In the Name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen

The Third Sunday in Lent (2011)

The Well of Living Water Rev. Toby Byrd

John 4:13-15 (ESV)

Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, [14] but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." [15] The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."

St. John begins this chapter of his Gospel by telling us that our Lord Jesus leaves Judea to travel to Galilee. Following the shortest route, our Lord traveled from Judea to Galilee through Samaria. Now, on its surface, this seems like a strange route for a Jew to take, because Jews hated the Samaritans and they would take a longer route of travel just to avoid them. However, our Lord is no ordinary Jew; He is the Son of God who came to earth to save those lost to sin; including the inhabitants of Samaria. In fact, it is not a stretch to believe that Jesus purposely chose this path because He knew He would be meeting one of those sinners at a well near the city of Sychar; a well which was dug by His ancestor Jacob some 1800 years earlier.

Reaching the outskirts of Sychar, Jesus sends His disciples into the city to buy food while He rests next to Jacob’s well. It is at this well that our Lord encounters a Samaritan woman who had come to the well, as she had done many times before, to draw water. Upon her arrival at the well, Jesus asks her to “Give him a drink” (v. 7). Naturally, she is startled and taken aback by our Lord’s request. First, she sees that He is a Jew and Jews did not interact with Samaritans very well. In fact, one could say that there was great enmity between the two. Although startled by our Lord’s request, the woman does not run away, instead she stays because she is curious that this man, a Jew, has spoken to her. She says, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (John 4:9 ESV). Unperturbed by the woman’s reaction our Lord answers her question, saying, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water’” (John 4:10 ESV).

What is this Living Water? Is it water that is alive? Is it another living organism deriving its life from the goodness of God’s mercy and love? Or by the term Living Water, could our Lord Jesus mean this is water that gives life or is it water that restores and makes alive? Yes indeed, the living water Jesus speaks of is unlike any water this woman had ever seen. This living water is spiritual not material, it is heavenly not earthly, and it is permanent not transient. Moreover, this living water is given by the very author of life, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Jesus tells the woman that all who drink of the water from Jacob’s well will thirst again. Fact is this is the case with ordinary water; it never quenches a person’s thirst forever. Although Jesus is speaking of earthly water and its inability to quench our thirst forever; His inference lies squarely on the truth that nothing earthly can quench the thirst of person’s soul forever. Oh, to be certain, man has always tried to quench the thirst of his soul with material things, but it always fails. Holy Scripture gives us many cases to test the truthfulness of this statement. In the parable of the Young Rich Ruler, we see a man who relies on his wealth more than Jesus for permanency. Moreover, the parable of the Rich Fool shows us a man gathering large stores of grain in his barns, believing that is all he needs to ensure his posterity. These two men satisfied their thirst by chasing after material things, but their satisfaction was short lived.

Jesus had come to Samaria for a purpose, none clearer than to save this woman from her sins. This unsuspecting woman was about to undergo a life changing experience; an experience of divine origin, an experience that would effect her for the rest of her life. Our Lord, Jesus comes to this woman just as He has come to each and everyone of us, personally, with one purpose; to save you and her from your sins. This woman had been a passionate, immoral woman. She was consumed by lust and lacked the will to resist her desires, but our Lord Jesus, who had been tempted in every way, yet successfully resisted, was about to change all that. This woman was regenerated and renewed by the divine power and mercy of God, the same divine power St. Paul writes to Titus about: “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:3-7 ESV). The goodness and loving kindness of Christ appeared from nowhere and He saved this woman from sin, death, and the devil. In every way this woman’s life and salvation are clearly expressed through the words of St. Paul’s letter to Titus. What’s more, each of us has experienced, in one way or another, just what the Samaritan woman experienced; we were saved not by our effort but solely by the effort of Christ.

Jesus told the woman, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (vv. 13-14). What a glorious promise—living water, water that has such divine power that whosoever drinks of it shall never thirst again, water that will spring up into everlasting life! What possibly could our Lord Jesus mean?

In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John our Lord uses similar language when he said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:35, 51, 54 ESV). Using the metaphors of “bread” and “living water”, our Lord Jesus speaks of Himself as He is proclaimed in the Gospel, as the Savior of sinners. Whoever has been given the gift of faith to believe in Him is blessed, through faith they eagerly follow Him, and through faith they are refreshed by Him. St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans tells us that the marvelous and blessed gift of faith comes from hearing the Word of Christ, the very Word preached from this pulpit. Thus we pray that God will send sinners here to Grace to hear the Word of Christ and thereby be granted the gift of faith.

Sinners are convicted by the Law of their sinfulness and realize that they cannot save themselves or eradicate one of their sins by their own effort. Thus they are brought by the Holy Spirit to the saving knowledge that in their present state they are hopelessly and utterly lost. Then, through the blessed “Good News” of the Gospel, these same sinners are brought to the saving knowledge that our Lord Jesus has redeemed them from their sins. Overjoyed and relieved with this “Good News” of salvation, sinners turn to Christ, the One who has redeemed them, and out of thanksgiving they plea, “be merciful to me, a poor sinful being,” and thus they drink from the cup of the Water of Life, and it becomes in them, “a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (v. 14).

A well of living water—what a beautiful picture of the Gospel! The prophets of old used this picture language frequently. Isaiah for instance, says, “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water” (Isaiah 41:17-18 ESV).

Oh, how you and I, this woman of the text, and every sinner on the face of the earth have such great need of this divine, living water with which to quench the thirst of our sinful souls. We know the wrath of God at sin—that He says, “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20 ESV). When we think of our sins, we become terrified at the wrath of God and the Judgment to come. Where shall we go? How shall we flee from the wrath that is to come? We cry on bended knees: “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” And the wonderful part is God does have mercy. The Gospel assures us that He had mercy and sent His only Son to be our Savior. Furthermore, He sends messengers to us with the Gospel and opens to us wells filled with the water of life, inviting us to drink. Every church in which Christ is truly preached, every home in which the Gospel is read, and every book that presents Jesus as the Savior, becomes a well of water springing up into life everlasting. The thirsting soul that drinks is satisfied. Sins are forgiven. God is no longer angry, because through faith in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, God becomes the sinner’s loving Father. The souls of sinners now rejoice, knowing and believing that through Jesus Christ salvation, eternal salvation are now theirs. In the hearts of such satisfied souls, love to God and love to neighbor blossom, and all the powers of body and soul are put in action in works of love and obedience to God.

Jesus came to Samaria for a purpose; to lead this woman, step by step through all her past till she cried out, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty” (John 4:15 ESV). Our Lord comes to all the Samaria’s of today with a purpose. He came here to this church this morning with a purpose. He came with all His love, His grace, and His compassion. He comes to probe our sinful hearts, yours and mine, to awaken the memories that lead to repentance, to be the mirror into which we can take a good look at ourselves, and then out of pure love and mercy, He quenches the thirst of our sinful souls with the Water of Life; speaking to us His word of pardon; I forgive you! He purchased our salvation and paid the price for our sinfulness through the atoning blood of His perfect sacrifice, thereby pointing us to a better way of life; a life free from the wrath of God and the consequence of sin through faith in Him.

Here, in this Samaria—Grace Lutheran Church—Jesus comes to you through Word and Sacrament to quench your thirst, to give you pardon for all your sins and to point you to a blessed life of loving God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind while loving your neighbor as yourself. Turning to Christ in prayer, ask the Lord of Life to give you a drink from the Water of Life so your soul will never again thirst for righteousness forever. Amen.

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.