John 4:4-26 - Are You Thirsty? - March 8, 2020

Are you thirsty? Are you longing to run back to the water fountain (or bubbler, as we say in Wisconsin) for a refreshing drink? Doctors say that most of us don’t get enough water because we only drink when we feel thirsty. And, if you feel thirsty, they say that you’re already mildly dehydrated. [1] If you’re not thirsty, you’re not likely to drink water – even if it’s available. On the other hand, if you’ve just completed a strenuous workout or a long day in the hot sun, then you hardly need to be told to take a drink. Our text this morning is all about stimulating and satisfying thirst.

In what may come as a surprise, the first thirsty person we meet is…Jesus. Jesus, being tired from the journey, sat down by the well and said to her, “Give me a drink.” Here we see Jesus’ true human nature shine through in a rather unexpected way. He’s worn out; exhausted; spent. He couldn’t take another step, he needed a break and a drink. Give me a drink, he says to an unsuspecting Samaritan woman. He doesn’t ask for a drink, he demands it.

But Jesus isn’t the only thirsty one in this text. The woman is too, although not for water from Jacob’s well, as she thinks. Jesus offers her a drink of the Gospel right away, the living water of eternal life. But she’s not buying it. She’s not thirsty. So Jesus tries a different tactic. He pulls the skeletons out of her closet. Five of them. Five husbands she has left in the dust. In a time when people died young and divorce was rampant, it’s certainly possible that all five had either died or wrongly divorced her – but why bring them up if she didn’t bear some blame? Regardless, she’s living in sin now. Jesus said go, call your husband, and come back here. And she responds I have no husband. Jesus agrees: you are right when you say, ‘I have no husband.’ In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” “What’s the big deal?” our culture would say. So she’s living with her boyfriend, that’s how relationships evolve. But the biblical reality is that her lifestyle was sexually immoral; and Paul says do not be deceived. The sexually immoral [will not] inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

Whatever you call it “living together” or “cohabitation” – it’s one of those sins that no one wants to talk about. Why? Two reasons. 1) Some – or many – of us may still have the stain of this sin seared on our conscience from the past; or 2) we may have children, grandchildren, friends, or neighbors who are living in this sin as we speak. We may try to ignore it. We may try to defend it as prudent. We may argue that they still have faith in Jesus. But the truth is that a “cohabitating” lifestyle is a sexually immoral lifestyle and the sexually immoral who refuse to repent stand outside the kingdom of heaven. And if you don’t think that’s true, then why did Jesus even bring it up? In other words, if living together is no big deal, why would Jesus worry about the Law, why not just give her the Gospel?

This woman knows she’s living in sin. It’s why she came to the well in the middle of the day, in the sweltering heat, rather than in the cooler morning or evening with the other women from town. The Samaritans had the Pentateuch – the first five books of the Bible – including the Ten Commandments, including the sixth. In Samaria, there was still a stigma attached to living together outside of marriage, it was still viewed as a shameful situation. How things have changed! Our society not only tolerates this sin, it expects and celebrates it. More than likely, this woman came to get water in the heat of the day so she wouldn’t have to endure the judging stares of the other women from Sychar. That’s probably why, when Jesus offers her water that won’t run out, she jumps at the chance to never have to come back to the well ever again.

But Jesus isn’t interested in removing the social stigma from this woman’s life, he wants to remove the sin from her soul. But she deflects. She’s not thirsty yet. She claims: I have no husband. That’s just one of a thousand excuses and justifications for living together outside of marriage. I’m sure you’ve heard others. “We don’t have the money to get married.” “We want to be sure that we’re right for each other.” “We’re in love, why do we need a piece of paper to prove it?” And, of course, there’s always the religious argument. That’s the woman’s fallback. She worships God. She has faith in her heart and just knows that God loves her even though she has made disobedience part of her lifestyle. She’s spiritually dehydrated, she’s dying for a drink – but she doesn’t even know it.

Do you know anyone like this woman? Someone whose lifestyle has left them spiritually dehydrated, but they don’t know it yet? If you do know someone who is living together outside of marriage, have you loved them enough to tell them that they are putting their soul in danger of hell? But enough about that one sin. This sin is no worse than any other. What about you? Are you thirsty? Or are you doing just fine with your sins? Are you living with them just like this woman lived with hers? Do you have routines built into your life that help you hide your sins – like she did? Have you cleared out room in your home, your schedule, your life, your heart for sin instead of sending it packing? Have you renamed your sins – like this woman – to make them seem less serious? For her, “sexual immorality” became I have no husband. It’s so easy to do: greed is just ambition; hatred is indifference; lust is just an innocent look; pride is self-confidence; gossip is friendly conversation and coveting is the American dream. There’s a special danger for us, that we may fall back on religion to defend our sins; arguing that because we come to church and pray and give our offerings that our sins are no big deal. The truth is, you’re thirsty, you’re dying for a drink – even if you don’t realize it.

You’re not alone. No one knows that they’re thirsty until Jesus shows them. And the only way even Jesus can do this is through the Law. Of course, the church today by and large thinks it knows better than Jesus. It thinks that if you have enough social programs and Easter egg hunts and community service projects – and, of course, gourmet coffee and premium donuts – then you can bait-and-switch people into unwittingly drinking the water of life – that is, believing the gospel. Somewhere along the line the church caved to the idea that if you give people what they want then they will somehow desire what they really need: a Savior from sin. If Jesus agreed with that line of thinking, he would have just helped her get water from Jacob’s well instead of exposing her sin.

