+ Lent 3 – March 15th, 2020 +
Series A: Exodus 17:1-7; Romans 5:1-8; John 4:5-26
Beautiful Savior Lutheran
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There’s an old saying that still waters run deep. And I imagine we’ve all felt, or are feeling that way at this very moment. Beneath our calm, still, exterior; underneath our polite smiles and “I’m fines and I’m okays” there’s an undercurrent of guilt, shame, worry, fear, or depression that troubles our souls.
Still waters run deep. And yet, the living water of God’s word runs deeper still. So deep, in fact, that our Lord’s word reaches down to the depths of our souls to restore us.
A woman of Samaria came to Jacob’s well to draw water. This was not for rest or relaxation. It was a necessity. She needed water. And it was hard work. We don’t really know why this woman came to the well at midday. Many commentators think she was avoiding public shame from a sinful life of adultery. Or perhaps she was ashamed, not of her own sin, but of the burden she carried from having five husbands marry and dismiss her with a certificate of divorce.
Whatever her reasons were that brought her to that well at midday, she came to the well wanting water but what she needed was a word that gave life. What she needed was someone to restore her soul. “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.”
How does one restore a soul, anyhow? Our bodies can be healed. A surgeon’s hands can cut your flesh, open your chest, and reach in and actually touch your beating heart. But your soul… your soul is a different matter. It cannot be seen. It cannot be touched by human hands or examined on the operating table. Yet, it feels the touch of life. Abuse that ends one’s childhood too early. A miscarriage that abruptly ends one’s parenting. Divorce that tears marriage asunder. Guilt, shame, worry, doubt, anxieties that we hide beneath the surface. These things cut deeper than any surgeon’s knife. Touching your soul. Making it restless. Longing for life as God meant it to be.
Augustine once said, “You made us for Yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.” So, this one woman at this one well is not the only one who longs for restoration. We all have moments of restlessness. Anxiety. Fear. And the list could go on.
It could be 3 am, as you lie there in bed, awake and unable to stop yourself from thinking. It could be 3 pm, as you worry about going home to a fractured family, wondering if it will ever turn around. Restlessness flows like an undercurrent through life, pulling us, dragging us downward, making us weary of living even as we go through the normal motions of a day.
And yet, for the woman at the well, and for you. Jesus is, the fountain of living water, is there. The same Lord who was the very rock that gave Israel water in the desert, now pours out living water to this woman at the well. To her, to you, the Shepherd comes. To her, a Samaritan and outcast, the Lord draws near, for her and for you.
Although John does not call Jesus the Good Shepherd here, we see Jesus fulfilling Psalm 23, leading this woman, and us, to the still waters of his word where he restores our souls. John also identifies Jesus as the bridegroom come to rescue his bride. Jacob’s well is no accidental meeting spot. At this well Isaac met Rebekah, Jacob met Leah. Jesus meets this Samaritan woman, and us. Though our sins are as scarlet, in Jesus you are white as snow.
Jesus begins a conversation with this weary woman. He offers her water. Living water. She does not understand. How can He offer a drink when He doesn’t even have a bucket? Is He greater than her father Jacob? Well, yes. He is greater. He is Jacob’s son and yet Jacob’s Lord. And the water He offers wells up from within him. And it overflows to us in his Word. It teems with life-giving water that unites us with Jesus in Holy Baptism. His body and blood satisfy our longing and weary souls with true food and true drink.
For us and this Samaritan woman, Jesus is the source of all living water. His life, His death, and His resurrection are a life-giving stream.
Later in the Gospel of John, on the cross, Jesus will cry out…On “I thirst,” at as he is crucified for her and for you.
Jesus becomes the thirsty one, longing for life. Bearing our suffering. Enduring our shame. Jesus enters the depths of Hell itself and dies in our place that He might rise and offer us His eternal, life-giving stream.
Jesus sits by the well as a shepherd, coming to offer this woman a life-giving stream. Jesus comes to us his faithless bride and restores, redeems, and rescues us.
For a moment, think about her experience. For once in her life, this woman finally meets a man who gives rather than takes and what He gives…is marvelous. He gives his life for hers. For you.
He gives makes her a child of God. The honor she finds in Jesus frees her to speak in hope of the Messiah. Our thirst, like our guilt and shame may come and go, but gives her, and gives you, will never run out, dry up, or pass away. If beneath the still waters of our life runs a current of fear and doubt, guilt and shame, worry and depression, the living waters of Jesus’ love for you run far deeper.
the water that I shall give will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
Jesus, our Good Shepherd and Bridegroom still sits there, by the well where, with a splash of water and God’s word, makes you a holy, baptized child of God. The words of our Lord run deep, deeper than any of your troubles, deep enough to conquer Hell itself that He might rise from the depths with life for you.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, Jesus says. And as he says it, he gives it. He restores your soul. Today. Tomorrow. Always.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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