Our scripture reading for today is another probably a familiar passage to many of you. It's in John chapter 4. As we are, as I mentioned last week, we're looking this summer at encounters with Jesus. Just looking at various places and times when people have met Jesus for the first time and what that encounter was like and what they learned from their encounter and what we should learn from that encounter. And again, my hope is not that you'll just be comforted in a kind of lazy afternoon comfort kind of way, where it's just stories that you've heard before and it's nice to hear them again. But my hope and prayer is that you'll be comforted in seeing and meeting Jesus, perhaps in new ways that will encourage your heart and your soul. So this is John chapter 4, if last week we met a man who by all standards was very moral, very upright, very intelligent, a leader and a pillar in the community, who came on his own seeking Jesus, but came at night and found out that even as a moral, righteous, upright, and pillar of the community, he still needed to be born from above. He still needed to be born again by the Holy Spirit, no matter how spiritual he was convinced he was. And if it's possible, today we meet someone who it may not be possible to find a more opposite person than Nicodemus. After all, we know Nicodemus' name and we will not know this person's name. Nicodemus is a man, this is a woman. Nicodemus was a pillar of the community. This woman is an outcast of her community, even an outcast of an outcast community, we'll find out. Nicodemus came at night seeking Jesus. This woman comes in the middle of the day, And she is not looking for Jesus at all. Would you stand for the reading of God's word? And we'll read 42 verses here. Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria, so he came to a town of Samaria called Sikar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour, which is about noon. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink." For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings 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 nothing to draw water with and the well is deep. Where do you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock. Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come here. 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 are now, the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true. The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 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 in truth. For the Father is seeking such people 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 the Messiah is coming, He who is called Christ. When He comes, He will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He. Just then His disciples came back. They marveled that He was talking with a woman. But no one asked, no one said, what do you seek or why are you talking with her? So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? They went out of the town and were coming to him. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him something to eat? Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet four months, then comes the harvest? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and 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 town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did. 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 indeed the Savior of the world. The grass withers, the flowers fade, and yet the word of God stands forever, but you do not have to. You may be seated. So though the outline is clunky and doesn't really flow trippingly off the tongue, it serves its purpose very well. Just kind of, as we see, God finds you even when you don't wish to be found, and false hopes and false gods, and then finally, when Jesus sees you, you are safe to be seen. So first, this idea that God finds you even when you are not looking to be found. Jesus, it's interesting the language that John chooses to use when he says, Jesus had to go through Samaria. Because that is technically not entirely true. Now, certainly, Samaria, if you need a little geographic and even historic lesson, Samaria lies between Judea and Galilee. So Judea is where Jerusalem is. Galilee is part of Israel as well. But in the middle is this area called Samaria. And Samaria back in in 722 B.C. Samaria, which was considered the capital city or the capital region of the northern kingdom of Israel, was taken over by Assyria. And so in men's Bible study, we're reading a lot about that, about the warnings of Assyria coming and taking over the northern kingdoms. And when the Assyrians came in, they exiled sort of the cream of the crop. They took the best of the Israelites out and left the rest of them. but then also moved in outsiders into the area to kind of co-mingle and bring other outside forces in, bring outside cultures in, so much so that when Judah, the southern kingdom, is taken into Babylonian captivity and then 70 years comes back from exile, The people in the region now known as Samaria were sort of a mixed race. They were ethnically both Jewish but also non-Jewish or Gentile ethnicity. Also their worship had become a little bit syncretistic, mixed. And so they had, and they didn't, they no longer went to Jerusalem for worship. In fact, they eventually built a temple on Mount Gerizim to rival the Jerusalem temple so that the Samaritans could still worship but in a different location and so in a very real sense the Samaritans were considered religiously impure because they did not worship the way God had told them to worship or where God had told them to worship. They were considered ethnically impure because they were a mixed race and the Jewish people from Judea considered them beneath them. In fact, their There was a saying at the time, and this is rather strong, so I apologize, but the saying goes that the daughter of a Samaritan is a menstruant from birth. So they really considered them just unclean, untouchable. There were some who wouldn't even eat or drink out of the same container as them. They wouldn't buy food from them. So it's already incredible that Jesus sent his disciples into town to buy food for supper. You start seeing why the woman, wonders why he would even ask her for something to drink from her own container, which would now be contaminant, it would contaminate him. But we all know who this is that's speaking to her. We know that when he touches unclean things, those things don't make him unclean, but he makes them clean, as the lepers and the dead and even this woman. So then what does it mean? to say that he had to pass through Samaria because there were at least three ways to get from Judea to Galilee and only one of them went straight through Samaria. It might have been the fastest route but it was the least traveled because A self-respecting Jewish person would take one of the roads around Samaria, even being willing to cross the Jordan, go north and then cross the Jordan again, just to avoid going through Samaria. But we're told that Jesus had to pass through Samaria. It could be that Jesus as the Son of God knew exactly what he was doing and where he was going and why. But it could also be that Jesus in his humanity was simply directed by God and that only in hindsight does John look at it and realize, oh, Jesus had to go through Samaria that day. Because whether it's Jesus' intent, it is God the Father's intent that Jesus would meet this woman. And this is sort of the whole point of the first point of the outline, that God does not wait for you to seek Him out, does He? And it goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve would rather hide in the garden and cover themselves, God comes looking for them when they are not looking for Him. Adam, where are you? And David, King David, who's hiding in his castle and hiding behind his titles, and God sends Nathan