Living Water

I have to, am I on now? Yes. I have to apologize to three countries.

Those of you who were here last Sunday, I think it was 29 countries or something.

That's 29 if you count people born in Newfoundland before 1949.

And I tried to count up the different countries of people who come to this church,

either as they come here and they're immigrants to Canada where they are the children,

of immigrants to Canada. And I got one country wrong.

I thought there was somebody here who comes from Kenya and I made a mistake.

He's actually from the Sudan. He's a refugee from Sudan who lived in Kenya for a while.

And that's how I made the mistake. But he's from Sudan.

And then I missed Scotland. How can I miss Scotland?

And I missed Trinidad because Lisa Moreed, her parents are from Trinidad.

So I missed two countries.

And it's really, I think, spectacular to be in any church, actually,

that comes where people come together to be in God's presence and to meet with him

and to allow God just to come and speak to us and deal with us.

But it's wonderful that we as a church can gather around the fact that we need Jesus

and that Jesus is the one who brings us to the Father and that we don't gather together

because we share irrelevant similarities, like we're all of the same ethnic group

or the same nation or that we all want Australia to win the World Cup of Soccer

or something like that or that we all vote for the same party.

I know that in this church there are people who vote for the NDP and the Conservatives and the Liberals.

And for all I know, somebody who's voted for the Bloc.

I don't know how many of us live on the Quebec side.

And we all have quite radically different educational attainments and aspirations.

And the Gospel shows us that these natural differences are spiritually natural to be in the same church.

That in fact, there's something not spiritually working if we all want the same soccer team to win

or we all vote for the same party or we all like the same music or we all have the same educational background.

That's in a sense an unnatural spiritual state.

That the natural working of the Gospel and the natural working of the Holy Spirit

is to relativize these differences as we are brought to understand our need for Jesus.

And by coming to Jesus, come to the Father.

And Jesus gives us these springs of living water,

which we're going to talk about a little bit more in a moment.

And it's really neat because the Gospel text itself today

helps to illustrate the irrelevance of differences that the world thinks are very important.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

Those of you who are bringing your...

Well, it's all John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

If you're using the Pew Bibles, it's on page 921.

And we're going to just sort of look at this story again,

the famous story of the woman at the well,

one of the best-known Bible stories.

And the story begins, in our version it says the word therefore,

some versions it uses the word now,

and that's because when John wrote the Gospel,

he specifically intended to us to understand

that the previous story and this story go together.

It's, in fact, part of the intent of the story that we would recognize that.

And so it's just, you know, interesting for a second to think about it.

Nicodemus, whom we just read about, was learned.

The woman who we're about to read is unschooled.

Nicodemus was powerful.

The woman was weak.

Nicodemus was respected.

The woman is despised and shamed.

Nicodemus is orthodox.

The woman believes in folk religion.

But Nicodemus is theologically trained.

The woman has a very low knowledge of the Bible.

Nicodemus is a man.

The woman is a woman.

Nicodemus is Jewish.

The woman is a Samaritan.

Nicodemus is a ruler.

And the woman is an outcast.

In fact, from the eyes of the Jewish world,

Nicodemus is the preeminent insider.

And the woman was a preeminent outsider.

Last night, we saw not a very good movie,

Sirianna, starring George Clooney.

I don't recommend it.

But one of the things which really struck me is

they're showing tapes of suicide bombers.

I guess the tapes that they make before they go in and commit a suicide bombing.

These are Muslim suicide bombers.

And one of the things which really struck me is that

they're giving what they want for their funeral.

And one of the men said that he didn't want a pregnant woman

to come to touch his body because that would be deeply shameful.

And I was thinking that, you know, in a way,

for the rigorists of Jesus' time,

they would have deeply understood that.

And so for the rigorists, the Jewish rigorists

who would have been hearing this story about Jesus,

the fact that Jesus in a moment is going to unbelievably cross

a whole pile of cultural divides

and ask a woman of Samaria who's obviously an immoral woman

that her cup would be the cup that Jesus would take

to drink water out of a Samaritan well

would have just been the most shocking and astounding thing

as the Jewish rigorists of the day would have been reading this story.

So we see that the story itself, as we read through,

John, in fact, purposely puts the story of Nicodemus

beside the story of the woman of Samaria,

partially to illustrate that Jesus is making relative

these distinctions that we all, in fact,

need to come to Jesus.

So let's read along.

Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard

that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,

though Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples,

he left Judea and departed again to Galilee,

but he needed to go through Samaria.

