Jesus answered her, “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.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12
Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13
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 again. 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.”16
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17
The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;18
for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19
The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20
Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”21
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22
You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25
The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26
Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” 27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28
So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29
“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30
They went out of the town and were coming to him.
Yesterday we began looking at the conversation that Jesus had with the Samaritan woman. We noted that in Jesus the hatred of bigotry is destroyed. Jesus has reconciled
us with God and with our fellow men and women of every tongue, tribe and nation.
This morning we notice that the Lord Jesus and our Covenant God do the seeking. Jesus, purposefully goes through Samaria. He knows what He is doing and where He is
going. He is purposed in his seeking out this woman, seeking out this sinner, this is not an accident, or a coincidence.
Throughout John’s gospel we see the Lord being very conscious of fulfilling the divine plan:
In 2:4 to his mother at the wedding; “Woman what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”
In 7:30, “Therefore they sought to take Him but no one laid a hand on Him because his hour had not yet come.”
8:20 “These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple, and no one laid hands on him for His hour had not yet come.”
And there are others throughout the gospel. This is God’s agenda…He has everything right where He wants it to be and He is out there, God…is out there…seeking sinners.
We speak today about those who are called seekers…well, biblically, it is God who does the seeking, and who He seeks…He finds! In fact, we are only told explicitly
once in all the bible that the Lord seeks and what it is He seeks and it is in this text…He seeks true worshippers.
Or we could put it a different way. Why do you love Jesus? The answer that John gives is because He first loved you. You seek him because He has sought you. You cling
to Him because He has first taken hold of you. That is what Paul says, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of me…” Where is the confidence, in HIS taking hold or in Christ who has hold of him?
That is what Jesus is doing at this well. He comes to seek and save those who are lost. Can you recall how the Lord sought you and how He has drawn you to himself
with cords of love? For some of us, like this woman at the well, we had many other ideas and sought to put off the Lord with all kinds of questions and detours.
Others of you, found the seeking Lord faithful to his covenant, bringing you to the joy of salvation through your parents faithfully covenant nurture. And isn’t it
true, that the Lord as a shepherd, has come after you again and again…perhaps you wandered off due to disappointment or hurt…perhaps you just couldn’t see clearly through blinding tears…and here He comes…again and again…pursuing you and bringing you home.
It was, and it will always be God who is doing the seeking! Just as Jesus stooped from heaven to come in the flesh to this world, so here, he stoops to this woman when all cultural calculations, all worldly wisdom says, avoid her…she is a sinner…she is
a Samaritan!
This reminds me of John Newton’s hymn, not Amazing Grace although that applies as well, but, his hymn “One There is Above All Others”, and his great line:
“When he lived on earth abased, friend of sinners was his name…Now above all glory raised, He rejoices in the same…Still he calls them brethren friends and
to all their wants attends.”
Take note, that the Savior of the world, the one in whom, by whom and for whom the heavens and the earth were created, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the one
who literally has the angels without ceasing, standing at attention… the One who sustains all things so that they do not simply fly apart…He is tired…He is weary…and He sits down, upon the ground and asks for a drink of water. He is weary, yet He proposes
to give rest to this woman. He asks for a drink, yet he offers to set flowing wells within her.
He is the One who asks for the gift of water, all the while, He speaks of being able to give to her that gift which has no limits. He would ask this woman for a drink
and say to her that she is the one should be asking, but asking for something that is far greater than she could ever imagine.
At best, the water in Jacob’s well was stagnant, it was that which met the need for a moment only. Jacob’s well would dwindle…it would become choked and plugged
with stones and debris, but Jesus is offering something different, but what is it?
If she would have asked for it bluntly, would he have pulled out a flask from under his tunic and said, “Here swig this and you will never thirst.”? No, no more than
Nicodemus could get back into his mother’s womb. Here is a tired man, worn out and thirsty with no fanfare and no multitudes, no one watching and He offers to this woman…Himself. HE is the water that quenches the thirst. HE is eternity, HE is heaven, He
is life. He says, if you knew the gift of God and if you knew who it was that asks you for a drink.
Jesus, like with Nicodemus, says to the Samaritan woman, I want you to see above and beyond the natural things of this world, to the supernatural realities of my kingdom
that are as veiled to natural sight as my being God is revealed to you. Jesus, with no mind to race, or earthly position, stoops down, he sacrifices, and he brings heaven to earth. He calls upon this woman to see who is really before her.
But he doesn’t stop there. For then the Savior of the world probes the sinner’s heart with the revelation that he knows all about her, all about her many husbands,
all about the man she lives with now…who is not her husband. He says in essence, Look, I know you. There is no hiding in my kingdom, there is no pretending that things are not as they are…there is only broken humility and acknowledgement of my grace which
is all you need.
Brothers and sisters know this: The covenant that we have been brought into, is one in which there are no secrets…there is nothing about you that He does not know.
Here it is: We run around looking for our identity in so many different things, and they all disappoint. Men think to find their identity in their work, women in theirs. Young men in their athletics or their status, young women think they will find their identity
in how pretty they are or how thin they feel…
And Jesus is saying find your identity in Me and all that other stuff will not matter. And here is the catch; I know everything about you, I know your thoughts, dreams
and yes, I know the dark places, every dark corner…And I love you.
Throughout the Gospels we read of men thinking something and the bible saying, “And Jesus answered him saying…” But the man never said anything,
only thought something and Jesus answered his thoughts! There is no hiding in our kingdom. He knows all and His grace will probe your heart. This forces us to ask ourselves, are we trying to hide something from the Lord? Is there something that no one knows
regarding your life that you think is hidden from all? Maybe from men, but not from the Lord and who else matters…
The relationship that we have with the Lord, called the Covenant of Grace, brings us to the realization that all things are done before the eyes of Jesus. It is something
to think about, don’t you agree? That our entire lives, our thoughts, our desires, all of it, is open before the Lord who has sought you and bought you with His own life. His love, His mercy, His grace is now, going to open you up and probe your heart and
bring you to complete nakedness before Him just as he did this woman…
And here is the amazing part…you will have no shame…because you rest in the One who knows all of this and loves you anyway. The woman runs to town and says come
and see this guy who told me everything I have ever done! Jesus is not distracted by her questions. He is not put off by her dodges and attempts to cover. We all do this. We don’t often like the pin prick of heaven’s message, and the loving scalpel so delicately
at use in the Master’s hand, and so we are quick to dodge, to skirt the pointed sword of heaven’s inquiries. But Jesus will not be distracted by our dodges…love will correct and love will even rebuke, for it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance.
Prayer: Father, why do I hide from You? Why do I rationalize my fears, thoughts and behavior instead of humbly coming to You? You are seeking me and I, like my
first parents think to hide from You because I am naked and ashamed. Lord, I know when you come, it is with the covering of Christ Jesus, help me to rise up and bring my broken self into the light, the light of mercy…the light of grace…the light of love that
does not cast off, but brings near, clothes and rejoices! Help me Father, this day, to live in the light of Your kindness that continues to bring me to repentance, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Hymn: O Love That Will Not Let Me Go