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John Message 6
New Life for an Outsider
John 4:1-42
Crossing Lines
I don’t care what the lines are … racial, ethnic, economic, religious, political … it takes courage to step over the lines and engage with others. It doesn’t mean that our differences go away or that we necessarily see the world the same, but it gives opportunity for relationship and conversation … and these can and often do bear fruit.
John’s telling of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well has two powerful elements that I want to focus on today … the first is that it is a tale of crossing lines. We turn to John chapter 4 beginning with verse 3. Jesus and his disciples were on their way to Galilee from Jerusalem and as shown in this map, the shortest way was to go through Samaria. Now not all Jews did that because they didn’t want to have contact with the residents known as Samaritans. Samaritans, though distant cousins of the Jews, were viewed as unclean and spiritually misguided. So some Jewish travelers would go around Samaria. But not Jesus. Verse 4 tells us that he had to go through Samaria which might mean that it was both the shortest route and that there was a ministry opportunity there that couldn’t be passed up.
It’s noon in the Middle East, hot and dry, and Jesus arrives at a village called Sychar ready for a little rehydration. Sychar boasted a water well attributed to the Old Testament patriarch Jacob (a well which is there today … still providing water.). Jesus sees a woman there to draw water and asks her for some help. Now to modern ears, this request doesn’t seem like a big deal. However, as indicated later in the story, Jesus’ disciples were amazed (see verse 27) to see him talking with this woman … and the reason for their surprise is that Jesus was crossing over some major lines.
The first was the ethnic/national line. As already noted, Jews looked down on Samaritans because they were a mixed race people who had turned their back on Jerusalem and sought to the worship the Lord in their own temple on Mount Gerizim. In addition, there was a bloody history of hundreds of years of conflict between Jews and Samaritans with Samaritans accused of atrocities against Jews and a Jerusalem ruler going so far as to destroy the Samaritan temple on Gerizim about 150 years before Jesus. So we’re talking here about the level of animosity of Protestants versus Catholics in northern Ireland or Hindus versus Muslims in India. But Jesus doesn’t see ethnic designation, only people in need of God’s love. He crosses the ethnic line and begins a conversation.
Secondly, there was the gender line. Today most of us engage in mixed gender situations without a second thought. But in ancient Mediterranean society, whether Jewish, Greek, or Roman, conversations of men with women outside your family were frowned upon, something which remains the case in traditional Middle Eastern society today. As one author puts it, “Social intercourse between men and women is almost equivalent to sexual intercourse.” Any woman who met privately with a man other than her husband was normally suspected of adultery. So a self-respecting Jewish rabbi just wouldn’t risk his reputation by speaking with a lone Samaritan woman … yet Jesus wasn’t so concerned with his reputation, not when there could be life-changing ministry.
Thirdly, there was the moral barrier. The woman is showing up at the well in heat of the day… giving the strong indication that she isn’t welcome with the other women of Sychar who would have drawn water in the cool of the morning. Later we discover why this was the case. Jesus indicates that she has had five husbands and now is just living with a guy. It could be that she was merely a victim of circumstance and had been widowed five times. More likely though, she had history of marital trouble, perhaps a result of her own unfaithfulness. All this is something that Samaritans would have taken very seriously and we can conclude that the reason the woman is alone at the well is that she was a social outcast. Yet Jesus steps over that line and treats her not as an outcast or moral failure, but as a person in need of God’s love.
Jesus crossed over lines in a way that astounded his disciples. In what ways are we called to follow Jesus by having that kind of courage and love? On the one hand, it would be foolish to ignore all lines because none of us have the purity that Jesus possessed. I think particularly of gender lines. For example, there is a group here at Peace exploring the possibility of beginning a lay caring effort called Stephen Ministry and Stephen Ministry policy is to assign male helpers to other men, and female helpers to women. I think taking gender into account is wise in one on one relationships. It’s also wise to avoid situations that might you lead to cross moral lines and fall into sin or be put into a dangerous situation. For example, God loves drug dealers and wants to deliver them but that doesn’t mean that you and I should go at night seeking them out in certain Twin Cities neighborhoods. There is courageous and then there is stupid.
That being said, I believe that we are called to be less concerned with our personal comfort level or the approval of others than with being servants of Jesus to people. Perhaps crossing a social line means going to someone you don’t know on a Sunday morning in the Gathering Place over coffee or on Wednesday evenings over dinner and starting a conversation. I’m a nerdy, introverted engineer-type who has learned to do that for Jesus’ sake and you can too. For those of you who are in high school or middle school, there are very likely students who are social outsiders, ostracized by others because of how they look, what they wear, etc. Would you dare to sit down at the lunch room with such a student … or if their locker is next to yours, be willing to have a quick conversation? I think Jesus would! He’d be willing to risk some ridicule for the sake of caring for another person. Or let’s say you work in a larger organization, which despite the relative lack of racial and ethnic diversity we have in Eau Claire, possesses at least a smattering of African-, Native-, or Hispanic Americans. Have you sought out someone who you suspect is quite different from you and tried to get to know them as a person? I think that Jesus would have you dare to cross some lines, to engage with others, and see what kind of fruit may result in terms of increased understanding, mutual care, and opportunity for spiritual influence.
