Going to the Well
a sermon based on John 4:5 – 42
by Rev. Rick Thompson

Jesus was hot, tired, and thirsty–showing his humanness, wasn’t he!–when he stopped one day at a well at a town in Samaria called Sychar.

    Now, what was Jesus doing in Samaria?  As John himself tells us in the story, “Jews  do not share things in common with Samaritans”–in that case, the reference was to drinking vessels. Jews and Samaritans had a common heritage, but a long-standing and deep animosity toward each other.  They were related by blood, but differed in worship, culture, and history. That’s why it must have been a shock to his Jewish audience when Jesus told the story of a Good Samaritan.  In their book, there was no such thing!

     But John has told us in verse 4–just before we entered the story–that Jesus had to go through Samaria.  It wasn’t geographically necessary; there were other routes from Judea to his home in Galilee.  But, for the purpose of his mission, Jesus had to go to Samaria.

     Tired and thirsty from the journey, he stopped at a well–Jacob’s well, which had been there for centuries then and still exists today.  Jacob, the patriarch of the Jewish people, the brother of Esau, and father of Joseph and eleven other sons.  That Jacob.  Jesus stopped at the well for a drink.

     But there were two problems.  For one thing, he had no means to draw water.  He had no bucket to lower empty and raise full, and the well was deep.   And, secondly, it was the wrong time of day.  It was noon.  The women of the village would go to the well early in the morning, to collect the water their households would need that day.  But Jesus is at the well at noon, without a bucket, with no one in sight, and he’s thirsty.  Do you wonder if he knew something we don’t know?

     Well, whether he expected it or not, someone else did show up at the well.  It was a woman–a woman who had come at an unusual hour.  John tells us that there are reasons for that–she had character issues which prevented her from going at the same time of day as the respectable women of the town. 

     A woman goes to the well–and there she meets Jesus.  She’s got three strikes against her–she’s a Samaritan, she’s a woman in a culture where men were not to speak to them in public, and she’s had almost as many husbands as Elizabeth Taylor.

     But Jesus, violating all conventions of the day, speaks to the woman and asks for a drink.

     And a remarkable conversation follows!  Jesus asks for water, and the woman observes that he has no bucket.  And, of course, she knows that a Jewish man wouldn’t take a drink from the bucket of a Samaritan woman–and just who does he think he is, anyway?  Jesus starts talking about the water he gives, living water, that will quench all thirst for good.  The woman, thinking Jesus is speaking of an abundant supply of running water, asks for it so she won’t have to fetch water from the well ever again.

     That’s one topic of conversation.

     Then Jesus changes the topic.  He asks the woman to bring her husband, and she responds by disclosing that she’s had five husbands.  We aren’t told whether she’s been widowed five times, or whether she had been divorced or why.  Whatever the reasons, she has been married five times, and now she’s with a man to whom she is not married.  That’s why she must go to the well later in the day; she’s been shunned by the others in the village.  And, strangely, the topic shifts again–from marriage, to worship and theology.  They discuss the differences between  Jews and Samaritans around worship places and worship practices.  During that discussion,  Jesus asserts that the more important thing is why one worships and whom one worships than where one worships.

     At the end of this exchange, the woman professes her conviction that Messiah will be coming, and Jesus responds–sounding like the voice which once spoke to Moses from the burning bush–“I am he”.

     That’s another topic.  And a profound topic it is!

     At that point, the disciples (who had gone off to buy food) return to the well, astounded (but not voicing their concerns) that a faithful Jewish man like Jesus would be talking to a woman–and a Samaritan woman no less!–in public. 

     Then, in spite of her lack of credibility in the village, the woman runs off to tell the townspeople about her remarkable conversation with a remarkable man and wonders, “He couldn’t be the Messiah, could he?”  The villagers are intrigued by her testimony, race out to meet Jesus for themselves, and go home convinced that, indeed, the woman’s testimony had been true.

