterns around the world. What oil was to the twentieth century, water is becoming to the twenty-first. Nations with abundant access to water will prosper, and those where water is scarce will be at risk. Last week, before I even envisioned this sermon, I came across the following map [SLIDE]. It s a look into the future. The map shows what it calls water stress by country in the year 2040, twenty-three years from now, if water consumption remains at current levels. The darker the color, the more intense the stress on that nation s water supply. South Korea is predicted to be under medium stress; the United States under high stress. Having access to water is not an issue solely for the future, or the present, but also shows up in the Scripture passage that we read from John s Gospel. In today s reading Jesus is leaving Jerusalem and is on his way back to Galilee. (Although the other Gospels put Jesus in Jerusalem only at the end of his ministry, John puts him there at the beginning.) The shortest route from Jerusalem to Galilee would take Jesus through Samaria [SLIDE]. Centuries earlier [SLIDE], Samaria was once the northern kingdom of Israel during the time of the divided monarchy [SLIDE]. But the northern kingdom was destroyed more than 700 years before Jesus. The ten tribes of Israel that lived in the northern kingdom were lost to history. The land changed hands as one empire conquered another. The people who had been Israelites mixed with their conquerors from Assyria, then Babylon, then Persia, then Greece, and then Rome. As one generation passed to the next, eventually the people no longer identified as Jewish. They still retained a common ancestry with Jews, but they were a distinct people. They were not Jews, they were Samaritans. 4

As he comes to the Samaritan city of Sychar, Jesus meets one particular Samaritan, a woman who has come to draw water from a well. John even lets us know the time. It was about noon, the hottest time of the day, and certainly not the best time to go out into the hot sunlight. Jesus is alone, having sent his disciples into the city to buy food. He s been walking for hours. He s hot and tired. He wants a drink of water, but he doesn t have a bucket to draw water from the well. So he does what any Jewish man would do: he asks this Samaritan woman to give him a drink from her bucket. Actually, I m totally kidding. That s about the last thing that a Jewish man would do, but that is, in fact, what Jesus does. In talking to this Samaritan woman, Jesus is breaking a whole bunch of Jewish cultural norms. That explains why the disciples are astonished when they return from their errand and see Jesus talking to a woman. Men and women who were not married or family members did not speak to each other in public. Moreover, beyond the fact that she is a woman, she s a Samaritan woman. Jews tended to look down on Samaritans and avoided interacting with them. Jews did not regard Samaritans as cousins with whom they shared an ancestry, but as Gentiles, as foreigners. The woman herself is taken aback at Jesus request [SLIDE]: How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria? (Jn. 4:9). This is yet another example among many of how Jesus was not afraid to break with tradition. Although he s thirsty, Jesus is interested in more than just water. He wants her this foreigner, this outsider to know that he can give her living water. Living water? That doesn t make much sense! It s true that water sustains life, but water itself is not living. It s not alive. What, then, is living water? Just as with the living stones that we read about last week in 1 Peter, living water is metaphorical language. The living water Jesus refers to flows from the spring of his own body [SLIDE]: Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, he 5

says, referring to the well water, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life (Jn. 4:13-14). The woman doesn t get it. She thinks that by living water Jesus means running water, i.e., spring water, water flowing from a stream. That s why she observes that Jesus has no bucket and the well is deep. Just where does he think he s going to get this living water? Yet, in a sense, she s right. The Greek words, if read literally, could mean spring water. But to take Jesus literally is to miss the metaphor. Misunderstanding Jesus is something that happens often in John s Gospel. In fact, in the previous chapter Jesus is misunderstood by Nicodemus, a Pharisee, almost to the point of comedy. Nicodemus, even though he is an educated man, as all Pharisees were, doesn t understand when Jesus tells him that No one can see the kingdom of God without being born again (Jn. 3:3). Born again? That s crazy! How can anyone be born after having grown old? he asks. Can one enter a second time into the mother s womb and be born? (Jn. 3:4). Both Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman misunderstand Jesus because they don t appreciate metaphor. They take Jesus literally. They re captive to a literalism that limits their understanding. While they share a literal mindset, they are also different in several respects. John wants us to take note of these differences. That s why he places these two encounters that Jesus has right next to each other, in chapters 3 and 4. Let s compare them [SLIDE]. The man that we meet in chapter 3 has a name Nicodemus. In chapter 4, we are never told the woman s name. Nicodemus is a Pharisee, the ultimate insider in Jewish society. The woman is a Samaritan, a religious, social, and political outsider. John makes a point of telling us that 6

