Third Sunday in Lent
February 24, 2008
Text: John 4:5-42
Our Gospel reading this morning is the story about a Samaritan woman and a Jewish man arriving at the same well, at the same time, for a drink. The Samaritan woman is most likely there, not just for a drink of water, but this being the community water supply, she is here to get water for the cooking and washing needs of her family. The Jewish man is there, tired and thirsty from traveling back to his home in Galilee. So, who will be first to get a drink of water? Well-mannered men (no pun intended), would let the woman go first. Or, it could happen that the woman, realizing that the man only wants a drink of water and that she will be drawing jars of water, will let the man drink first. That is what could happen today. But this story takes place in the first century and the situation is more complicated than that.
As the story tells us, “Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.” We also learn that it is improper for a man to talk with a woman in public. Therefore, we have an impossible situation here. The woman, who has a bucket to draw water from the well, can’t give a cup of water to the man who is thirsty. The man, who is thirsty, but has no means to draw the water out of the well, is not even supposed to ask the woman for a drink of water. Did the Jewish man ever get his drink? Did the Samaritan women ever draw her water? The story leaves us with the odd conclusion that though both went to the well for a drink, and yet neither of them got a drink. And yet, the story of the two non-drinkers at Jacob’s well is a story about the drinking of water. The Samaritan woman and Jewish man are not the drinkers. As the story unfolds, you and I become the drinkers.
This story is not just about any Jewish man. This story is about Jesus. He is the one who proclaims all truth, and therefore He is called the Messiah. In the story, He has the Samaritan woman asking for “living water.” Jesus says to 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.”
There are two kinds of water that we seek to drink. The first one is well water. This water is necessary for life. Given that our bodies are made up of a high percentage of water, we cannot live without the daily drinking of water. However, well water is only temporary. As Jesus says, “Everyone who drinks of well water will be thirsty again.” Well water is subject to our dying.
The other kind of water we seek to drink is that of living water. Living water is not from a well. This water seeks a life that reaches beyond our biological needs. It reaches to the depths of our spiritual needs. Living water is therefore everlasting. As Jesus says, “Whoever drinks of this water will never be thirsty.” Living water is not subject to our dying.
Well water quenches our thirst. Living water quenches our deeper thirst for life in its fullness. We need to drink both well water and living water. Where do we get well water? Where do we get living water?
We all know where to get water to quench our thirst. Turn on the spigots at home. Buy bottles of water at the store. There is an interesting thing about well water in a bottle. When I went to the Farm Show back in January, I bought a bottle of water at the food court. For a 20 ounce bottle of water I paid $2.50. That amounts to 12½ cents per ounce, or $15.36 a gallon. And we complain about gasoline prices?
Well water is very precious and dear to us. Look what we will pay for it. Is living water that precious to us? Where is the living water that quenches our thirst for life and its abundance?
During this season of Lent we are remembering the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. We remember his condemnation and his execution by crucifixion. We remember his last words from the cross. As the Gospel of John tells it, his next to the last words were, “I am thirsty.”
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus rebuked Peter and told him to put his sword back into its sheath. Jesus would not swerve from his God-given mission, saying, “Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
Giving His life out of love for the world and thus returning in exaltation to God, Jesus died on the cross. He ate the food he spoke of to the disciples in our Gospel reading this morning, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.” And he drank the cup of suffering and death, completing the work of the Father.
His cry of thirst is not a cry of torment as the onlookers wrongly suppose – but a final act of commitment. Jesus thirsts for God and He thirsts out of love for “his own in this world.” Jesus’ cry of thirst is a deliberate act, reaffirming in the face of death, his complete freedom and unswerving commitment to the mission God entrusted to Him. He thirsts because he desires deeply to “drink” the cup given to him – the cup that will complete the work he has been given to do, the work of loving his own in the world until the end. (Senior, pp. 114-120)
Speaking to the Samaritan woman, Jesus is speaking to us, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked and he would have given you living water.”
We now know the gift of God – it is the crucified Jesus. He thirsted and drank the cup of salvation that you and I might have our thirst quenched with the living water of eternal life. How we drink of this living water is by our faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall; he live; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Faith in Jesus Christ is the way we drink the living water, the way we drink of the life that is no longer threatened by death. (Pope Benedict, p. 245)
The seventh chapter of the Book of Revelation also comes to mind. This is a description of saints:
“They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
The sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat;
For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
And he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Also from the Book of Revelation, the 21st chapter, we hear these words,”
“And let everyone who is thirsty come,
Let anyone who wishes to take the water of life as a gift, come.”
The living water of eternal life is a gift from God. Come, believe in Jesus Christ. He drank the cup of salvation for you and me. He is our living water.