(Sermon for John 4:5-42, Third Sunday of Lent, March 23, 2014) Sermon in a Sentence: Christ had highly successful ministry with marginal people, and calls us to minister to marginal people in His name. THE ROUTE THROUGH SAMARIA Jesus had a choice. He could go around Samaria or he could go through it. Going through Samaria was the most direct route, but Jews didn t like Samaritans and Samaritans didn t like Jews. For a Jew, going through Samaria could be trouble! Most Jews took the longer route and avoided Samaria. But Jesus took the direct route right through the middle of Samaria. It wasn t that Jesus was spoiling for a fight, but that Samaria offered him a special opportunity. Jews thought that the Samaritans were hopeless. In Samaria, Jesus could demonstrate that there is no such thing as hopeless! When Jesus arrived in the little town of Sychar, he went to the town well. It had been a long walk, and the sun had been high and hot. Jesus was thirsty. A woman came to the well for water. That was unusual. Most women came to the well in the morning or evening why carry water in the noonday sun?! But this woman had a reason for coming at noon. She didn t have many friends. The women in her village didn t like her, so she came to the well when no one was there. She was lonely but she prized her solitude. Jesus broke the silence. He said, Give me a drink (v. 7). The woman was surprised. How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? (v. 9). Good question! Jews didn t speak to Samaritans, and men didn t start conversations with women. What did this stranger want? Jesus gave a strange answer. He said, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water (v. 10).
Who was this guy, anyway? Sir, she said, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where then do have you that living water? Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well? (vv. 11-12). Jesus replied, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life (vv. 13-14). The woman wasn t sure what that meant, but it sounded good. She replied, Sir, give me this water, so that I don t get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw (v. 15). But then Jesus changed the subject. He said, Go, call your husband, and come here (v. 16). That was a nasty turn in the conversation. I have no husband, she admitted (v. 17). Jesus said, You said well, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband (vv. 17-18). How embarrassing! Was this man a mind reader? Did he have X-ray vision? If he knew about the men in her life, he must know everything. Everything! But this woman had been around men, and she knew how to get them to change direction. She said, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship (v. 20). Jesus responded by saying, Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father. You worship that which you don t know.
We worship that which we do know; for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour comes, and now is here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshippers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth (vv. 21-24). The woman said, I know that the Messiah comes. and when he has come, he will declare to us all things (v. 25). I AM HE! Jesus said, I am he! (v. 26). Did you catch that! Jesus said, I am he! I am the Messiah! To be perfectly correct, Jesus said, I AM! That was God s name! At the burning bush, when Moses asked God his name, God said, I AM! (Exodus 3:14). Now Jesus says, I AM! He is taking God s name! He is saying, I am the Messiah! I am the Messiah! Jesus had not said that to his disciples! He had not said that to his inner circle, Peter, James and John! He had not said that to the priests! He had not said that in Bethlehem, where he was born; nor in Nazareth, where he grew up; nor in the synagogue, where he worshiped; nor in Jerusalem, where God lived. It was here, in this ungodly place with this ungodly woman standing in the dust at High Noon that Jesus first revealed himself to be the Messiah. Isn t that amazing?! After all Jesus had gone through to get to this point, why would he choose this time and this place and this woman to reveal the Big Secret? Stop and think for a moment! Can you imagine a less likely candidate than this much-married, truly ostracized, Samaritan woman? The question is not whether Jesus could have made a better choice. The question is whether he could have made a worse choice!
