The Spring of Water
John 4:5-26
Third Sunday in Lent
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen. The sermon text for the third Sunday in Lent is the Gospel reading John 4. I read an account of a British officer that told a story about a time when the British army was chasing the Turkish army in the desert during World War 1. The Turks were in retreat and so the British pursued them. As they went about doing this they ran out of water. The bottles of water that they had and the water in their canteens were gone. All the soldiers started to get very thirsty. The British officer described in great detail how dry and parched their throats became. He described how their lips started to split open. He described how the hot sun beat down on them making some of the men pass out. The soldiers knew that if they did not get water soon they would all die. They marched to the nearest town that had well water. As they marched some of the men fell behind, never to be seen again. Finally they made it to the town. The injured were the first to get water to drink. The rest of the troops lined up and took turns drinking the cool water. It took four hours to get all of the men to the well so that they could get to the water. That means some of the soldiers had to stand next to the well for four hours, parched and dying of thirst before they could taste the cool life-saving water.
All of us need water to survive. We especially understand this when we become incredibly thirsty. When we have a parched dry throat all that we can think about is getting some water. That is an obvious thirst. But there are times when we need water and we don’t realize it. Dehydration is a serious problem and one not necessarily perceived. I have heard that at least 75 percent of Americans are chronically dehydrated. It’s the number one reason for daytime fatigue. Not enough water makes for a fuzzy-thinking brain. I have read that you can actually reduce the risk of colon cancer by 45 percent with more water in your system. Migraines, back pain, and even breast cancer have been associated with people not getting enough water. We all thirst for water. Sometimes it is obvious like when our throat is dry and sometimes it is not. But the fact remains that we all need water to survive.
In our Gospel reading for today Jesus talked about thirst of the spirit. When we hear the words of our Lord we see that not only do we have a physical thirst but we also have a spiritual thirst. John records for us a conversation that Jesus had with a Samaritan woman at a well. Jesus reaches out to this woman because He wanted to save the lost. He wanted this woman to understand that she was spiritually dehydrated. He wanted her to understand that only the living water that He had to offer could remove her spiritual thirst.
The woman at the well is very similar to a modern American. Like so many today she was interested in spiritual things, but that does not mean godly things in the biblical sense. She took Samaritan beliefs and mixed them with her own thoughts and desires. She knows something about religion but nothing about the one true God. She picks and choses what she wants to believe based upon the life style that she wants to live. Should we be surprised that she could manipulate her religious beliefs to accommodate five husbands and a man she’s moved in with? She was trying to be spiritual but without God Himself. She was dehydrated in Spirit - that is without God and without hope.
The woman at the well was trying to satisfy her spiritual thirst with a false religion and a sinful lifestyle. It was not working. We are tempted to do the same thing as the woman. We are spiritually thirsty and we will be tempted to fill that thirst with things that will never satisfy. What are some of the things that we thirst for? We thirst for power, intellect and riches. We thirst to be popular, to be liked, to be the center of attention. We thirst for the top spot in our company. We thirst to be recognized in the church. We thirst for material goods like cars, houses and clothing. We thirst for recognition on social media. We thirst for that new diet thinking it will make all the difference in our life. We thirst for health and status. We are spiritually thirsty and yet all the things of this world can never satisfy. It’s like drinking a cold beer on a hot summer day. It tastes good at first but as the day goes on we discover that the beer just made us more dehydrated.
Our spiritual thirst will never be satisfied because of our sin. In our reading, Jesus tells the woman at the well to call her husband. He’s not asking for information. He is exposing her thirst, her deep thirst. It’s a thirst that tells us we may be doing what we want but we are not doing what God wants. The reason Jesus tells the woman to get her husband is because He wanted to make her aware of her sins. He wanted her to know that she was sinning against the heavenly Father. The Lord does the same with us. The Lord makes us aware of our sins and our sinful condition. He wants us to be aware that our spiritual thirst can never be satisfied with the things of this world.
The only one who can take care of our great thirst is Jesus Christ the Lord. Recall what Jesus said to the woman at the well. “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” What Jesus gives the world cannot give. Only our Lord can remove our thirst and give true relief.
Jesus spoke to the woman at the well because He wanted to save her. He turned her attention to Himself, the Messiah because he was the only one who could save her. He was the only one who could give her a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The women’s sins were forgiven. She was renewed by the grace of God. Our Lord created faith in her heart that day through the power of the Holy Spirit. She believed in Jesus and was saved. She looked to the Lord and was satisfied.
That is what Jesus does for us. Our Lord died on the cross and rose again from the dead to give to us the gift of forgiveness. Our great thirst is a result of our sins. That is why Jesus forgives our sins. All of the sins that we have committed have been wiped clean and removed. The Christian life is a wonderful life because it is a clean slate. We no longer need to lament about the past or fear the future. We can move forward knowing that we are in Christ Jesus our Lord. He has given to us the gift of faith in Him. So we do indeed turn to Jesus Christ our Lord because He is the only one who can remove our thirst and give to us true relief. He moves us to repentance and gives us hope. He gives to us peace with God. That is what we all need and it is what is most important. Peace with God.
We all have a spiritual thirst. It is a thirst that can never be satisfied with the things of this world. Our spiritual thirst can only be quenched by Jesus Christ the Lord. Let me conclude with the words of Jesus. “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life”. Amen.