So he came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar,

near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

Now Jacob's well was there.

Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey,

sat thus by the well.

It was about noon.

Just sort of pause.

This is just one of these little important asides.

One of the many things that the Da Vinci Code got wrong

is what the first several centuries of Christianity was like.

The Da Vinci Code makes it look as if somehow or never

the first three centuries of Christians

all believed that Jesus was a man,

and Constantine sort of,

with the help of the Roman Catholic hierarchy,

which there was no Roman Catholic Church then,

there was just the church, but that's another error,

that they somehow enforced

this misleading idea of Jesus being God upon the people.

Actually, this verse here that we just read

is what in fact shows that the exact opposite

was in fact the case for the first three centuries.

For the first three centuries,

most people had problems believing that Jesus was a man.

They had a very, very easy time believing that he was God,

those who were Christians,

they had a very hard time believing that he was man.

So this text here where it says that Jesus was tired,

that's one of the texts that for early Christians

they got into big theological debates about

because it was impossible for them to believe

that Jesus being God could ever be tired.

And so in fact, the early centuries of the church,

it's the complete opposite

of what the Da Vinci Code tries to paint.

But here we see Jesus, just a very, very normal,

like completely and utterly obvious image.

He's been walking for several hours.

It's noon.

It's the heat of the day.

He finally stops.

He sits by the well.

He's tired and he's thirsty.

Verse seven.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water.

Jesus said to her,

give me a drink.

Give me a drink.

You know, just a little bit of a,

one of the things which is so cool about Jesus.

You know, there's been times we Christians

have been terrible, terrible witnesses to Christ.

But you know, how is it that Christianity entered Europe?

Christianity entered Europe by Paul and a couple of men

getting off a boat.

And if you read the book of Acts,

there's a story of them coming to Philippi

and finding nobody who wants to talk to them

and they go outside of the city

and they find a place of prayer

and they talk to a woman by the name of Lydia

and they share the gospel with her

and Lydia comes to faith.

And you know, we don't,

it doesn't really jump out at us,

but that simple story

of Paul sharing the gospel with Lydia

is how Christianity enters Europe.

So it's really quite astounding.

The entire shape of the history of the world

is changed and just very simply told

in the book of Acts

of Paul sharing the gospel

with a woman by the name of Lydia

and Lydia becomes the first European Christian.

Astounding.

And here we see that the first Samaritan

who is to become a Christian,

who is to come to Jesus,

is introduced to Jesus by these simple words

in verse 7.

Give me a drink.

You know, so neat about Jesus.

It's so gentle

and so respectful.

It's not with force of arms

or force of intellect.

It's not with any type of power.

It is with such a simple request.

Give me a drink.

For his disciples had gone away

into the city to buy food.

Then the woman of Samaria said to Jesus,

How is it that you, being a Jew,

ask a drink for me, a Samaritan woman?

For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Jesus answered and said to her,

If you knew the gift of God

and who it is who says to you,

Give me a drink,

you would have asked him

and he would have given you living water.

I just want to pause there for a second.

This is, in a sense,

the first thing

which we really have to notice in the text,

that Jesus can give us living water

and that he wants us to ask him

for living waters.

I'm a city kid, city guy.

I guess I'm a city middle-aged person now.

But I grew up in Montreal

and then lived in Ottawa.

And one of my most powerful childhood memories,

I don't know if I had a happy childhood,

maybe I didn't,

but one of my most powerful childhood memories

is the first time I ever went out to the country

with my parents

because somebody had invited us to their cottage.

And the kids that lived in the cottage

that we were visiting,

they were really used to this.

And one day they were thirsty

and they said,

let's go to the spring.

And they took me to this little place

and it was sort of covered with trees

and out of the rock

came clean water that you could drink.

And this, even today,

this is one of the most magical moments

of my childhood.

The idea that I could go

and that the earth itself in a shady place

would provide me clean water to drink.

I have to confess that at first

I was a little bit nervous about drinking it

because of course we all know

that water is made in factories somehow

and it's approved by the government

and all of these types of things.

And the idea that the actual earth itself

could produce clean water

that would just come out of the ground,

out of the rocks,

and that I could put my hand there

and let the water pool in my hand

and drink of it

and it was just so wonderfully cold.

It was one of those spectacularly magical moments

for me as a child,

as a city dweller.

And what Jesus is saying here

is that if you ask him,

he can make you like that spring.

It doesn't matter how dry

or how weary that you might feel.

It doesn't matter what your resources are.