Nicodemus met Jesus at night, as though he didn t want to be seen talking to Jesus. Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at noon. It s as if Jesus wants to be seen talking to her. Nicodemus approaches Jesus. Jesus approaches the Samaritan woman. Jesus interaction with Nicodemus is almost combative. He is surprised that Nicodemus doesn t understand what it means to be born again. Jesus says to the supposedly learned Pharisee, Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? (Jn. 3:10). By contrast, Jesus gently leads the Samaritan woman, patiently explaining to her the meaning of living water until she understands. The way that Jesus does this is worth noting. He tells her to go get her husband. The woman responds that she has no husband [SLIDE]: You are right, Jesus says, for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband (Jn. 4:17-18). Now, this exchange is often interpreted as though Jesus is calling out the woman s sin. The thinking is that she s had five husbands because she has slept around. She s an immoral woman to whom Jesus graciously extends forgiveness. Let me say just how wrong this interpretation is. And it s wrong on multiple levels. It s wrong based on Samaritan culture, which with regard to divorce, was much like Jewish culture. Divorce was entirely the husband s decision. A woman could not divorce her husband, but a husband could divorce his wife for virtually any reason. And do you know what would have been a perfectly acceptable reason for divorce? Barrenness. The inability to bear children. In first-century Palestine, a woman s social value was almost entirely tied to her ability to have children. A woman who couldn t have children had no value. She could be discarded, and no one would think anything of it. That s why it s much more likely that the reason this Samaritan woman has had five husbands is not her sexual immorality but her husbands desire for children. 7

That s the less obvious reason that Jesus is not calling attention to the woman s sin. There s a more obvious reason, and that is that Jesus never tells her that she is forgiven. If this is a story about forgiveness, isn t it odd that Jesus never mentions the word? If this is not a story about forgiveness, then what is it about? One clue can be found in where the story takes place at a well, Jacob s well. Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. Where did Jacob meet Rachel, the woman who would become his wife? As Genesis 29 describes, it was at a well [SLIDE]. What time of the day was it? It was the middle of the day. Sound familiar? In Scripture a well is not only a place to find water, it s a place where relationships are formed. In the modern world we gather around the water cooler. In biblical times, they gathered at the well. Nor is Jacob the only biblical figure to meet his future spouse at a well. In Exodus 2, Moses meets his future wife Zipporah at a well. Now, before we get too excited, my point is not that Jesus is interested in a romantic relationship with the Samaritan woman. Despite the popularity of the utterly fictional book and movie The da Vinci Code, Jesus never married. So, no, Jesus doesn t want a romantic relationship with her, but he is inviting her into relationship with him. He knows that she thirsts. It s not a physical thirst but a spiritual thirst. She thirsts to know God. She thirsts to be known by God. And Jesus satisfies her thirst. He does know her. That is why he tells her that he knows that she has had five husbands. He s not accusing her. He s recognizing her. He understands her. This woman who has been discarded five times by the men in her life is at last known, recognized, and understood. She is known by the Messiah, the Savior. I am he, Jesus says to her, the one who is speaking to you (Jn. 4:26). 8

This I am [SLIDE] is a play on the Hebrew word for God. In Exodus 3, Moses hears the voice of God speak to him from a burning bush. God wants to send Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. Moses isn t so sure that he s up to the task. He wants to be able to tell the Israelites the name of the God who will free them. Who should I say is sending me? So God answers him, Thus you shall say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you (Ex. 3:14). Jesus is the great I AM. He is the face of God, the God who knows us and who invites us to come to know him. The Samaritan woman went to draw water from the well because she was thirsty. She was thirsty for water, but Jesus gave her living water. He gave her himself. Living water means knowing Jesus and having life in him. This living water satisfies our spiritual thirst. We thirst for transcendence. We all have a desire to know and be known to know God and be known by God. That s why we come to church. We satisfy that desire through worship. We sing, pray, read Scripture, listen to sermons, and attend Bible study so that we can more deeply know this God who has come to us in Jesus Christ and whose Spirit invites us into relationship with him, and through him, with each other. But those outside the church have this same desire. They may not express it in the same way that we do. They may not have a religious vocabulary. They may not use words like worship or pray. But the desire for transcendence, the desire to know God and be known by God is there. It s just channeled into some other area. For some people it s their career. For others it s a hobby or interest, like politics or sports. These days, in our increasingly tribal societies, politics has replaced Christian faith as the source of transcendence. Along with politics, sports has become like a religion, with sports stadiums the modern temples. For others the desire for transcendence leads them on a more destructive path into meaningless sex, alcohol, or drugs. 9

For one of my friends it s concerts. He attends two or three rock shows a week, every week. Going to a rock club each week is like a religious ritual for him. The rock club or concert hall is his house of worship. For another friend it s politics. He writes a blog and posts on social media. In temperament and enthusiasm, this friend is the most religious person I know. He just happens to be an atheist. My friends are thirsty. They don t know it, but they are. Like we all do, they thirst for transcendence for something beyond themselves. Well, Jesus Christ has come to satisfy our thirst. He has come to offer us living water water that will become in us a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. That life with him will extend for all eternity, but it starts right here, right now. That is good news. It s good news for people outside the church, like my friends. It s good news for those of us inside the church. It was good news for Nicodemus, a Pharisee. It was good news for the unnamed Samaritan woman. In fact, it was such good news for her that this woman who went out to the well to draw water actually leaves without taking her bucket. Did you notice that? I didn t at first. I had to read the passage several times before I noticed, but it s right there in verse 28 [SLIDE]: Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city (Jn. 4:28). She went to the well to draw water but then she leaves her water jar at the well. She doesn t need it anymore. She is no longer thirsty. She has had a taste of living water. 10