Water Jars
A Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent
March 12, 2023
The Rev. Robin Teasley
Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 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.) 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.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 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.” 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.”
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 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.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
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?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him.
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 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. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. 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.” John 4:5-42
The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?”
In first century Palestine, water was a luxury. Getting enough water was hard work. And getting the water was women’s work. Every day the women had to walk to the well, fill a clay water jar with water, then carry the heavy load back home. Something to know about wells in that time is that they were often gathering places. In fact, the Jews hearing today’s story would have immediately been reminded of all stories that took place at a well. Boys met girls at the well. Isaac met Rebekah, Jacob met Rachel, Moses met Zipporah, and the plot was always the same. The future bridegroom journeys to a foreign land in search of a wife, encounters a girl at a well, and one of them draws water. Afterward the girl runs home to tell her family of the stranger’s arrival in town. There is a meal, and then an agreement to marriage.
Our story today follows a similar pattern. Jesus travels to a foreign country and meets a woman at a well. Only this woman is not a maiden but has been married five times, and Jesus is not looking for a wife, but for worshipers in spirit and truth. The woman does rush home, but there is no betrothal meal. Rather, Jesus says that his food is to do the will of the one who sent him and complete God’s work. There is no marriage, but an entire community comes to have faith in Jesus as the Savior of the world. So, what exactly happened between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, and between the Samaritan woman and her community?
In the first century men did not speak to unknown women in public, and Jews did not speak to Samaritans. Women were often married more than once, because if their husband died, they were then married off to one of his brothers. This could happen more than once. There were all kinds of rules and regulations about that, but this is a story about freedom and transformation, not only for the Samaritan woman, but also for her community.
Photini the Samaritan Woman and Christ at the Well, Ted Follow
So often we make assumptions about people in our own community, not knowing the truth underneath what we see on the surface, unaware of the circumstances that result in people becoming jobless, homeless, or we may be simply unaware that healing might be possible. We have no idea of the suffering or regret in the lives of others. We don’t consider that they might be seeking new life, living water; or we don’t take into account that they do not yet know what they are seeking.
Jesus sees the Samaritan woman in the midst of her difficult life. Jesus knows everything she has ever done. He has recognized her, spoken with her, and offered her something of incomparable worth. He truly sees her and validates her existence, value, and significance, and all of this is treatment to which she is unaccustomed. Jesus speaks of her past both knowingly and compassionately, and through her encounter with Jesus, the Samaritan woman is transformed. She leaves her water jar, which may be symbolic of all the challenges and difficulties of her life. She leaves the jar behind to live a new and different life, and she shares with others what God has done for her.
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It can be helpful to think about all that we have ever done. The mistakes we have made, the help we have not offered, the regrets we have. There are also some very real water jars we long to leave behind. Perhaps our water jar is a dead-end job or the difficulty of finding one. Perhaps it’s the loss of a relationship, or an unhealed wound from the past. Maybe it’s an illness of the mind, body, or spirit that is manifesting as grief, anxiety, guilt, or sadness. Maybe it’s a very real fear about the future.
The Woman at the Well, unknown artist
Water jars come in many shapes and sizes. Can we believe that God already knows all of that, that God knows every single thing about our whole life? Then, imagine leaving those jars of past wrongs, pain, and tragedy right here, by the font of living water that Jesus offers to all of us. I would guess that we could surround this font of living water with a big pile of water jugs.
What, I wonder, holds us back from living into the future God has prepared for us and sharing the news of what God has done? What, that is, are the jars we would like to leave behind, trading our past tragedies and present challenges for the living water Jesus offers?
Immanuel Vestry 2023
Church communities and the people in them have water jars too. At our Vestry retreat last weekend we talked about some of those challenges, challenges not unique to Immanuel, though it may seem that the well is deep and that the buckets of funding and volunteers are become fewer as the world changes around us. As we shared some of our personal water jars, there were moments when living water sprang up. We then looked at the various areas of parish ministry and how the vestry could best support them.
Then someone asked about evangelism. There was a moment of silence as there always is when an Episcopalian mentions the E word. And then this person suggested that evangelism is like marketing and asked how Immanuel is marketing the Gospel to our surrounding community. Holy energy became tangible as living water again sprang up and we began brainstorming new ideas. There we were, surrounded by beautiful water in our retreat setting, and living water, the water we really needed, sprang up!
Living Water - The Woman at the Well, Judith Fritchman
The Samaritan woman left her water jar behind and shared the story of what God did in her life. She did this tentatively at first, questioning her neighbors, “He can’t be the Messiah, can he?” Her first small steps take her beyond her past and into a future she could not have imagined.
We know that living water is here in this place. Can we imagine Immanuel as a well for the Old Church community? A gathering place where people come to be filled and then go out to share living water? Will we leave behind the old jars that are no longer needed, to go out and market the good news of the Gospel? Yes, the well is deep, and we may think we have no bucket. In believing, we will receive all the buckets we need to share living water with a thirsty community.
Title Image: Water Jars, source unknown
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