In a sense,

if you are the finance minister of Canada,

if you are Bill Gates,

if you are a street person,

if you are a university student,

it is not by our personal power

that we have such a spring within us.

It is only a gift of Jesus

that he can make us like a spring,

like that magical place

where something clean and cool and fresh

that gives life to the world

can flow out of you and me.

It's a wonderful thing.

I have no authority in and of myself

to tell you folks that.

That's exactly what the Bible tells us.

What Jesus says,

just listen to here again what he says,

if you knew the gift of God

and who it is who says to you,

give me a drink,

you would have asked him

and he would have given you living water.

And the phrase living water

is specifically,

it's an image of salvation.

Remember in John chapter three,

one of the images

of what it means to be saved

is and to believe on Jesus

is that as we put our trust in Jesus

and call out on him,

that Jesus who alone

is from above and from heaven

can give us a birth,

a new life,

making us in a sense

spiritually pregnant with heaven.

He can create within us

a completely new birth.

And here we see

that if we ask of Jesus,

he can create within us

an ever flowing,

abundant stream

of cool and fresh water

that flows from us.

It's a super abundant stream

that will never dry out,

that will never lose its freshness

and its life-giving power.

The other thing behind this image

is that it tells us something

about what it means to be human.

We were born thirsty

and we never lose thirst.

I've had the privilege

of being able to be there,

you know,

with the children being born.

And, you know,

children don't,

little babies

when they're first born,

they might not quite know

how to find

what they need to drink.

They don't know how to find that.

They need the mom

to guide them

and to help them.

But babies are born thirsty.

If a baby,

as the minutes

and all tick by,

if a baby shows

no sign of thirst,

the doctors start

to get nervous

because babies

should be thirsty.

And just as we are

physically thirsty

for water

and for other fluids,

even so,

at a pure natural level,

we are thirsty

for other things.

It's part of what makes us

to be human.

Our minds are thirsty

for truth.

Our hearts are thirsty

for beauty.

Our wills are thirsty

for goodness.

And our very soul

is thirsty for love.

But underneath

and in

and over all

of these things,

we human beings

have been made

with a thirst for God

and nothing other than God

will satisfy that thirst.

That is how

we have been made.

And many of the problems

that we have in our life

is because

we do not recognize

what we are truly thirsty for

and we think

that something

other than God himself

will satisfy that thirst.

I have terrible eating habits.

Nobody should follow

my eating pattern.

Vi, who used to be

the secretary here,

would sort of joke

and mock

in a loving way

the odd things

that I would eat

in my odd eating patterns.

And sometimes

I realize

at the end of the day

that if I'm feeling

really, really sluggish

or I'm feeling

maybe a little bit grumpy

or I'm feeling

really tired,

that part of the problem

is that I'm probably dehydrated,

that I haven't been drinking enough.

I can just sort of be

so caught up

in working, working, working,

working, working,

and I'm not taking time

to drink

and then it starts

to sort of affect

how I'm able to function.

And many of us

have been going through life

not even recognizing

that the thing

which drives us to this

or the thing

that drives us to that

or the reason

that this feels empty

or this isn't working

is because in fact

we were born

with a thirst for God

and only he can quench it.

And Jesus here,

the image of living waters,

of a spring of clean water

that flows in us,

as we'll see

in John chapter 7,

John 7 · chapter mention

Jesus makes clear

that it's the Holy Spirit.

And Jesus says,

ask me

and I will give you

this stream

of living waters,

a stream

that will both

start to purify

and deepen

our thirst for God

and at the same time

as it clarifies

and deepens

our thirst for God

yet both satisfies

that thirst

and yet makes us

even more thirsty

for the living God.

Let's listen

as Jesus continues

to talk

to the Samaritan woman.

The very last bit

of verse 10.

You would have asked him

and he would have

given you living water.

The woman said to him,

Sir, you have nothing

to draw with

and the well is deep.

It's over 100 feet deep.

Where then do you get

that living water?

Are you greater

than our father Jacob

who gave us the well?

Actually he is

and drank from it himself

as well as his sons

and his livestock.

Jesus answered

and said to her,

whoever drinks

of this water

will thirst again

but whoever drinks

of the water

that I shall give him

will never thirst

but the water

that I shall give him

will become in him

a fountain of water,

a spring of water

springing up

into everlasting life.

It's an image

of a spring

which will never run dry

which will always be cool

and clean

and is just completely

and utterly abundant

to flow into our lives.

The woman said to him,

Sir, give me this water

that I may not thirst

nor come here to draw.

Jesus said to her,

Go, call your husband

and come here.

I just want to pause here

for a second.

If the first thing

which we can see

in this story

is that Jesus

can give us living waters,

the second thing

in this text

is this simple phrase,

Go, call your husband.

It's clear

in the overall context

of the story

that as we're going

to see in a moment

that the woman

has been married five times

and currently

she's living with somebody

that it's not the case

that she's had

five tragic things

happen to her husbands

and they've all died

or something like that.

The whole context

of the story,

the fact that she's

getting water

at the heat of the day

when the other women,

normally women

would come together

at dawn and at dusk

when it's cool,

everything about her

shows that she has lived

in a moral life

and she has been shamed

and ostracized

by her culture.

And so it's,

Jesus says this shocking thing.

He says to her

that if you ask me,

you can give me,

I can give you living waters.

He,

he,

she understands this

and though she doesn't

quite understand

what living waters

would probably mean,

she gives a very simple request.

She says to Jesus,

give me these living waters

and his response to her

is go call your husband.

Now at first,

this is a completely

and utterly

un-Canadian moment.

Don't talk about sin.

Like let's,

okay,

you know,

I can just picture

a typical Canadian

like me

being beside Jesus

and say,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

Jesus,

just stay

with the good stuff.

Like don't,

don't get into this

other type of stuff

that's going to make her

feel uncomfortable

or hurt her feelings

or,

you know,

isn't really,

really nice.

Like I,

I would have just been

right beside Jesus

and I would have been

giving him the wrong advice

as soon as he said this.

But Jesus is vastly

smarter than me

and,

and vastly kinder

because you see,

he's showing us

that if we ask him

for this gift

of the Holy Spirit

and it's an image

of salvation,

Jesus is the light

of the world

and he's going

to reveal

the darkness

and the evil

in our life.

But the question

that Jesus gives

to this woman

is in fact

a statement

of great hope.

It is a hope

that even a woman

who has lived

such a life

to come to such a point

of being ostracized

by the community

and even by Canadian

cultural standards

would probably be viewed

very, very poorly

having,

having broken up

five different marriages

and currently living

with,

with a man.

But even

for such a person,

Jesus isn't saying,

ha ha,

I tricked you.

I said to you

I'll give you

living waters.

I've tricked you

to tell me

how bad you are.

There's no way,

Jose,

that I'm going to give you

the living waters now.

It's not like that at all.

He's saying

there is profound hope.

He's saying to you

and me

that it doesn't matter

in God's eyes

how bad we've been,

how much of a mess

that we've made

of our lives.

That Jesus

hasn't come

to talk to people

who seem to have

at least on the surface

managed their lives

in complete

and utter

perfect power.

He is hope

for the hopeless.

He is a delivery

of shame

for those

who have been shamed.

He is new life

for those

who have died.

He is a new future

for those of us

who think

that the story

of our life

is only leading

in a bad direction.

And Jesus

doesn't ask her

this question

because he desires

to mock her.

He asks her

this question

because repentance

is part

of being able

to be thirsty

for the living God

and coming to God

and asking for salvation.

He is going

to bring to light

the sin

and the evil

and the brokenness

and the shame

in our lives

not so that he

will belittle us

or burst into

mocking laughter

at us

but because he desires

to give us

living waters

and to make us

springs of living waters.

And so repentance

is needed

not something abstract.

Do you feel guilty?

Do you feel bad?

But something

very specific

go call your husband.

And Jesus says

to you and me

go call your husband.

And as he says

to you and me

go call your husband

each of us

will almost instantly

in most of our

consciences

know what that is.

Some of us

maybe it's because

we cheated on our taxes.

I don't know.

Maybe it's because

we've been really

telling a lot of gossip.

I don't know what it is.

But it's specific.

It's not abstract.

It's not about

feelings and emotions.

It's very specific.

So the woman

continues on

in verse 17.

The woman answered

and said to him

I have no husband.

Jesus said to her

you have well said

I have no husband

for you have had

five husbands

and the one

whom you now have

is not your husband

in that you spoke truly.

The woman said to him

sir I perceive

that you are a prophet.

Our fathers worshipped

on this mountain

and you Jews

say that in Jerusalem

is the place

where one ought to worship.

Now just pause here

for a second.

Commentators

all differ

in how to interpret

this part.

Some people think

that she's trying

to change the topic.

Some people think

she's trying

to pick an argument.

I think that

there's a third reason

but I think

even more fundamentally

is this.