But that’s just what Jesus does, and he doesn’t soften the blow at all. He doesn’t just say “Go get your husband.” He says, go, call your husband, and come back here. Here? Here is the one place she didn’t want to be. Here is where those other women came – the women who would judge her, and Jesus wants her to bring her live-in boyfriend here? It would be like Jesus telling us to go get our browsing histories, our private messages, our infamous stories from college, our mental diaries from the past week – and bring them here so he can expose them for all the world to see. That’s what the Law does. It doesn’t gently acknowledge that no one is perfect. It exposes our sins in painstaking detail. Lays them out in plain view like Jesus laid out this woman’s immoral life.

He doesn’t let her hide behind her religion, either. He tells her bluntly, you Samaritans worship what you do not know. She may go through the motions of the Samaritan religion, but if you’re not worshipping the Father in spirit and in truth – that is with heartfelt repentance and true faith in the Savior God has sent – then your worship is useless. In other words, it’s not about where you sit for one hour a week; it’s about where your heart is all week long. That’s the Law for you. There go all of the ways this woman could pour cold water on the guilt and sin burning inside of her. Jesus won’t let her hide them. He won’t let her pretend they’re not that bad. He won’t let her think that the mere outward practice of religion can take care of her sins. He lets the Law crush her self-righteousness. He makes her feel how desperate her situation is. He lets the fires of hell lick at her heels – leading her to crave a drink of the cool water of God’s grace. And, finally, she realizes how spiritually dehydrated she is, her thoughts turn to the Messiah who is coming.

And our situation is no different, even though our sins may be. Our excuses, our justifications that it’s just the way we are; that it’s how we were raised; that we know a lot of people who are doing the same, or worse – don’t and can never remove a single sin. All the good we do can’t erase the evil we’ve done. Our worship, our faith, our prayers and offerings aren’t the water of life. The water of life is salvation – and salvation must be given to us; it must come from outside of us. Ask anyone who’s been stranded in a desert without water – you can’t quench your thirst by worshipping water, by believing in water, by praying for water. Someone else must give it to you.

So, are you thirsty? I am. I’m thirsty for forgiveness, for salvation, for righteousness that I can’t provide for myself. Do you know what the only thing greater than the thirst of sinners for salvation is? Jesus’ thirst to save us. We’re all dying for a drink; Jesus died to give us a drink. I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard many sermons that present this account as a handbook for evangelism: this is how Jesus shared the Gospel, this is how you should too. Certainly, Jesus does give a fine – no, a perfect – example of sharing the gospel. But before we ask What Would Jesus Do, we must ask What Has Jesus Done? Before we try to imitate his evangelism methods we must see that Jesus is here for us. After all, that’s what Lent is all about, isn’t it? Not what we do; but what Jesus did. Why is Jesus, the creator of every molecule of water in existence, collapsed at a well in Samaria begging for a drink? Why is he so exhausted when his disciples were not? Because he’s carrying their sins, and your sins, and my sins – and it’s a horrifically heavy load. He suffers thirst like we wretched sinners should. On the cross, he will cry I thirst (John 19:28) because the flames of hell were engulfing him – instead of us.

Jesus goes to the cross carrying the sins we hide with polite words and shameful excuses. He goes to the cross carrying sins so countless it’s beyond our imagination. He goes carrying those serious, shameful sins that we’ve tried our best to hide from sight. Whatever sins still haunt you – know this – Jesus has already paid for them. Even our worst nightmares can’t compare with the horrors of hell that Jesus endured in body and soul to pay for our sins. Lent is about following him to Calvary, seeing him, hearing him, feeling him in all of his suffering and agony until he slumps over in death and the soldiers plunge a spear into his side (John 19:34). And what comes out of that precious side? The water that is a washing of rebirth and renewal (Titus 3:5); the blood which he gives you in, with and under the wine to satisfy your thirst for righteousness, your thirst for salvation (Matthew 26:27-28).

This is powerful, supernatural water and blood. More effective than any sports drink, having this water poured on you in Baptism and this blood poured into your mouth in Communion stops the deadly disease of self-righteousness right in its tracks. Gone are our excuses for our sins. We don’t need them because the water and blood have washed them all away. Gone are our attempts to minimize our sins; because the good news is that where our sins increase, God’s grace increases all the more (Romans 5:20). Gone, finally, are all of our attempts to satisfy our thirst ourselves, to provide salvation and righteousness for ourselves by our believing or praying or worshipping. True worship is not about anything we do. It’s about soaking up what Jesus has done for us by bathing in the water and drinking up the blood that flows from his pierced side. True worship is about emptying yourself of your sins in confession and then filling yourself up with the righteousness Jesus died to give you.

But none of it will do you any good unless you realize how thirsty you are. That’s why we need the Law, to dry up our self-righteousness and make us feel our thirst – so that we crave the good news of free forgiveness, life and salvation. Lent is about Jesus and in Lent Jesus stimulates your thirst with the Law and satisfies it with the Gospel. That’s real salvation and a real Savior for real sinners like you and me. Amen.

[1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/want-to-stay-hydrated-drink-before-youre-thirsty/art-20390077