Offering the Water of Life
After crossing social lines with the Samaritan woman, Jesus then offers her an extraordinary gift. We pick it up in verse 10: “ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Living water,” is another example in John’s Gospel of a phrase which takes on a double meaning. “Living water” for the ancients meant “moving water” that which you would find in a swiftly moving stream or a gushing spring. It was preferred water for both drinking and for ritual washing because living water was assumed to be more pure than that stagnating in a cistern (show picture of ancient cistern).
But, of course, Jesus isn’t offering the woman ordinary “living water.” He is offering “water” that can give life with God. Comparing physical water in Jacob’s well with his water of life, Jesus states, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” [John 4:13-14 (NIV)] Jesus knows that before him is a very needy woman: she needs forgiveness for her past failures, she needs a community in which she is loved, she needs God’s truth and strength to lead a richer, more satisfying life. Only Jesus can give her those things. Only Jesus can give her a relationship with God that will bring her the genuine vitality that every human being longs for.
You can understand why “water” is so frequently used as a spiritual metaphor in both Old and New Testament. The region of Israel is semi-arid. There would be seasonal rains but for months many areas would be bone dry. And some areas were just plain desert. This picture from Joshua Tree National Monument tells the tale. In rugged hills virtually barren of life, what allowed this springing forth of palm trees? … in a word, water. In ancient Israel, where there was water, there was life. And so frequently, the Scriptures urge us to drink deeply of God’s water … of his love, his revelation, his wisdom … so that we might have life in him.
The problem has been that we want to quench our spiritual thirst in the wrong places. God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah: “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” [Jeremiah 2:11-13 (NIV)] One of the issues with ancient cisterns is that if not properly sealed, they would leak. Human sources for security, lasting love, meaning, etc., leak. We don’t know for sure where the Samaritan woman had been looking to find “life” but from what we can tell, she was seeking in the “right man.” Evidently, her previous husbands had been found wanting and she had moved on to the next partner and then the next. And guess what, there was only one guy who could meet her deepest needs and he wasn’t a mere human being, he was and is the God-man, Jesus Christ.
A broken cistern can be anything that we think can take the place of God in our lives. These can be good things in themselves … like relationships with others. We need people and God has designed us for relationships. But they can’t take God’s place because people aren’t perfect. They will disappoint us. Further, we’re all mortal and no one can guarantee they’ll always be there for us because death could come calling. We need to look elsewhere than people for lasting security. Or take money. It’s important, useful, a gift from God. But if money drives our lives, we will never be satisfied, always driven to make another dollar. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” [1 Tim. 6:10 (NIV)]
Anything that is of human origin will in the end be a broken cistern that can’t hold water. I’m reminded of a recent travel coffee mug I grabbed from the Peace lost and found display after it wasn’t claimed by its owner. I found out why the owner had abandoned it here. One morning I filled it up and as I was driving down the street, I picked it up for drink. I found myself with lap full of hot coffee. The mug leaked … steadily. Clearly, you can’t trust items left in the Peace lost and found … coffee terrorism. Seriously, that’s true of any human source claiming to provide the “good life” and truly satisfy us. It will leak.
Jesus told the woman that he had living water that would satisfy. She would later remark, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.” [John 4:25-26 (NIV)] You see in offering the woman living water, what Jesus was really offering was a relationship with him as her Messiah, her deliverer from sin and death. She could be forgiven of her past failures and walk a new path of freedom … all through a life-giving friendship with Jesus.
That same personal connection is available to us through the presence of the Holy Spirit. A little later in John’s Gospel, Jesus told the crowds in Jerusalem, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” [John 7:37-39 (NIV)]
Are you drinking regularly of the Holy Spirit or you are chronically dehydrated? Are you drinking in of God’s revelation in his Word or you only drawing from human cisterns like junk TV? Are you giving God an opportunity to fill you with his love through fellow believers or are you drying up by going it alone? Are you slowing down enough to drink in God’s presence through your own times of solitude, prayer, and reflection?
In the single marathon I’ve done, I was really good for the first half of the race by stopping, walking through refreshment stations, and drinking. I sweat a lot even on cool days and dehydration is always an issue. I needed to drink. Then at about the 12 mile mark or so, I was feeling “full” and a little queasy so I stopped drinking so much. Major error! I should have known better. I suffered in the last miles of the race in large measure because I let myself get dehydrated. I believe that too many Christians are allowing their thought life, their relationships, their work, their emotional well-being, etc., etc. to suffer because they are spiritually dehydrated. Jesus invitation is “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.”
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