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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a lot going on in today’s Gospel Reading! People come, give, drink, know, thirst, and worship. There is a well, hours, water, a Jew and a Samaritan, a gift, a woman and men, a Lord, fathers, truth, and spirit. A sermon probably could focus on any one of those individually, but this morning we try to take them all together, even though precisely how they are all connected is not as clear as we might like. Nevertheless, reflecting on today’s Gospel Reading, we will realize that, as Jesus sought the Samaritan woman, God seeks us thirsty worshippers, in order for Him to give us to drink living water.
As the Divinely‑inspired St. John tells us, Jesus came to the Samaritan town of Sychar wearied from His journey, and so he was sitting beside Jacob’s well at about the sixth hour, or noon, when an outcast, sinful woman came to draw water. Jesus’s thirst and request of the Samaritan woman for something to drink seems to echo the people of Israel’s thirst and request of Moses for water to drink in today’s Old Testament Reading (Exodus 17:1-7). But, more than Jesus’s being only the people of Israel reduced to One, One Who in this case trusted God to slake His thirst, Jesus is also the Rock from Whom water flowed for the people of Israel. And, Jesus seems to have also sought out the Samaritan woman, a thirsty worshipper, in order for Him to give her to drink living water.
The Samaritan woman was understandably amazed that Jewish Jesus asked her for a drink, as most Jews at a minimum would not use such things as Samaritan water vessels, in order for the Jews to avoid becoming unclean. But, Jesus identifies at least part of the Samaritan woman’s problem as her not knowing the gift of God, arguably Jesus Himself, Who was speaking to Her asking for a drink, and Who could give her living water so that she would never be thirsty again. Like the “gift of God”, such “living water” could refer to Jesus Himself, but perhaps “living water” is better taken as referring to the Holy Spirit Whom Jesus gives (John 7:37‑39) and to the ways that the Holy Spirit works to point people to the Christ and to the Father Who sent Him. The Samaritan woman did not know Who Jesus was, and Jesus patiently leads her to realize, first, that He is greater than their father Jacob, next that He is at a minimum a prophet, and ultimately that He is the Messiah, the Christ.
In seeking the Samaritan woman, Jesus brings up her sinfulness, which helps create in her a thirst for the right worship of God, namely seeking and receiving from Him the forgiveness of sins. In God’s seeking us as thirsty worshippers, He also brings up our sin. Like the Samaritan woman, by nature we also are ignorant of the gift of God, and on our own we do not ask Him for living water. Furthermore, we may not have been “married” five times and be living with still another person, but we all sin against the Sixth Commandment, at least failing to live sexually pure and decent lives in what we say and do, if not also failing to love and honor our spouse. We fail to love our neighbors as ourselves in any number of ways, ultimately because we do not love God as we should. For our sinful nature and all our sin we deserve to be cast out, not only cast out of polite society, but also cast out of God’s eternal presence. Yet, as Jesus sought the Samaritan woman, God seeks us thirsty worshippers—no matter how sinful we might be—in order for Him to give us to drink living water.
On another day, about the sixth hour, Jesus thirsted again, hanging on a cross for your sins and mine. When Jesus received sour wine that was there, He said, “It is finished!” and bowed His head and gave up His Spirit. One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. (John 19:28-30, 34.) Salvation, the forgiveness of sins, comes from Him, from His sacrifice on the cross for us. There is the gift of God. We can worship Him Whom we now know from His greatest revelation of Himself, of His will and grace. We can worship the Father in the Holy Spirit and in Him Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). We do not have to go to Mt. Gerizim in Samaria or to Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, but we can worship Him here, by seeking and receiving from Him the forgiveness of sins here, where He is present with His Name and all that He is, in order to so bless us with the forgiveness of sins.
St. John personally witnessed the flow of blood and water from Jesus’s side and testifies to the truth so that we might believe (John 19:35). Later St. John similarly wrote by Divine inspiration that Jesus came by water and blood that testify with the Holy Spirit (1 John 5:6-8). The water can especially remind us of Holy Baptism, the birth from above by water and the Spirit, as we heard in last week’s Gospel Reading from John chapter 3 (vv.1-17). And, baptism connects last week’s Reading and this week’s Reading (confer John 4:1-4), with this week’s Reading appointed in part because of its emphasis on God’s means of grace. Even though we do not drink baptismal water, St. Paul can write that in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body and all were made to drink of one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13). We do eat and drink Jesus’s body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. Later in St. John’s Gospel account, Jesus calls Himself the bread of life and similarly says that whoever comes to Him shall not hunger and whoever believes in Him shall never thirst but whoever feeds on His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life and will be raised up on the last day (John 6:35, 54).
The Holy Spirit and all Jesus gives us with Him through His means of grace transforms us, enabling us to repent of our sin and trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake. And so, God forgives us our sin—our sin against the Sixth Commandment and all the other Commandments, all our sin, whatever our sin might be. So transformed, we know the gifts of God, and we seek and receive them in faith. We worship the Father in the Holy Spirit and in the Son. And, as St. Paul described in today’s Epistle Reading (Romans 5:1-8), with God’s love poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame.
Reflecting on today’s Gospel Reading, we have realized that, as Jesus sought the Samaritan woman, God seeks us thirsty worshippers, in order for Him to give us to drink living water. Through His Word and Sacraments, God enables us to repent and believe and so to receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. In the Revelation God gave to St. John, St. John heard the One seated on the throne say, “To the thirsty I will give from the springs of the water of life without payment” (Revelation 21:6), and, further echoing the Old Testament (Isaiah 55:1), St. John by Divine inspiration invites us, as we in turn invite others, “Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +