Third Sunday in Lent (A)
March 8, 2026
Text:
John 4:5-30, 39-42
It should not surprise us that our
Lord meets the Samaritan woman at a well. Isn’t it just like our God to always be doing
His mighty works around water? The
Spirit hovering over the water at Creation.
The flood and Noah’s ark.
Crossing the Red Sea. Crossing
the Jordan. And the list could go
on. And particularly, at wells. Needless to say, wells were (and are)
very important in the Middle East, a matter of life and death. Wells are a recurring theme in the
lives of the patriarchs. Hagar and her
son, Ishmael, are saved from certain death when God opens her eyes to see a well
in the desert (Gen. 21:19). In the same
chapter, Gen. 21, Abraham struggles with Abimelech’s servants over possession
of a well. Isaac, likewise,
quarreled with the herdsmen of Gerar over his wells, settling finally in
Beersheba, “Seven Wells” (Gen. 26).
And Jacob? Well... he bequeathed
to his children, the very well at which Jesus is sitting in our
text. So, very important. God does not include so many wells in
the Scriptures by accident.
But more to the point, the well is
where marriages are made. Right? Abraham’s servant finds Rebekah for Isaac at
a well (Gen. 24). Jacob meets
Rachel (and through her, Leah, also), probably at the very same well
(Gen. 29). Moses meets Jethro’s seven
daughters, including his wife-to-be Zipporah, at a well (Ex. 2). Now, here sits Jesus, and… so far, so good.
But look at the woman who is coming
to draw water. This is where the script
just doesn’t seem to fit. Really? Her?
Everyone knows about her.
And the whole town talks. She’s loose,
you know. Hopping from one bed to
another. She’s had five husbands. What happened to them? Seems they used her, but found her wanting,
so they dismissed her. And the current
guy? Not even married. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
That is why she is coming alone, at
this strange hour, to draw water from the well.
High noon. The heat of the
day. No one comes for water at that
hour. They come in the cool of morning
or evening. But not her. She doesn’t want to see anybody. She doesn’t want anybody staring at her. Look… she knows who she is. She knows what she’s done… what she is
doing. But what else is she supposed
to do? Well… you probably have some
answers. Just like the citizens of her
town. But at this point, how is it
helpful? She’s used goods. Men use her and lose her. And now, this guy she’s with… The only way she can keep food on her table
and a roof over her head to is to give him what he wants without the
bother of a lifelong commitment. Go
ahead and judge. She’ll just keep coming
to the well at noon. Day after day. Thirsting for more, but always running dry.
This day is like all the
others. Except there is a Man
sitting there. “Ugh. Not today.”
But, the jar is empty. Anyway,
turns out He’s a Jewish Man, “so there’s no way He’ll speak to me…
a woman… of Samaria… and clearly a woman of ill repute.” Respectable men don’t speak to a woman
without her husband or father present. Jews
have no dealings with Samaritans.
And Law-abiding Jews do not sully their cleanness by
interacting with a woman like her.
But He speaks! “Give me a drink” (John 4:7;
ESV). What is this, some kind of
pick-up line? Well, actually… in
a manner of speaking! Jesus is
thirsting, but not just for well-water.
He is thirsting for this woman’s salvation. He is thirsting, not to take something
from her, but to give something to her. Something she has never had before in her
life. Love. True love. And a Gift, with no strings attached
to any selfish ends of the Giver. A Gift
of eternal meaning and significance.
A relationship… not sexual… not carnal… but an intimate
relationship with a Man who will not treat her as an object for His
own pleasure… who does not see her as a thing to be used… who knows
her shame, but lifts her out of it… who restores her humanity…
who speaks to her with grace… and truth, yes, but in gentleness,
and with respect… a Man who will be faithful to her. In life and in death. Forever.
He thirsts to give her Himself. And with Himself, the Father, and the
Holy Spirit, salvation, and the very Kingdom.
“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” (v. 10). It is a water that,
if anyone drinks from it, he “will never be thirsty forever” (v.
14). “Sir, give me this water, so
that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water” (v.
15). “Oh, dear woman. Dear woman.
You are still thinking about H2O.
