The Thing Behind the Thing

Text:  John 4:5-26

Theme:  "The Thing Behind the Thing"

3rd Sunday in Lent

March 23, 2014

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.^[a])

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.”

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

On the first Sunday in Lent, Lord Jesus had chat with the devil in the wilderness.  Last week, Lent 2, Lord Jesus had chat with a man at night.  Today's Lent 3 Gospel gives us Lord Jesus having chat with a woman in broad daylight.  There's lots of chatting going on!   The conversation partners change, and so do the locations.   But the constant is the Lord Jesus.  He certainly wasn't anti-social.  He valued a good chat!

Speaking of Lord Jesus, what was He doing in Samaria? Chat up someone in Samaria and you might get cold-cocked in the jaw.  Was He nuts?  Samaria wasn't some Spring Break port of call -- like Galveston, Padre, Cancun, or the French Riviera (if you've got mega-bucks).  For the good Jew, Samaria was like a bad neighborhood; you don't go there unless, for whatever reason, you have to be there.  And you want to get out as soon as humanly possible.  Jews didn't get along with Samaritans; there was no love lost between the two. 

To make matters worse, Jesus was tired from all the traveling.  This highlights the human nature of God's Son.  He did get tired from time to time.  Fancy that!  It would appear that He is thirsty too.  He sits down by a well -- and not just any well:  it was Jacob's well.   And the chat was about to begin.

The woman appears.  Up comes another red flag.  What was she doing out there in public,  in broad daylight?  In those days, women were supposed to be hidden; they were to stay out of sight.  This woman, before uttering a single syllable, was a tradition-breaker.  She must have been a blue-stater transplanted in a red state; she must have been some sort of liberal.  You see, conservatives, generally speaking, place great value in traditions.  "But," as a favorite author of mine, Richard John Neuhaus, has written:  "...from time to time a decision must be made that a cause (or tradition) is lost.  Those who adamantly decline making that decision are commonly called reactionaries." 

For example, the British author Evelyn Waugh was quite reactionary when asked to comment on an upcoming election in England; the year was 1959.  Waugh said:  "I have never voted in a parliamentary election.  I shall not vote this year....In the last three hundred years, particularly in the last hundred, the Crown has adopted what seems to me a very hazardous process of choosing advisors:  popular election.  Many great evils have resulted....I do not aspire to advise my Sovereign in her choice of servants."  Even great authors can be reactionary.

This woman, though, was no reactionary.  "To heck with tradition; to heck with staying home and out of sight.  My family needs water, and I'm going to the well to get some."

"Give me a drink," comes a voice, a masculine voice.  Oh my!  The traditions, the sacred cows, are falling down everywhere.  Men weren't supposed to talk to women out there in public like that.  But this man, this Jew in Samaria, the Lord Jesus does just that.

The woman replies:  "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.  How can you ask me for a drink?"

Lord Jesus then speaks of "living water" that He would give -- His water, His H20 and not the stuff you had to drag up with a bucket from Jacob's well.  This water would spritz up to eternal life. 

The woman wants some of that water.  Hey, she's all in!  Jesus says:  "Go, call your husband and come back."  "I have no husband," she replies.  "You are right," says Jesus.  "The fact is, you have had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband.  What you've said is quite true."  Shockingly, she didn't cut and run when the truth came out in public-- and neither did Jesus. 

Here, amid all these old traditions crumbling and new one presumably being built up, we get to the heart of the matter.  You see, it's not about traditions or the lack of traditions.  Those are the outward things.  Christian congregations -- predictably, understandably, and frustratingly -- tend to get obsessed with them at times and thereby miss the truth.

Now we get to the thing behind the things.  In  short, we get to the truth:  Lord Jesus knew that woman better than she knew herself. He knows you and He knows me better than we know ourselves.  And He accepted that woman, welcomed that woman, loved that woman, and gave that woman living water that spritzes up and gushes forth to everlasting life. 

They started talking about worship of all things!  Where's the right place to worship?  On a mountain?  In Jerusalem's temple?  At 1114 W. University Drive in Denton?  In Louisville, Kentucky at denominational headquarters?  No, no.  Those are the outward things.  The thing behind the thing is this:  Jesus says, "True worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks."

The woman seems confused.  She says, "I know that the Messiah is coming.  When He comes He will explain everything to us."

Some time ago, I picked up this little nugget of advice about explanations.  It goes like this:  "Never explain yourself.  Your friends don't need it, and your enemies won't believe it."

Jesus doesn't seek an explanation from you.  His Spirit seeks you and not the explanation you give of yourself.  He seeks us, finds us, and still finds us even when we hide behind old traditions. 

So we take our leave from Jacob's well, and on we go.  Conversation partners change.  Traditions change.  But the constant is Jesus -- and His welcome, His acceptance, His grace, and His love for everyone.  On we go with Him  -- to Jerusalem; to Palm Sunday's parade; to Maundy Thursday's upper room, agonized prayer in Gethsemane, betrayal, and arrest; to Good Friday's trial, crucifixion, and burial; and to Easter Sunday's empty tomb. My Lord, what a morning!

 Living water -- spritzing up and gushing forth to everlasting life.  It's the thing behind the thing.  Get yourself some!

Amen.