Our Gospel message comes to us today from the 4th chapter of John, beginning with the 5th verse.
So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.
They
said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said;
now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is
the Savior of the world.” (John 4:5-42, NIV)
Dear Heavenly Father, you have revealed yourself to us through your Word, recorded in the Scriptures, spoken by the prophets, but most clearly, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, your Word become flesh. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds to your Word so that we might perceive your presence among us, embrace your truth for our lives, and gain the courage to witness your redeeming grace to others. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
by David Trexler
The conflict the Jews had with the Samaritans goes way back, and I mean way back. When the Hebrew people were brought out of Egypt, there were twelve tribes—twelve lands. But due to reasons of survival, these twelve tribes were basically combined into two kingdoms about the time of David in 1000 BCE. They were Israel, the northern kingdom, and Judah, the southern kingdom—where Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem.
These two kingdoms never did see eye to eye. The northern kingdom was conquered by Assyria (current day Syria) in 722 BCE, and the southern kingdom of Jerusalem in 587 BCE by the Babylonians (present-day Iraq). However, 70 years later, king Cyrus of Persia (current day Saudi Arabia) defeated both the Assyrians and the Babylonians and allowed the Hebrew people to return home and rebuild their temple.
At this time, the Hebrews of the south actually become a formal religion—Judaism. They considered themselves the true religion and would not allow these so-called Samaritans, who had remained behind during the years of captivity, to help rebuild the temple. Even though Samaritan actually means “keepers of the law,” these second-class citizens had their own holy ground in the north and worshiped the God of Abraham and Jacob, as we see in today’s reading.
At the time of Christ, the Jews had such hatred for these outcasts that they would not talk to them and refused to even walk through Samaria. This posed a problem cause if you wished to travel from Judea to Galilee, Samaria was in the middle, so the devout Jews would go out of their way, cross the Jordan River, travel north, and then cross back over the Jordan.
Sounds a little ridiculous, huh? But I can remember not too long ago in Hickory, NC. There were second-class citizens and, actually, once again, two parts of the city, white and black. White schools, black schools, white restrooms, black restrooms, and on and on. The main streets were even rerouted, so one did not have to go through the black section of town.
My father, a Lutheran pastor doing the work of Christ, began assisting with the civil rights movement. He had a large church in the white neighborhood, some 2000 members, and one Sunday, the dean of English at Duke University attended our all-white congregation. The following Sunday, there stood a sign that read, “No Niggers Allowed.”
Sounds ridiculous, don’t you think? But I can remember not too long ago in Louisville, KY, there were second-class citizens in the church. The women could do all the grunt work, while the men were the only ones who could make the decisions and proclaim the good news. One particular Sunday, a female pastor stood up in the pulpit and began to share with us one of the most powerful sermons I’ve ever heard. Close to half of the congregation walked out.
How ridiculous is that? But I can remember it like it was yesterday in parts of Indiana. There were second-class citizens still in the church, straight and homosexual. Sure, the gays and lesbians were told they were welcome to do the grunt work, but just don’t proclaim the message of Christ’s love. Cause if you do, then we’ll go find another church that doesn’t have Samaritans, homosexuals, women pastors, or people who are different than us.
All these true stories sound so ridiculous it’s no wonder the Church is falling flat on its face and fighting a losing battle. We proclaim the Words of Jesus as the Christ but live our lives in total opposition to the message. We walk around the people who need it the most. Think of it this way.
Would you buy a product that promised to grow hair from a man whose head was as slick as a baby’s butt? Of course not! What a silly question.
Then can we expect the youth of our society, the broken and downtrodden, the searching, anybody different than us to buy into the message of the life-changing gospel from a bunch of ridiculous people? Of course not! Again what a silly question.
The sad part of the story is that today most of the people descending from the Samaritan race now subscribe to Islam, where they worship the same God and just happen to be accepted by the Muslim people with open arms.
If only, if only we could learn from Jesus in today’s lesson. Jesus the Christ shattered any idea of stereotypes and prejudices. He shatters any notice that who we are, male, female, Jew, Samaritan, black, white, straight, or gay, makes no difference to a God of Love.
You know Jesus could have easily done what the good Jew would do and go around Samaria, but no! The first verses of today’s reading say, “He had to go.” He had to go because that is what Jesus came for.
He came to a Samaritan. Not only a Samaritan but a woman Samaritan. Not only a woman Samaritan, but a woman Samaritan scarred by life, a sinner who could not even gather water around her own kind—when most of the women would have been gathering water in the cool of the morning—she had to wait until the heat of the day so as not be seen.
Jesus knows every single thing about this woman, and still, he offers to her living water, the freedom of the gospel, and the knowledge of God’s Love with open arms, not with words of condemnation.
Yet can we learn from Jesus in today’s lesson?
Next time you find yourself being tempted to judge by skin color, gender, religion, or lifestyle, remember the heart of Christ and simply turn around and look at yourself in the mirror.
Because in that mirror, you will see the Samaritan woman, a person who is an outcast Gentile, a person who is a sinner and has a past just like that poor woman who is sometimes ashamed to be seen. And yet, while Jesus knows every single thing about you, he still offers to you living water, the freedom of the gospel, and the knowledge of God’s love with open arms.
And with this newfound living water of Christ Jesus, you are truly free to live knowing that you are accepted for who you are, and then you, in turn, will walk through unknown territories accepting others who differ from you. Paul writes that since we are justified (made right) by faith, we now have peace with God, and this peace with God makes a world of difference in how you live and treat others.
But there’s one last thing I would like to point out about this text, which deals with the future of our Christian nation—deals with the future of this Lampstand we call Gloria Dei.
While Jesus shatters the boundaries of prejudice and comes to all sinners alike, notice what the poor Samaritan woman does next. She becomes the first evangelist in the gospel of John. Get that, folks! Tell me the Bible isn’t full of unexpected twists and turns—like life. Your very first non-Jew disciple/pastor was a shady, sinful woman despised by the religious leaders of the day. Sort of ridiculous, huh?
She leaves her jar. She goes back to her city and says, “Come and see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done, and still he offers me life.”
She wasn’t now perfect, and her past still lingered in her memories, but first the first time, this woman was accepted for who she was.
It says many other Samaritans from the city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, and Jesus stayed amongst the outcast for two days, for two days.
They didn’t believe because now she was better than them, she was still a sinner, but they believed because they saw a change. They saw that whoever this person Jesus was, he had caused something different and exciting in this woman, and they were curious.
Can we look in the mirror and realize that we are no better than any sinner in God’s good creation? And then, can we go out as something different and tell others the exciting good news about a certain man named Jesus who knows all about my faults and yet is willing to offer living water with open arms?
I sure hope so because the course of history needs some changing and will only change through the Love of Christ Jesus.
Scripture is taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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