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S. Lent 3.26 John 4:5-26

‘Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say…’

This is a delightful story, one of my favorites in all the scriptures. This Samaritan woman is feisty! A high-spirited filly! I like her. I think Jesus likes her, too 😉

Do you ever think about how you’d respond if you were back in 1st century Judea and Jesus comes up, asking you a small favor? I think about stuff like that all the time…

Like, if he asks you for a drink, as he does the Samaritan woman, wouldn’t you just get him a drink? Would you… argue with him? She argues with him! And she’s sarcastic too. Wow! Never a dull moment with this one! “I thought it was against your precious LAW to talk to a Samaritan woman. Two strikes against your law there, right?”

I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m going to wager none of you would talk to Jesus that way, right?

Two qualifiers, maybe? Qualifier #1: Jesus isn’t asking nicely for a drink. He’s COMMANDING her: “Give me a drink.” No “Hi, how are you doing today? Nice day isn’t it? A little bit warm, though. I don’t suppose you’d be so kind as to let me have a little drink since you’ve got a bucket and a rope? I’d appreciate it ever so much. My name is Jesus, BTW, what’s yours?”

Uh-huh. Just “Get me a drink”; like she’s a slave-girl and he’s the Master. In the modern world that would get you cancelled, right away! Everyone would be on her side for being snarky, too.

Qualifier #2: Maybe she doesn’t RECOGNIZE who he really is? This is a something I think about a lot—this is the stuff I think about when I’m thinking about the scriptures—would you recognize Jesus for who he is, the Christ, the Son of the Living God come in our flesh, if he doesn’t introduce himself? The great thing about the scriptures is that it’s a vast, loosely-organized (rather avant-garde in a modern French kind of way 😉 non-fiction novel and it doesn’t explain stuff like that. It leaves it as background for you, the reader, to ponder and figure out from the story…

Fortunately, job #1, for pastors like me, according to St. Paul, is to devote ourselves to reading—scriptures yes, sure; but all kinds of reading, anything that pertains to the big stuff of who we are and who God is and how that gets sorted out. And I’ve been doing that ever since I was a boy, long before I was a pastor, so I’ve had lots of practice. And I’ll tell you what I think from all that reading and thinking about questions like whether you’d recognize Jesus or not? I think… of course you would!

Adam and Eve recognized him right away in the Garden of Eden—even after they’d sinned!—just the sound of him in the cool of the evening breeze; they knew it was him! Sin did not destroy that Voice Recognition. Samson’s mother (whose name we never get) recognized him when he appeared in the flesh even before he ascended to heaven in flames. Abraham recognized him between his two traveling companions, when he came walking to meet him in the heat of a warm day…

But Sarah pretends she didn’t recognize him when she was eavesdropping on his conversation with Abraham about her having a child. She laughs sardonically (like the woman at the well) at the news. I say that’s embarrassment over her sin showing…

Like Peter’s sin showed when Jesus ordered him to take him into his boat, push out from the shore to teach the crowd and after, as a favor, takes him out fishing. But Peter argues, “There’s no fish, there!” and he is snarky to Jesus about it, but then—when the nets are breaking and the boat is sinking from all the fish—he goes: “Depart from me, LORD! For I am a sinful man.”

Those two and many similar examples have made me conclude that EVERYONE RECOGNIZES JESUS when he comes strolling past, or when he’s ordering us to fetch him a drink. While he did go to great lengths to conceal his Divine Identity under a humble human form, and did not use his power for himself or even fully for us, still; the I AM WHO I AM is who he is; and Voice Recognition is something Jesus says all his sheep have from hearing HIS VOICE…

So why do we pretend not to recognize Jesus? Ah, because his holiness makes our sinful selves look bad! Jesus is like the ultra-violet light that shows up your hidden sin tattoos and that’s embarrassing. Peter just acknowledges the shame of sin he feels in the presence of the Holy One. But this Samaritan woman… she doubles down on it!! She’s like… “I worship God according to the ’41 Hymnal, buster, which is better than the way of you Jews who think you’re like God’s Gift, or something! We are Luther’s, uh, Jacob’s true children! We have his well and his beautiful rose seal!”

Jesus just shoots back on her Jew question, “If you knew the Gift of God, and who it is saying “give me a drink” you would have asked him and he’d have given you living water.” She snarks back “I’ll be super-impressed to see you draw this living water without a bucket, Sir! Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well?”

Jesus repeats his offer of living water, and she goes, “Sir, give it to me!” And he says she needs to get her husband, and she says she doesn’t have one, and he says: “No, you’ve had five husbands and the one you have is not your husband”.

She goes, “Oooh, a prophet! Well; our fathers—starting with Jacob!—worshiped on this mountain, but you say we can only worship in Jerusalem.” I wouldn’t know anything about very pretty girls who (caught out in error 😉 pick a nit with you and stomp off mad. Jesus [smiling?] says: “the hour is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth…” She says, “We know Messiah is coming, the Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all…”

Which tells me she recognized Jesus as the Christ from the start! Jesus confirms it by saying literally, “I AM speaking to you!”

My takeaway is: fortunately, Jesus doesn’t mind us arguing with him, a bit! And what do we argue about when we argue with Jesus? WORSHIP! Always, it’s the worship!

‘Cause Jesus doesn’t come with some complex Systematic Religious Ideology for us to master and apply to our lives. No. He comes to draw us into the worship of him in spirit and truth. And the truth is conveyed as it is to the woman in the STORY of Israel and the CHRIST whose death on the cross cancels out our sin and reconciles us to God…

HE offers you a drink, right now—his true blood (which pairs well with his true body 😉 so that you will never hunger or thirst, but, in the worship of Jesus, always have Peace, surpassing all understanding, guarding your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.