The Woman at the Well, sermon given March 19th, 2017

The Gospel selection from the Lectionary this last Sunday was the story of the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well.  This encounter with Christ is a story that nearly all Christians are well acquainted with.  But, there's an aspect of the story that likely isn't the way you've ever considered it before.

Jesus reveals to the woman His knowledge that she's been married to five husbands and that the man she is with now is not her husband.  This aspect of her life is often pointed out as to why she is at the well in the heat of the day.  In my sermon, however, I point to another meaning or rather message from the "five husbands".  The Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom which would then become known as Samaria and relocated a portion of the population.  They then brought in five different groups from different regions, cultures, and religions.  The area known as Samaria, therefore, had five different religions besides the Samaritan religion.  These five religions are represented by the five husbands and the one not married is the Hebrew religion.  The Samaritans worshiped the first five books of the Torah, that section known as the Pentateuch.  Because the Samaritans had not embraced the whole of the Torah, Jesus refers to this as not being married.  The point is that Christ, the one often called the "bridegroom" is here offering the Samaritan woman as a symbol of all Samaria, a new chance to realize the fullness of God.  

In the sermon, I elaborate upon the division between the Jews and the Samaritans, and it is an incredible witness of grace that here a Jewish Rabbi extends to Samaria the gift of salvation and that here this woman of Samaria accepts this gift. Both sides had plenty of reasons to despise the other, if nothing else it's a testimony to the incredible and profound grace that God has for us all.  

The sermon is linked below, it's a bit longer than most of my sermons, but I think it's a pretty fair sermon and worth a listen. I can say that Gail even told me it was a good sermon, and she almost never tells me that! LOL  

Please take the time and give it a listen.  God bless!

Be a blessing to someone today!

In His Love and Care,

Roy

John 4:5-42  New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)[a] 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you[b] say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he,[c] the one who is speaking to you.”

27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah,[d] can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving[e] wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

Footnotes:

a) John 4:9 Other ancient authorities lack this sentence

b) John 4:20 The Greek word for you here and in verses 21 and 22 is plural

c) John 4:26 Gk I am

d) John 4:29 Or the Christ

e) John 4:36 Or 35 . . . the fields are already ripe for harvesting. The reaper is receiving