Thursday, March 2, 2023

The Season of Lent: Thirsty no More

  "Ho, every one that thirsts, come you to the waters, and he that has no money; come you, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price" Isaiah:55:1


The Season of Lent of Lent, is a time to look at our lives in the light of who Jesus Christ is and our lives lived in Union with Him and his transformational power he so freely grants us and fulfills the deep unquenchable thirst which only Jesus can assuage.

The words from the Prophet Isaiah looked ahead to the work of Jesus Christ, who offers to any and to all who will but freely accept his saving work and all new life which quenches the thirst that all are born with. This quenching water which is ours without money of price, it cannot be bought.

As Jesus traveled throughout the Land preaching the Kingdom of God, he was issuing that invitation which has come down through the centuries, to come to the Great God who loves and wants humanity to know him. Everything, and all things, that humanity has ever wanted or needed can be found in Jesus and in Jesus alone. It is an offer of Grace for any and all who will but freely receive it.

Passing Through Samaria

Jesus, after a successful preaching campaign in Judea, and after baptizing many who respond to his message, is led to return to Galilee and the road that is laid before him leads through Samaria.

"The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour." Jhn: 4:1-6.

This road that Jesus now traveled was the main route to Galilee, yet some Jews avoided this way , the Jews had the view that the Samaritan were "unclean" and the Jews would take great pains to avoid them, as not to be ceremonially unclean through contact with the Samaritans. 

The people who lived in this area had been brought here by the King of Assyria around 722 BC, and through inter marriage were now half Jew and half Gentile and their culture and worship reflected this as well.

The Samaritans had developed their own traditions of worship and interpretation of the Books of Moses. The primary place of Worship for these people was Mount Gerizim. The Jews and Samaritans often had strained relations.

At Jacob's Well

Jesus now enters the village  Sychar near the Mount Ebal. Here, in the village of Sychar was Jacob's well. It was at this well that Jesus stopped to rest from his long journey. Now the spring water which fed and filled this well came from a deep-water flow within the Earth. The local people of Jesus' day called this spring the Fountain of Life. This well was a cultural icon to the people who lived in Sychar, it brought them a sense of identification to and with the Patriarchs and the God whom the Patriarchs served.

As Jesus rested at the well a Samaritan woman came to draw water.

This woman is engaged by Jesus in a unprecedented breach of culture protocol as Jesus asked her for a drink. Jesus' request amazes her.

" When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)" Jhn: 4:7-9

In answer to her amazement Jesus replies to her in a way that catches her attention. Jesus wants her to understand just what he is offering. This is not water to quench the physical thirst, but rather to quench the thirst all humanity has for him, even if they do understand it.

"Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that said to you, Give me to drink; you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water." (10)

 At first, at the woman can only see the physical, she interprets Jesus' offer in a one-dimensional way, she cannot yet see the depths of Jesus' words, that there is more here than she is able to yet grasp.

 "The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from where then have you that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?” (12-13)

 Living Water 

In the Jewish culture of the day "Living Water" was flowing and moving. The Jewish religious leaders practiced baptism, and they preferred to preformed their baptisms ceremonies in flowing bodies of water, that is "Living Water”, they held the idea that "Living Waters”, were transformational.

The Jews believed that a person who was baptized became a whole new person, that at their very center of their being they would be altered into a new person, that they would be transformed, life would change. 

 Now Jesus begins to open to this woman the meaning of the "Living Water" that he is willing to freely share with her. 

"Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again: But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life". (13-14)

 Jesus is making a new life available to her, one that is transformed, a life for here and now and on into eternity. Yet, again she is not fully aware of the depth of Jesus' offer.

"The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come here to draw." (15)

 Who She Is

Jesus now moves the conversation to her own life. Jesus is helping her to see the need for a new life which is being freely offered to her. This new life, which Jesus offers will be different than the way she has lived. She needs to see who she is.

Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband, and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have well said, I have no husband For you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband: in that said you truly. (16-18)

I See

When Jesus shows her the truth about her own life, then emerges the realization that Jesus is much more than she had first thought he is no mere Rabbi. The woman then begins to consider own relationship with God.

"The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain; and you say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship" .(19-20)

Jesus now leads her a step further in her thinking, and opens to her the understanding that God is calling her into a new relationship, that is , God is offering "Living Water", a whole new life , here and now and in eternity that she and we all have thirsted for.

"Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship you know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth". (21-24)

The Messiah Comes

Now that this woman has faced her sins, and through the leading of Jesus, her mind is now ready to receive what has been there all along with her during the whole conversation with Jesus.

That place in her heart, and in all humanities hearts, that are longing for, that searching for something greater, is now awoken in this Samaritan woman. She is now ready to see who Jesus is, that very one, this "Jew", this one who has spoken to her, this one , which has reached out to her and engaged her in conversationThis man who now offers her to drink from the "Living Watersthat will change her life forever.

This woman, or anyone who encounters Jesus can never be the same after seeing Jesus for who Jesus truly is. They will never thirst again; he is everything which they thirst for.

"The woman said to him, I know that the Messiah comes, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things." (25)

 "Am He"

Jesus then reveals to her who he is.

"Jesus said to her, I that speak to you am he." (26)

With simple words Jesus discloses the truth to her, all along he was there even before his self-revelation. Jesus has brought her to that place, that she is now able to accept him and the "Living Waters" that Jesus has so freely offered.

 Tells Others

At this moment of revelation, that before her was the one whom all peoples have sought and needed. She now returns to those who knew her, and she shares her experience with Jesus with others and then invites them to come to see Jesus as well.

This woman is transformed from a person of questionable life style into a powerful messenger of Jesus. Her personal transformation was so stark in contrast to her past and genuine, that the people who knew her, are then moved and follow her to Jesus and see for themselves.

"And on this came his disciples, and marveled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seek you? or, Why talk you with her? The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and said to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came to him".(27-30)

Our Story Too

This account of Jesus and the Samaritan woman not just an isolated moment that occurred two thousand years ago, it is more than that, it is ongoing, it is the story of all who meet Jesus, to whom Jesus now offers the "Living Waters" that will quench their thirsts.

We all humanity are this Samaritan woman, we all lived, to one degree or another outside of the realization as to who Jesus is. Jesus did not avoid us, as the Jews of that day did the Sanitarians, instead, Jesus reaches out to us. Jesus starts the conversation with us even when we truly do not recognize him for who he is. Gently Jesus leads us to see our need for him, and offers freely that "Living Water" which changes us forever as well.

This woman left her water pot behind; this tells us that her thirst is finally quenched when she comes to see Jesus for who he is.

When we see Jesus as that one who saves us, we can do nothing else but to be transformed in to powerful messengers of that one who offers that "Living Water" freely to any and all will but drink, we will never thirst again our lives will be transformed by Jesus through the "Living Water".

Jesus invites all of us to come to waters, that we may freely dink and never thirst again.

 "Ho, every one that thirsts, come you to the waters, and he that has no money; come you, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price" Isa:55:1

The Season of Lent reminds us that Jesus alone can quench the thirsts that all humanity has with in us and transform us through the flow of his "Living Water" and grant us that life which only he can give us.

Benediction: May we each and all ever drink from the "Living Water" that our Lord Jesus so freely offers us, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.



Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor

Topinabee Community Church

Topinabee Michigan

If You Would Like to Know More About or to Support the Ministry of Topinabee Community Church You Can go to Our Web Site.

https://topinabeechurch.org/index.html

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                       “If Its Not About Jesus, Its Not About Anything!”  

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