Jesus Confronts Sin

Texts for Lent 3, Year A

A couple hundred years ago, in the city of London, there was a man in his early fifties who had seen better days. He was a composer and he had been famous for writing Italian operas. People had enjoyed his operas. But in recent years there was a new phenomena in London and that was the French plays. People weren’t much interested in opera at that time. So he was a little bit down on his luck, feeling a little bit of what it was like to be poor. He felt forlorn and lost. As he returned home one evening, he discovered some notes from a friend left in his door. The notes suggested to him that he write a new piece. One that focused on the words that he had found while reading the Bible — “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people saith your God.” So George Frederick Handel wrote The Messiah, and there found in that work a renewed source of strength and life in his relationship with Jesus Christ.

We’ve been looking at the journey of Jesus as he travels to Jerusalem. On the way to Jerusalem he confronts many people. We saw his confrontation with the devil. We saw his confrontation with Nicodemus. This week we see his confrontation with a woman of Samaria at a well outside a little town called Sychar. The story begins with him coming to this well. He remains seated there while he sends his disciples on into town. They are to do some shopping. Maybe a grocery list or two to get together. While he is seated there this woman comes from in town. Now you have to remember that the custom of this time is that women would come to this well and get water early in the morning while it was still cool. Here is a woman who chose to come in the hottest part of the day to avoid people. Whether or not she minded the heat she apparently did not want to be with other people.

So she comes to the well and she notices that there is one man sitting at the well. A Jewish man, he is not from Samaria. When she comes up to the well she prepares to draw the water and he asks her for a drink. She is doubly astounded, doubly astounded because she is amazed that a man would even speak to a woman at all and secondly she is amazed that any Jew would speak to a Samaritan. Yet he asks her for a drink of water. She expresses her astonishment. She says to him, “Why would you ask me for water?” Jesus said, “If you knew who I was, you’d be asking me for water.” The woman says, “You have no bucket, how can you get water?” He says, “The water that I have is living water and if you drink this water you will never thirst again.” He tells the woman to go and get her husband. This woman in the middle of the day, in the heat is perhaps feeling a little more honest than usual and she says, “Sir, I have no husband, I’ve had five and the man that I am living with now, well he’s not my husband.” Jesus says, “Well you know your right, you’re right to say that you don’t have a husband.” She says, “Sir I perceive that you are a prophet.” She immediately goes into questioning him about religious matters.

Well now I can relate a little bit to that, I know that experience myself. Back when we lived in Goldsboro. I’d go into the barber shop that wasn’t too far from the church. But it’s a big enough town that you would go in and anonymously sit there and listen to the men around you talk. The talk was always a little rough with the men using language you wouldn’t want your children to hear. The barbers, of course, knew who I was. They’re going along, playing along with all this and they wait twenty, thirty minutes till it’s my turn and I go up and I sit down in the chair. The barber who cuts my hair, he clears his throat just a little bit and says, “Well preacher, how’s it going?” As he says that at the top of his lungs, it gets real quiet in the barber shop. All those red faced people look over at you seated in the chair and they start talking about North Carolina State, or fishing and immediately their language has changed.

So here is this woman, maybe she feels caught. She says, “Sir I perceive that you are a prophet.” So immediately she shifts the topic to discuss religion. I know what that is like too. When people find out that you are a preacher they want to talk about religion. You can be talking about cars, you can be talking about wood, you can be talking about fishing, you can be talking about anything in the world and they find out you’re a preacher and they say, “well, uh, preacher what do you think about something in the bible, that, uh...” and immediately the conversation goes off in that direction. Sort of like the barber shop kind of experience. So perhaps she feels a little uneasy so lets turn the topic to religion. I perceive that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain but you, being a Jew, believe that God is to be worshiped in the temple in Jerusalem. Who is right? Jesus says, “I tell you the day is coming when you’ll not worship God on this mountain or in the temple in Jerusalem. You will worship God in spirit, for God is spirit and those who worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth.

