12 March 2023
John 4:5-26
Father, You have taught us to overcome our sins b y prayer, fasting and
works of mercy. When we are discouraged by our weakness, give us confidence in
your love. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and
reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.[2]
What token of your difficult life would you leave behind? Why?
The contrast between last week's Gospel reading and
this week's couldn't be stronger.
Nicodemus is male. Jewish. And a religious authority. He’s
an "insider."
This woman is, well, a woman. A Samaritan; as there
was so much enmity between Jews and Samaritans, which, of course, made her an outsider.
Which probably explains why she came to draw water a
noon, the worst time of day to draw water but the one where you are least
likely to encounter others.
Jesus is not uncovering a shameful past or exposing
her life of sin when he says she has had five husbands and the man she is
living with now is not her husband.
She has most likely been widowed. Or divorced. Or abandoned.
But this did not happen to her once. Or twice. But five times. And now she is
most likely dependent on another for survival.
Although Jesus knows everything about this woman's
life, as indeed he knows what is in everyone (See John2:25,) there is no
mention of sin or sinfulness and no word of judgment or even encouragement to
change her life. He simply states
fact.
The woman’s private life, her having had five husbands,
is not necessarily proof of a licentious life. She could have been trapped in
the custom of levirate marriage.
A Levirate marriage is a type of marriage in which the
brother of a deceased man is obliged to marry his brother's widow. Such was the
case of Tamar in Genesis 38. Onan
refused to care for Tamar because he knew the child would not be legally his.
It could very well be simply this; the last male in
the family line had simply refused to marry her.
Jesus, then, is not chastising her or calling her to
account; rather he sees her, compassionately naming and understanding her
circumstances. “The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now
have is not your husband.” V.18
Any time we label someone as “other”, for
whatever reason; be it social, political, racial, religious, sexual, we
dehumanize them. That’s a slippery slope.
With the label “other”, it becomes easier to
call someone a name. It becomes easier to limit rights and create a
second-class citizen. It becomes easier to do things that are so cruel and
inhuman that we are left wondering how did this all happen?
What do you do when you’re thirsty, and you have no bucket, and the well is deep?
The Woman responds: “Sir, you have no bucket, and
the well is deep.” She’s speaking of her own condition. That is the context
of her life. But here is the point; the Savior is present in every
circumstance.
What we come to discover is this: This woman. The one
with a reputation. She is the first person to whom Jesus identifies himself
clearly as the Messiah when he says: “I am he, the one who is speaking to
you.”
What do you do when the well is deep, and you have no
bucket? When you’ve felt as though you
were standing next to a deep well with no bucket in hand.
Possibly you’ve had times when you’ve realized you’ve
bitten too much off to chew at work or at home, or at school. Times when the
obligations you must fill seem oversized for your time, energy, and wallet. The
well is deep, and you have no bucket.
Perhaps a loved one is struggling with illness. The
well is deep, and you have no bucket. You may feel this way when you consider
the situation in our world, where rogue nations play fast and loose with the
threat of weapons; when flooding overwhelms a community; when an earthquake strikes,
and the stock market is dips. The well is deep, and you have no bucket.
From our Old Testament reading the Israelites who
complained in the wilderness for lack of water, and the woman standing at the
well, each of them, without knowing it at first, were right in the midst of
what could provide their salvation.
Their prayer, in truth, is our prayer as well: “Give
us this water, so that we may not be thirsty.”
The Good News is this: Jesus, the Son of God, offers
us living water to quench the thirst not simply of our bodies, but of our
spirits. [4]
This is your story. Experiencing that great exchange –
God’s mercy and forgiveness purchased at the cost of His own Son. From last
Sunday’s gospel, “God so loved thee world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
– John 3:16
This woman asks, “Could this Jesus be the Christ?”
Do you know the gift of God? As He spoke to her, so the Savior speaks to you
this day; “I, who speak to you am He.”
Passive Sentences-6%
Readability –77.4%
Reading Level-5.3
[1] Schnorr
Von Carolsfeld woodcuts, ‘The crucifixion’
© WELS permission granted for individual and congregational use.
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