Sermon: The Rocky Road…Goes Through
Scripture: John 4:1-26, 39-42
The scripture highlights a couple of things that are not so much evident to modern readers at first. One of which is the relationship of the Jews and Samaritans. Some of the bad blood went back to 721 B.C.E. with the Assyrian occupation. The most intense rivalry began about 200 B.C.E. The source of the enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans was a dispute over where the center of worship was supposed to be. The Samaritans built a shrine on Mt. Gerizim during the Persian period and claimed that this shrine, not the Jerusalem Temple was the proper place to worship. The shire at Mt. Gerizim was destroyed by troops in 128 B.C.E., but the schism between Jews and Samaritans continued.
During the time of Jesus the rift had become so bad that even if the most efficient way to get from one place to another was through Samaria most Jews would not go through Samaria. In fact it had been so bad for so long that even a road had been worn around the land. It is as if the dirt itself in Samaria was dirtier than dirt found anywhere else. The backdrop of the scripture makes what Jesus does all the more surprising. The scripture says that Jesus “had” to go through Samaria. Why would Jesus “have” to do this? He had to go through to get through to one lady that needed to hear the good news.
In the previous chapter and sermon Nicodemus is a named person, who comes seeking Jesus, and knows at least in part who Jesus is. This encounter is very different. The disciples have gone away to get food, and Jesus remains by the well at the heat of the day around noon. While He waits a woman comes to the well to draw water. Jesus begins the conversation with asking her for a drink of water. She responds with what would appear to be obvious, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” She is aware of the disdain between the two groups and the social standards as well with men and women. She seems surprised He would speak to her at all being a Samaritan woman, much less ask for a kindness or willing to receive a drink from her. Do we sometimes wonder how Jesus can want to be around us or love us?
The conversation begins, Jesus said to her, If you knew the gift of God and who it was that asks, you would have asked him instead and been given living water. Jesus knows that she does not know His real identity. How could she they just met. However, does it not seem that after this first comment that she might have thought to ask well who are you? She is building up to that but has not done so yet. She again states the obvious visible things…the well is deep and you don’t have a bucket, where will you get this living water. She goes on to presume that Jacob who gave the well is greater than Jesus.
Jesus redirects, if you drink from this well you will get thirsty again, but if whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. The water I give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. All it seems like she heard of this was “I give you the water, it springs up in you and you won’t thirst again.” Because she wants it so she won’t have to return to the well and draw more water. She wants the gift but has not understood yet who Jesus is.
Then the game changer moment…he told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” She responds quickly with “I have no husband.” Jesus then reveals Himself to her by revealing her past. Essential Jesus says to her, you are right, you do not have a husband, but you have had 5 and the man you are living with now is not your husband. Now she is a little concerned how could Jesus have known these things about her? She acknowledges Jesus as a prophet, and then begins to ask which place is the correct place to worship. Jesus said it is not about the place but the person. True worshipers, will worship in spirit and truth, for they are the kind the Father seeks. Her head is spinning what could all this mean. That God would not be so concerned about the place but whom they worship and that they worship in spirit and truth. That these are they that God seeks.
At this point she is she says, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” The Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.” Jesus finally reveals the fullness of His identity to this woman. She now knows He is Messiah, and He confronted her past with grace so that she could know that there is nothing in her past that is too bad for Jesus, the one who loved her and was willing to die in her place. Jesus had to go through Samaria to get through to this woman. She too had to go through some things for Jesus to get through to her. At first she seems to hope that this conversation will not be too unpleasant because she assumes He knows nothing about her past. The later revealing of her past and Jesus’ identity as the Messiah helped her to understand the grace that is given through Jesus Christ.
Her testimony around town brought people to Jesus and the longer they spent time with Him they too believed. When Jesus had to go through Samaria, we might guess because it was a faster more direct route, but it was not about an urgency of getting to the next place but the urgency of heart. Think of what Jesus had to go through to get through to us…the cross. Think of what all we have gone through that we would be in a good place for Jesus to get through to us.
The Bowtie Pastor 