But I am speaking of the Water of the Spirit and faith. The Water that flows from the very throne of
God, becoming an impassible River that cleanses and heals whatever it touches
(Ez. 47; Rev. 22; Ps. 46:4). Ask Me, and
I will give you that Water.”
The Water flows from Jesus Himself. Jesus is the Well! “‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me
and drink. Whoever believes in me, as
the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart”… one might even say, “out of His
side!... “will flow rivers of living water.”’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those
who believed in him were to receive” (John 7:37-39). We heard in our Old Testament reading (Ex.
17:1-7) how the people thirsted (and grumbled, and quarreled with Moses and
God), and God told Moses to strike the rock at Horeb, so that water flowed
out for the people to drink. What does
St. Paul say about that rock? Do you
remember? They “all drank the same
spiritual drink. For they drank from the
spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ” (1 Cor.
10:4). And we know how this is all
fulfilled. On a Friday afternoon,
outside Jerusalem, there hung the Son of God with the weight of the world’s sin
on His very human, fleshly shoulders. He
cried out: “I thirst” (John 19:28).
But not for the sour wine they held up to Him on hyssop and
sponge. Oh, He was physically parched,
I’m sure. But for what is He
thirsting? The salvation of the world. The woman. You.
Me. All people.
And then, He said, “It is
finished,” and so it was, and He bowed His head, and gave up… and gave forth…
His Spirit (v. 30). Oh, and you know
what happens next. A soldier takes his
spear, and… just to make sure Jesus is really dead (and He is!)… runs it
through His side. Right into His very
heart. And out comes… what? Blood and water (v. 34). Strike the Rock and the water flows. Drink this Water and you will never be
thirsty forever. This Water will
never run dry. This Water
cleanses. This Water heals. Jesus is the Rock. Jesus is the Well. And this Water… is for you.
The woman believes. “This Man… He must be… He is… the Christ!” “I who speak to you am he,” Jesus says
(John 4:26). Or better, “I AM… the
One speaking to you.” God in
our human flesh. She believes,
and so she comes into the Covenant. And
it’s a marriage, isn’t it? Right
here at the well.
Now, we should say (and this is very
important, lest we come to some very silly and damaging conclusions about 6th
Commandment issues and other transgressions of God’s Law): Jesus doesn’t leave
the woman in her sin. He doesn’t say,
“That’s okay. Keep doing what you’re
doing. Keep living with this guy and
fornicating with him.” If you think
that, you’ve completely misunderstood what Jesus is doing. To leave her in her sin… and living together
outside of marriage is sin... would be to leave her in death. Jesus has come to give her life! And that’s what He does. You can bet things changed that day
between the woman and the man waiting back home who was decidedly not her
husband. Maybe they married. Or maybe that was the end of it. Nevertheless, the point is, now she
has Jesus. And so, she has life. Not because of some reformation of her
life. But because of Jesus, who
met her at the well. Jesus,
who gave Himself for her and to her.
Jesus, who slaked her thirst for life and for love.
And then, what happens? The disciples return, and they are confused,
but they also believe, and so drink, and enter into the marriage feast at the
well. And the woman runs off and gets a
whole bunch of other Samaritans to come and meet Jesus, and hear Him for
themselves, and so drink, and believe, and come into the marriage feast at the
well. They no longer judge the woman,
because Jesus has taken away her shame, and because they, too, are sinners… get
this, though… received graciously by Christ Jesus, who forgives them, and
washes away all their sins, and takes away their own shame. How can they judge, when they’ve been
received with such mercy?
And what about you? You meet Jesus at the well, too, don’t
you? We call it a font. Baptized into Christ. You drink the living Water. The Spirit flows from Jesus into you. You believe.
He forgives your sins and takes away your shame. And it is a marriage. The marriage feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom
which has no end. Jesus gives Himself
for His holy Bride, the Church, you.
He loves you. And in so giving
Himself, He washes you. Cleanses
you. And presents you to Himself in
splendor, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Holy, and without blemish. Praise God.
No surprise that Jesus meets this
woman at the well. That’s where
He meets us, too. And gives us
Himself. And with Himself, all
things. In the Name of the Father, and
of the Son X,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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