In the Epistle lesson this week, the apostle Paul writes to the Romans. We started reading from Romans last week and we will have some more readings during this Lenten season. Here in the fifth chapter he writes to the Romans about this newfound peace you have in God. It’s a result of our justification. Therefore since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God. He goes on to talk about this relationship we have because of Christ. He says that God sent his son to die for us, while we were yet sinners. He said why one would hardly die for a righteous person. Would you just go out and die for sinners? Would you be willing to go out and die for a righteous person? The apostle Paul was so moved by the implications of that he tells the Romans, “Look, this is the proof that we need. God loves us this much that he sent his son to die for us when we were undeserving of it. Because of this we are free, we know , we know we are free from the wrath of God”. That’s what peace is, being free from the wrath of God. Knowing that we are free from the wrath of God. Knowing that there is no love greater than the love he has for us. The love that he demonstrated in his son who came and died for us while we were yet sinners.

Jesus spoke to that Samaritan woman about living water. She seemed a little confused about it. We remember last week how Christ would confuse Nicodemus by using puns. I said the problem with these puns and the Greek language is that they don’t translate well into English. Well he uses a pun that does translate somewhat well into English, at least if you come from the mountains like I do. Where we often use the expression ‘living water’ to refer to mountain streams and creeks. Water that often flows rapidly down, gurgling and bubbling. It’s clear. You can see the bottom. It’s not like this muddy water that we’ve been reading about in the paper, the Neuse or Cape Fear river, it’s clear water. Cold water.

I tell you if you ever go swimming in that mountain water, it’s an experience. Living water. Perhaps that is what this woman was thinking of when Jesus was talking about living water and she looked around and she realized that all we have here is a well, and it’s deep at that. She doesn’t understand the higher meaning of the words that Jesus is using. Because like with Nicodemus, Jesus uses this word ‘water’ to name something else. There is a well there burbling with living water but it’s not one that she can see. Not one that is part of this well or that you can see outside of the well, it’s a source of life giving springs that wells up within your own soul from God. “Oh give me this water that I may never thirst.” We are told that she runs back to the village, this woman who is afraid of people, this woman who doesn’t want to be seen runs back to the village and she immediately goes up to people and she tells them of this experience that has just happened to her. “I met this man out by the well and he told me everything about myself. Everything about myself. Could he be the Messiah?”

The people in the village were so moved by her testimony that they went out to see who this man was, in the heat of the day by that well. They talked to him and they begged him to stay with them longer. We are told that Jesus stayed there in Sychar in Samaria for two more days. At the end of that two day period they would come up to him, listening to him and after he had gone they went to the woman and they said, “You know we believed first because of what you said but no more. Now we believe because we have seen and have spoken with him ourselves. We know that he is the Saviour of the world.” It’s the first time in the bible that Jesus is called Saviour is right here. The first time that anybody calls Jesus the “Savior of the world” is right here in this little town in Samaria. Where because of the testimony of a woman with a scandalous past, people had an encounter with the Messiah and they knew the Messiah to be the savior of the world.

We have a challenge today. A challenge that affects every one of us. Because of how holy or righteous that we may seek to live our lives, whether or not we learn to trust on the grace of God, whether we try to live on our own merits and our own righteousness, whether we are holy or unholy people, sinners or saints, we know that we are people that fundamentally have erred and strayed. We are people who depend upon the grace of God. So like that woman of that village, we are to be set back in community we live in and we’re to find people and tell them — I’ve met a man who knows everything about me, he is the Messiah. Come and meet him.

Maybe people will hear and believe because of what we say to them, but their faith won’t remain at that point, they too will come and know and converse with Jesus, and know him to be the savior of the world. Would you do that this week? I want you to close your eyes right now and to bow your heads and I want you to think of some people. I want you to think first of all of somebody who is close to you at work or in your family, somebody for whom you have a great deal of concern. Think about that person now. I want to think about what you could do to share with that person the peace of God. Now I want to think of another person. Someone who has done you wrong. Somebody who has hurt you and brought pain into your life. A person maybe you try to avoid like the Samaritan woman tried to avoid people. I want you think now what you could do to bring peace, the peace of God to this person’s life. I want you to pray for these people this week and consider how God is calling you to be his servants, his ministers to reach these people.

Father, we thank you that you have given us so great a calling. A calling that we have not because we deserve it but quite simply because we responded to your love and to your grace. There is no greater calling that we have Lord than to take this peace that we have and freely share it with others. Help us in reaching this person that we’re concerned for. Help us as we show peace and love and care for this person who has wronged us. We ask for your strength in these matters Lord to help us to be faithful to this calling. All this we pray in the name of Christ our Lord and our Savior. Amen