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Drank of That Life-Giving Stream c5060 wz driver win98
Text:
John 4 (Lutheran Service Book Series A)
Date: The Third Sunday in Lent 
2/27/05
In
a number of conversations this past week and in the studying of
the text before us today of the Samaritan Woman at the Well the
main theme has been the difference between faith and knowledge,
between trusting God's promises and understanding them completely.
The saving faith, while it is created by God the Holy Spirit, when
and where it pleases God, in the hearts of people from infants to
adults who simply hear the Gospel, at the same time faith does not
consist in some minimum amount of knowledge or understanding, some
least measure of a person's I.Q. A Christian is still a believer
even if they are asleep or unconscious. I've heard some say (actually
overstating the case) that the pastor's sermons are too difficult
to understand, they go right over our heads. But this is not totally
true! For, while we do our best to proclaim the judgment and grace,
the Law and Gospel, the pure doctrine of the Word of God, as I always
say, “there are as many sermons being preached as there are people
listening.” That's because the Holy Spirit is active and in operation
through the preaching of the Gospel. Some smallest detail may trigger
thoughts that connect with the details of one person's life, and
some other detail with another's. Furthermore, everyone is of differing
abilities or even interest in what St. Paul calls “the depth of
the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” [Romans 11:33 (ESV)].
Last
Sunday we heard about a man named Nicodemus, today about a Samaritan
woman. Nicodemus was called a “teacher of Israel,” a really sharp
guy, of the party of the Pharisees who knew the Law of God backwards,
forwards, inside-out and to the tiniest detail. The Samaritan woman,
on the other hand, is exactly the opposite. As a Samaritan she is
despised as of an illegitimate religion, and as a woman who has
gone through no less than five failed marriages and currently involved
in the sin of living with a man to whom she is not married, she
is almost everything a good Jew would despise and shun. For all
their differences, however, both Nicodemus and the woman have one
thing in common with each other and with each of us as well, and
that is that no one comes to believe in Jesus or to follow him because
they have fully comprehended him, fully figured him out. That's
why Jesus speaks to both Nicodemus and the woman and to us today
in the figures of wind and water and the Spirit.
Now
once again, this is not to take anything away from the need and
value of confessing the doctrine of the Bible as clearly as possible,
as purely as possible especially in the face of all false doctrine
and everything that would speak against or contradict it. We highly
prize and rely upon true theologians who have the gift of plumbing
the depths of the wisdom and knowledge of God, of rightly dividing
the Word of truth, of clearly distinguishing between Law and Gospel
especially in the face of all falsehood and deceptive religious
teachings. Yet, while faith relies on the pure doctrine of the Word
of God, faith itself is not equivalent to understanding, for the
Gospel is full of mystery and paradox to human rationality not to
mention sacramental theology.
For
instance, many have wondered why St. John says in today's text that
when Jesus left Judea and departed again for Galilee “he had
to pass through Samaria” [John 4:3-4 (ESV)]. The most
well-worn path by Jews going to and from Galilee was across the
Jordan to the east going around Samaria lest they defile themselves
by even walking on the same terra firma of the despised Samaritans.
It was not because there was no other way to go, but because Jesus
had a mission and purpose in mind that he “had to” go through Samaria.
Now
there are many levels of meaning and details of significance in
this account, but let us zero in on only a few things. Jesus, having
become weary from the journey, came and sat at a well in Sychar.
Then comes this woman to draw water from the well. Jesus says to
her, “Give me a drink.” After a little conversation as to how odd
it was that a Jew, any Jew, would even strike up a conversation
with a Samaritan much less ask for a drink, Jesus turns the tables
and tells the woman that, if she knew the gift of God, and to whom
she was talking, she would have asked of him, and he would have
given her “living water” (John 4:10). As with Nicodemus when confronted
with the concept of being born a second time, so with this woman,
she is not comprehending what Jesus is talking about but thinking
only of some sort of miraculous physical water.
Thirst
and drink are important terms in John's Gospel. As one becomes thirsty
physically under hot and dry conditions or after some exertion,
so it is with a person's spiritual life. Separated from God by our
sin life is dried up, withered by a thirst that can be quenched
only by returning to God. The biggest problem we have, however,
is that we can't return to God on our own powers. As Jesus “had
to” go through Samaria in order to bring Good News to this woman,
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