I think what

the text is trying

to show us

is that often

we're not even clear

about our own motives.

I mean sometimes

we're pretty clear

about our motives

but you know

if we have any type

of introspection

at all

a lot of times

in our life

it's not clear to us

why we do

what we do

and why we say

what we say

that there's in a sense

a mixture of motives

within us

and partly

the text wants

to keep showing us

not to trust

in ourselves

it's not as if

Jesus is only

going to give

living waters

to those of us

who have unbelievably

clear and consistent

motives

and have had

no sin in our lives

the text is going

to always put

Jesus here at the center

driving us

on and on

and on and on

not so that

we understand

what we can do

and be proud

of ourselves

but so that

we can understand

how wonderful

the Savior is

and how great

our need of Him is

and I think

that what's happening

with the woman

here is this

she's been promised

living water

she's been convicted

of sin

she says

where can I go

for atonement

which temple

do I go to

and if you tell me

I have to go

to the temple

in Jerusalem

I have no hope

at all Jesus

because they won't

let me in

where do I go

for atonement

and Jesus says this

verse 21

woman believe me

the hour

the hour

is coming

the hour

here by the way

in John's gospel

one of the good

things about this

version of the bible

the new king

James version

is to translate

the hour

and the hour

in John's gospel

is a little clue

this is just a little

help for you to read it

the hour refers to

as crucifixion

and as death

upon the cross

and resurrection

all viewed

as one mighty

act of God

every time

if you're reading

a version of the bible

like this

where it translates

the hour

out of Greek

literally

it's always

it's a little bit

of a pointer

that the hour

is coming

when the son of man

the lamb of God

who takes away

the sin of the world

will die upon the cross

will taste everything

there is to taste

of death

with nothing left over

and will conquer

sin and death

and hell

and the evil one

in his resurrection

on the third day

that's what the hour

is referring to

Jesus said to her

woman believe me

the hour is coming

when you will not

when you will neither

on this mountain

nor in Jerusalem

worship the father

you worship

what you do not know

we know what we worship

for salvation

is of the Jews

but the hour

is coming

and now is

when the true

worshipers

will worship

the father

in spirit

and truth

for the father

is seeking

such

to worship him

God is spirit

and those who

worship him

must worship

in spirit

and truth

just notice

verse 23

isn't that such

a wonderful line

the father

is seeking

such

to worship

him

and it's really

important

when we read

this text

not to read it

as if we have

amnesia

and not to read it

as if we think

that somehow

truth means

whatever happens

to be true

for us

or where truth

means the abstract

scientific pursuit

of truth

or truth means

just being able

to speak the truth

or spirit means

some type of

internal emotion

or doing things

with gusto

or anything

else like

that

we can't read

the text

with amnesia

who is the

temple

Jesus is the

true temple

who is the

truth

Jesus is to

say I am

the truth

who is the

life

Jesus

will say

that he

is the

life

who is

the

way

Jesus

is the

way

who is

the savior

of the

world

Jesus

is the

savior

who is

the one

who

narrates

God

Jesus

is the

one

who

narrates

God

who

is

the

one

who

bestows

the

Holy

Spirit

Jesus is the one who bestows the Holy Spirit.

Who is the one who can give us new life from above?

Jesus is the one who can give new life from above.

Who is it that needs, who is it who can give

the spring of water that will spring up into us

into eternal life?

Jesus is the one who can do that.

And what is that spring of water unto eternal life?

That is the Holy Spirit.

And we can't read these texts

as if somehow it's talking about something other than Jesus.

Jesus is saying the Father is seeking people to worship him.

And to worship means to come into the one

whose hour is about to come.

It means to come to the one who is the temple,

who is the truth, who is the life.

It is to, by coming to Jesus

and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit,

that one is able to actually come

and know the Father and worship him.

And the good news to the woman in Samaria,

the good news to the woman

who can't even be with other people

because she has to come at noon,

the good news to the one who has had five husbands

and is currently living with another man,

is the Father is seeking you.

The Father is seeking you.

Let's pray.

Let's pray.

Let's pray.

Father, we ask that you make us thirsty.

We ask, Father, that you deepen our thirst for you.

We ask, Father, that you humble us

and heal us and form us

so that as we thirst ever more deeply,

we turn to you ever more completely and fully.

We thank and praise you, Father,

for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ,

the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

We thank and praise you, Father,

that he can give us springs of living water.

Precious Jesus, give us this water.

Give us, make us such springs.

Pour out your Holy Spirit upon us.

This we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.