     And did you notice how the person of Jesus unfolds as he and the woman engage in conversation?  First she addresses him as “a Jew”.  Next, she calls him “sir”.  When he discloses his knowledge of her marital past, she calls him “a prophet”.  And, finally, when she races back to tell others, she’s at least leaving open the possibility that he is “the Messiah”.  And the townspeople, after they come and see for themselves, declare that Jesus is no less than “the Savior of the world!”  Did you notice that, as the woman and Jesus extend their conversation–go deeper in their relationship–her understanding of Jesus is deepened as well?  And the townspeople, as a result, come to the incredibly deep awareness that he is the Savior of the world.

     All because Jesus showed up when a woman went to the well.

     All because she took the risk–the risk of faith?–and went deeper in her relationship with Jesus.  She came away from that encounter refreshed by her drink of living water–the water of life, the water offered by Jesus.  She had come to the well burdened by her station in life, but she left set free by Jesus!  When she hears him declare, “I am he!”, she wonders if she has just met the Messiah.  And her life has new meaning and purpose as she receives and embraces God’s gift!

     Jesus is Messiah.  In this story, he’s on the way.  He’s on the way to fulfilling his purpose.  He will thirst again in John’s story–when he hangs on his cross and longs for the fullness of God’s kingdom. Jesus is going the way of the cross, and then he will burst triumphant from his tomb.  The kingdom of God–or, in John’s language, “eternal life”–will be poured out as a gift for all who trust and follow him. 

     The Savior of the world stopped in Samaria that day, and changed the lives of a woman and others in her village.  He was on his way to Galilee, yes.  But, ultimately, he was on the way to demonstrating that he is Savior of the world as he hangs on a cross and is raised to new and eternal life. 

     Isn’t it amazing what happened, just because Jesus met a woman at the well and gave her a drink of the water of life?

     And, do you know what I think?  I think Jesus wants to do the same for us.  I think Jesus wants to meet us where we are, invite us to go deeper with him, receive a drink from the living water that he offers, and rejoice that we too have met the Messiah, the Savior of the world.

     That’s happened to me.  And I hope it’s happened to you.  The amazing story of Jesus and the woman at the well makes it clear what Jesus can do when we meet at the well–the well where God’s blessings are poured out.  I’ve had my faith renewed and deepened in particularly profound moments in worship.  My faith has been deepened when I’ve witnessed God producing new life and new growth in another person.  My faith has been deepened at the sick-beds and death-beds of others, where God’s promises were heard, celebrated, and embraced.      

      And a few years ago, my faith was deepened when Jesus showed up, when I didn’t expect him, just like he did for the woman at the well.

     It was the day after Easter.  The church office was closed that day.  We had just completed another profound and meaningful journey through Lent and Holy Week.  And I decided to use that Monday to hike Mt. Falcon near Morrison.  It was my second attempt to make it to the top.  I was in better shape than I am now, and I succeeded!  But’s it’s what I saw along the way that touched me deeply.  The day before, we had celebrated joyfully the new life Jesus gives in his resurrection.  And that day, on my hike, I saw the creation overflowing with that resurrected life.  Part of the way I was accompanied by a small herd of friendly mule deer.  There were spring wildflowers blooming along the path.  I saw numerous birds, and then there were panoramic vistas from the top of Mt. Falcon. It filled me with a sense of awe at the majesty, the life-giving majesty of God.

      Now I hadn’t gone with the intention of having a religious experience.  But I was open to it.  And it was if I had gone to the well, and Jesus showed up again, offering living water, offering abundant life!

     That’s what he does, you know.  He goes to the well, and meets us there.  And, in fact, at one level Jesus is the well.  Jesus is the well–and, as the Samaritan woman said, “the well is deep.”  When we drink from this well, the water Jesus offers, we discover an amazing thing.  He is Messiah.  He is Savior of the world.  And the water Jesus gives will satisfy our deepest thirst.

AMEN.