Sermon by Owen Rogers on John 4:5-42 and Romans 5:1-11
Please read John 4:5-14 first because we’re now going over the story.
Jesus and his disciples arrived at the well in the middle of the day when it was really hot. Most people would have gone home for a rest from the hot sun. Instead Jesus’ disciples went into town to get some food while Jesus rested, presumably in some shade. Jesus and team weren’t the only ones out in the midday sun. A local woman came to get water. The rest of the women from the town would have got their water in the morning and again in the evening when it was cooler. The likely reason was that no one liked her, they avoided her and she avoided them, so she came to fetch her water in the middle of the day so she would not have to meet anyone.
Water that is living
Jesus was tired and thirsty. He could do with a drink. What was the first thing Jesus asked the woman to do (see verse 7)? Why was that so surprising? It was quite out of the ordinary for a Jew to speak to a Samaritan. The feud between the Jews and Samaritans had been going on for centuries.
Samaria was built as the capital of the northern kingdom when ten of the Israelite tribes split from the other two after King Solomon died. This northern kingdom was steeped in idolatry from start to finish and was eventually conquered by the Babylonians. The subsequent years saw the Samaritans become more and more mixed both ethnically and religiously. People of other races migrated into the area and the worship of Jehovah was mixed with the worship of the gods of these other races. Even so, the Samaritans knew enough about Jehovah that they were, like the Jews, looking for a ‘prophet like Moses’ figure, called the Taheb, (see Deuteronomy 18:15,18.)
It was because of their mixed worship that the Jews’ despised the Samaritans, and yet Jesus reached out to them in love. In fact this is just one of many times when we see Jesus disregarding normal conventions and breaking down barriers that divide people from one another.
There is a second reason the woman was surprised at his question. It was not done in those societies for a man to speak to a woman whom he didn’t know, especially a woman of dubious reputation . As usual, Jesus didn’t do what people expected him to do.
We have no idea to this day whether Jesus got the drink he requested. In fact he did another unexpected thing – he told her to ask him. He offered her a drink. What did Jesus say that he could give the woman, in verses 10 and 11? Water that is living. The woman imagined that this water had special powers. She could not grasp what Jesus meant. He was of course speaking in picture language.
Never be thirsty again
What did Jesus tell the woman she would never be if she drank his water (see verse 14)? Never be thirsty again. Now the woman really thought that Jesus had an extraordinary power. She was fully engaged.
Eternal life
What would this living water give people (verse 14)? Eternal life. The woman could not really understand but she did see that Jesus was offering her hope and new life, both for now and for eternity. And she wanted it.
Jesus began by asking for a drink (John 4:7). This amazed the woman, who entered into conversation with him. Jesus quickly turned the conversation around to the eternal life he can offer (verse 10-14). The next thing he did was to challenge her about her lifestyle (verses 15-18). Immediately it became obvious that Jesus knew all about her and the wrong things she had done, but he still offered her life-giving water. It was his intention that she realise that his offer would not stop her trekking out to the well to draw water, but would forgive her sins and reconcile her to God so that she could offer the true spiritual worship that God wants.
The woman perceived that Jesus is a prophet (verse 19) who must surely know what’s what so she raised one of the sticking points between Samaritans and Jews: do we worship on Mt. Gerizim or on Mt. Zion? Jesus said, “Either or neither; it doesn’t matter. The where question is actually irrelevant. It’s the how question that matters.” The worshippers that the Father seeks (verses 23,24) are those who worship by the power of God’s Spirit. How do we do on that one?
This woman was well up on spiritual things and she could see that Jesus was an expert. In mentioning the Messiah I wonder if she was in fact checking whether Jesus was more than a prophet, so that his claim to in fact be the Messiah confirmed what she already suspected (verses 25,26). So she was willing to own up to her sinful past, and witness to Jesus (verse 39). She went and told everyone around just what it was that Jesus had offered her.
Spiritual food
While the woman was away Jesus puzzled his disciples (verse 34) by turning down the food they offered him. This reminds us of our need to receive our spiritual nourishment from doing God’s will. We may be attending church, studying the Bible and praying faithfully, but we are nourished by what we give out in obedient service to God, as well as by what we receive. Taking in and giving out are both essential to the process of spiritual nourishment. In fact we can’t have one without the other. We need a devotional life and a minstry. The two together are our worship.
In John 17:4, as he anticipated his forthcoming death, Jesus refered to completing God’s work on earth – of accomplishing his mission. In Romans 5 (v.10) the apostle Paul shows how, by his death on the cross, Jesus has died for all of us, for we are all God’s enemies. We may not think of ourselves like that, but the truth of the matter is that because we are all ‘ungodly’ (verse 6), failing to please God by our lives, we all need to be ‘reconciled to him through the death of his Son’ (verse 10). The heart of the good news that the Bible teaches is that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (verse 8).
There is nothing we can do to recommend ourselves to God. All we are called to do is to respond to this good news as the Samaritan woman did, by confessing our sins and recognising that Jesus is Lord and Christ. Having done that, we will be able to rejoice (or, more literally, ‘boast’) in three things: in our hope of sharing the glory of God (verse 2b); in our sufferings, because in them we learn steadfastness and experience God’s love poured into our hearts; and in God himself, ‘through whom me have now received the reconciliation’ (verse 11). God loves us while we are still sinners. He sent Jesus to die for us so that, if we want to, we can be forgiven and have new life as his friends, for ever.
Read Romans 5:8-10 again to finish.