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3 Lent Year A 3/12/2023
Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
Our Gospel reading today is a familiar narrative…
Usually referred to as the Woman at the Well.
Jesus was in a non-Jewish area…
The scriptures call it a Samaritan city…
which is important because Samaritans and first century Jews did not like each other at all.
And right from the start, we may recognize that we are hearing a story that challenges the cultural norms of the time.
Author Trillia Newbell sets it up well when she writes:
As we come to the scene in John 4—to a well in Samaria at midday—there are invisible lines in the sand;
unknown to modern readers but well-known to John’s first audience. Cultural lines, religious lines, ethnic lines, and gender lines mark dramatic rings around that particular well.
But here’s the thing about Jesus:
he’s not afraid to cross lines.
Jesus isn’t supposed to talk to the woman.
But he does.
This is just one of many places in the account of the life Jesus in the Bible where his compassion for those who are hurting and lost is stronger than the cultural, religious, and ethnic barriers.
Jesus was crossing lines…
For the sake of the unbeliever…
And because Jesus was willing to cross those lines…
He was able to change forever the life of the woman at the well…
Just like us, she was not worthy…
She could not achieve or earn salvation…
Her life does not suggest she lived up to the law of God.
She wasn’t righteous.
She came from the wrong family…
The wrong class of people.
She was confused on her beliefs…
She had her doubts.
And many of us… if not most of us… feel the same way…
We don’t live up to the standard of God.
We don’t come from the right family or social status.
And yet… God calls us to follow him.
He beckons us…
Not because of what we can do for him.
But because he loves us…
He crosses lines for us.
We are not worthy…
But yet he gave himself up on the cross for us.
So that we may believe in him and have eternal life.
To be with Christ forever and ever.
The woman at the well quickly found out that Jesus was no ordinary person…
When Jesus began to tell her about her life she responded:
Sir, I see that you are a prophet.
She began to share what theological things she knew…
We worship on this mountain…
Jews worship in Jerusalem.
Jesus wasn’t looking for a debate.
Jesus was calling her.
Jesus was reaching out to her.
He said:
Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem.
…. But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.
He went on to say:
Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth.
That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for:
those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship.
God is sheer being itself—Spirit.
Those who worship him must do it out of their very being,
their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.
Jesus was calling the woman to follow him…
So that she would engage with him with her whole person…
her whole being.
To follow Jesus with her heart, soul, strength, and mind.
Then Jesus revealed himself to her.
Saying:
“I am the Messiah,”
“You don’t have to wait any longer or look any further.”
It was then the disciples showed up…
And still living within the boundaries of their world…
they were displeased that Jesus was talking to this woman…
a Samaritan at that!
And she left.
But the experience with Jesus changed her.
She told others in the Samaritan village…
About this man…
Jesus.
She really became an evangelist for Jesus.
Many Samaritans in the village came to faith in Jesus because she told her story and they went and found Jesus too.
In fact, they said to the woman:
“It is no longer because of what you said that we believe,
for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
She encountered Jesus…
And she changed.
Others changed too.
I find it very probable that the author of our Gospel, St. John intended us to make a comparison between the women at the well and the Pharisee, Nicodemus, who we heard about last week.
Their stories practically follow each other in the third and fourth chapters of the Gospel.
Nicodemus as we heard last week was the “cream of the Jewish crop”
a religious leader…
full of influence…
He had the resumé…
He was a Jew,
a Pharisee,
a member of the Sanhedrin,
which was the highest legal and judicial body of the Jews,
He was a highly respected teacher of the Old Testament Scriptures.
Compare him to the woman at the well.
The woman at the well,
is unnamed,
an outcast of the Jews,
not worthy of the law.
And yet she believed Jesus to be the Messiah and told others…
Nicodemus came to faith over a longer stretch of time…
He shows up again in the Gospel of John in chapter 7 and in chapter 19.
But in chapter 3… he struggled.
And his last words in his conversation with Jesus that night were:
How can this be?
In comparing the two…
It took a long time for Nicodemus to come to faith.
The woman at the well, responded right away.
Jesus never gives up calling us…
He is always wooing us to him.
No matter who we are.
No matter what we have done.
And our reading suggests…
That with God…
expect the unexpected.
Sometimes…
perhaps more often than naught…
it is the least expected person that God uses to bring his glory into this world.
And it has to do with the grace and compassion of our Lord.
How he reaches down into our life…
And calls us to follow him.
Take a moment and think of your own life…
When did Jesus call you?
It might have been when you were very young…
It might have followed a tragedy or difficult stretch of life.
When did you encounter Jesus… where your life changed?
Perhaps, it was at a church meeting…
Perhaps, it was in prayer…
Perhaps, it was in the sacrament of communion…
Jesus is calling you.
Not because of your resumé.
Not because of your race.
Not because of your gender.
Not because of your family or social status.
Those are all things our world seeks…
The right person for the right job.
But Jesus calls us for a different reason.
He is calling you because he loves you.
And he is calling you time and again.
To be with him.
Your whole person.
Your whole being.
He is calling you for worship.
So, as we ponder this great story from the Gospel of John.
As we consider this conversation between Jesus and this unnamed woman at the well.
As we note the lines Jesus crossed in order to extend his love to her.
May we also open our arms and welcome his loving embrace.
May we hold on tight to him.
Just linger there…
Stay awhile…
In that embrace…
Because he loves us so dearly.
I want you to hear this…
The story of the woman at the well is a story of the love of Jesus.
And that loving compassion that he showed her…
Is the same loving compassion he has for you.
Whatever you have going on today…
In your life…
Your emotions…
Your world…
Jesus says to you today:
I love you.
Amen.