UNLIKELIHOOD But that s how Jesus worked. Jesus picked the unlikeliest candidates! It began with his birth. He could have been born in Rome the Capitol of the World! He could have been born in a palace! Instead he was born in a nowhere town in a nowhere country to a nobody girl. He was born among a stiff-necked, self-righteous people who let him teach for about three years before they killed him. The principle of unlikelihood held true when Jesus chose his apostles. He chose the unlikeliest candidates. He chose twelve men. One of the twelve betrayed him. A handful amounted to something. The rest we never hear from again. And even those who amounted to something were often an embarrassment. You could always count on Peter to do something, but not usually the right thing! But there was method in Jesus madness. Just look at what happened when Jesus tried to work with the religious leaders with the more obvious candidates. In John 3, just a chapter ago, Jesus tried to work with Nicodemus, one of the best and most open of the religious leaders. What happened? Nicodemus last words to Jesus were How can these things be? (3:9). Nicodemus came to Jesus as an honest inquirer, but Jesus stretched him to the breaking point. Nicodemus tried to believe, but he just didn t get it. And Nicodemus was the best of the bunch! The rest of the religious leaders wanted to kill Jesus! So much for the most likely candidates. Now look at what happened when Jesus came to this Samaritan woman. She left her water jar sitting by the well, because she couldn t carry a water jar and run. She ran into town and said, Come, see a man who told me everything that I did. Can this be the Christ? (v. 29). And the Samaritan people, who ordinarily would have crossed the street to avoid a Jew, followed this woman to the place where Jesus was and when they came, they believed. Some believed because of the woman s testimony, and others believed because of Jesus word. It was in this little Samaritan village that Jesus conducted his first revival meeting, and it was in this Samaritan village that large numbers of people first believed first accepted Jesus as the Messiah first accepted Jesus as Lord. You see, this woman had a deep need a deep spiritual hunger. The Samaritan people had a deep spiritual hunger. They thirsted for truth. Their thirst for truth made it possible for them to see that Jesus was, indeed, the living water gushing up to eternal life. They recognized that Jesus could quench their thirst and fill their hungry hearts. It was these marginal people who were open to
receiving Jesus, so it was to these marginal people these unlikely candidates that Jesus first revealed himself to be the Messiah! SAMARITANS AMONG US That should tell us something! It should instruct our ministry today. We Christians today are always tempted to circle the wagons around our little fellowship and to ignore the people outside. We are tempted to make of the church a religious club that takes care of ourselves and our family, and to heck with the rest of the world. We re always delighted when a doctor or lawyer or teacher or business person joins our congregation. We want affluent members, because we assume they will support the church financially. We want smart members, because we assume that they will make good decisions. Sometimes they do. Sometimes affluent members support the church financially. Sometimes smart people make good decisions. But Jesus didn t make any effort to round up wealthy donors or movers and shakers or people with high IQ s. Jesus went to people like this Samaritan woman and these Samaritan villagers people who were hungry and thirsty for righteousness because they had so little of it. Jesus proclaimed the Gospel to these unworthy people, and they believed! They received Jesus gladly, because their lives were empty, and they saw that Jesus could fill their souls with good things. We have people with empty lives in our community today. We have Samaritans living among us. Who are they? Perhaps the homeless. Perhaps prisoners in jail. Perhaps those who are hooked on alcohol or drugs or gambling. Those are obviously empty people. But the empty people also include ordinary people facing the challenges of ordinary life without Jesus. In many cases, the empty people are our friends and neighbors and members of our family. Jesus says, Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, that they are ripe for harvest already (v. 35). Did you ever think of your neighborhood as a field ready to be harvested for Christ? Start thinking that way. Did you ever think of the people you meet in the ordinary course of your day as a field ready to be harvested for Christ? Start thinking that way. It might seem as if the task is hopeless, but it s not. It might seem as if our neighbors are hopeless, but they aren t. We don t have the responsibility to bring them into the church. We have only the responsibility to be Godly people in their midst. We have only the responsibility to invite. We have
only the responsibility to plant the seed. God will send other people to water, and others still to harvest. God doesn t need us to succeed. God just needs us to be faithful to do our part. The Samaritan woman was faithful. She did her part. She ran into town to tell her neighbors about a Jew who might just be the Messiah. The scripture tells us that many of the Samaritans believed in (Jesus) because of the word of (this) woman (v. 39). Then it goes on to say, Many more believed because of his word (v. 41). Did you ever see A Charlie Brown Christmas on TV? It was first aired during the Christmas season in 1965, and has aired on CBS or ABC every year since. It deals with the commercialization of Christmas, and has won both an Emmy and a Peabody Award. In other words, it has been one of the most successful television shows ever. But Charles Schultz, the cartoonist who created the wonderful Peanuts comic strip, had a terrible time getting television executives to air that show because it was too overtly religious too overtly Christian. They were especially put off by a segment where Linus reads the Christmas story from Luke 2 the King James Version. Schultz was working with two producers who tried to talk him out of that segment. They tried to persuade Schultz that it just wouldn t go over well. But Schultz replied simply, If not us, then who s going to do it? You aren t likely to create a television show about Jesus, but you will have opportunities to invite friends and neighbors to church. You will have opportunities now and then to tell someone what your faith means to you. When that happens, ask yourself this question: If not me, then who s going to do it? Peace friends, Chuck