to pursue David. And even Elijah, the prophet to King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, the prophet who fears for his life as Jezebel promises that she will kill him if she ever sees him again, and he flees into the wilderness, hides in a cave. He is discouraged, he is despondent, he is depressed. And God comes to the cave and says, Elijah, What are you doing here? God does not wait for you to figure out that you need God before he pursues you. And in fact, even connecting this with last week, with the passage just before this, how it may have appeared that Nicodemus was pursuing Christ, but Jesus had to show him, you need far more than whatever it is you think you're looking for. This woman, she's shocked at the entire conversation. as Jesus sits there and says, would you give me a drink or give me a drink? You know, she doesn't say why. She doesn't say, why are you asking me for a drink? She says, how? How is it that you, a Jew, would ask me, a woman of Samaria, for a drink of water? There's a prayer Because it's not just that she's a Samaritan, it's also that she's a woman. And so there was a prayer at the time that went something like this, blessed are you, Hashem, king of the universe, for not having made me a Gentile. Blessed are you, Hashem, king of the universe, for not having made me a slave. Blessed are you, Hashem, king of the universe, for not having made me a woman. In some teachings, it was considered, at best, a waste of time, at worst, a sinful use of your time for a rabbi to instruct a woman, even his wife. It just wasn't done. A woman's testimony was not admissible in court. A woman had no recourse against an abusive husband. In fact, a man could divorce his wife by simply uttering, I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you. It's sort of like the Betelgeuse of divorce court. And so here is Jesus speaking to a woman, not just a woman, a Samaritan woman. But Jesus, in all of His interactions, does not see this. Obviously, He sees that she's a woman. He calls her woman. But he sees an image-bearer of God, he sees an individual, he sees a person in need. Now, usually people in a lower position in society will often just accept that and just try to go along to get along. This woman, this woman, man, she pushes back, doesn't she? She is, you know, John Calvin's not known for his witty writings in his commentaries, but even John Calvin calls this woman cheeky. And Jesus, far from being turned off by her kind of abrupt calling on these cultural norms, Jesus seems to be drawn in. He loves it. He enjoys someone who's a little honest in their interactions with him. You know, if Nicodemus approached Jesus with assumptions, didn't he? Nicodemus assumed that he would be received by Jesus because of his background and his pedigree. And he was completely surprised by that. This woman, as Jesus approaches her, she has certain assumptions also. She assumes that she will be rejected because of her background and her pedigree. And she is just as wrong. Jesus says to her, look, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that was saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Sir, you have nothing to draw water with. This well is deep. Where do you get living water? Are you greater than our father, Jacob? It's interesting that she wants him to remember, like, hey, you know what? We're descendants of Jacob, too, buddy. He's our father, too, and oh, by the way, his well is in our territory. And he dug the well and he drank from the well and his children drank from the well and his livestock drank from the well and we drink from the well. So how are you going to provide this? And similar to his conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus speaks of the need that this woman has and the reality that only God can fill it. With Nicodemus, he's talking about being born, being reborn, receiving the Holy Spirit. These are things that only God can do. And here he is saying, there's a living water available for you that would well up within you, only God can provide. And interesting, even as she asks, are you greater than our father Jacob? We all get to snicker as we read that because the answer is, well, yes. Yes, he is. But Jesus goes on, He says, everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life. So in these several conversations, Jesus has said this water, what He's talking about is a gift of God in verse 10. It is living water. If you drink it, you will never be thirsty again. It will satisfy you because it becomes a spring inside of you. So it's not that it's a once and done, you take a drink and you never, but in drinking it, it becomes a self replenishing well inside of you so that you don't have to be thirsty again. It is that satisfying. And the result of this water is eternal life. In essence, Jesus's answer is yes. Yes, I am greater than Jacob, your father, your father. You're right. Your father, Jacob, drank from this well and died. And his offspring drank from this well and died, and even his livestock drank from this well and died. But if you would come to me and drink from the water that I provide, you will have life welling up within you. You will have eternal life. So is the woman befuddled? Is she still thinking too concretely or is she entering into this a little more? Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. Sounds great, mister. Sign me up. I am so tired of coming to this well. I am so tired of what my life has become. I'm so tired of hiding in plain daylight. Tired of the stares and the whispers and the snickers and the cruelty. But before Jesus goes on, he tells her, well, go and call your husband and then come back. So maybe she gets frustrated. Oh, sure. Well, we're talking, are you using two syllable words? Is that why we need to get my husband? Because I can't understand the things you're saying. You know what? So he seems like he's like brushing her off. And it's interesting. So, you know, when doctors like examine you, And they are kind of feeling around to see, you know, where does it hurt? What exactly is the pain? And then when they finally find the source of the pain, like how you're like, you jump, you shrink back, you flinch, you're like, yeah, that was it, that was it. This woman, Jesus has been talking to her, and the average, her average response to Jesus is 32 words. And now he says, go and call your husband. And she flinches. Four Greek words. I have no husband. And there's the point. And he says, you're right. You've had five husbands. The man you're with now is not your husband, so it's true technically that you have no husband. And this is where we see the false hope that we get from false gods. This is why we use Jeremiah 2.13 as our preparation verse. For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold new water. This woman is looking for something to satisfy her. Culture has told her, you will only be fulfilled if you are a wife. Now, is there anything wrong with being a wife? Of course not. Is there anything wrong with delighting in being a wife? No, there is not. Or even wanting to be a wife. But this woman has turned that into her identity, her value, her, like, this is how I know I'm acceptable, if someone will accept me. And she has been seeking thirst quenching drink from a broken cistern and she has turned back to it time and time and time and time and time and time and time again. And she's so desperate now that she's not even holding out for marriage. That she's just, she's, I need this. I will do anything to get this. I need to be loved. I need to be cared for. I need to be valued. Idols always promise big and deliver small. Idols always promise what God is offering and then diminish whatever they had ever offered to begin with. And so if we, and idols produce in us almost the exact opposite of what we think they're going to give to us. And so when we idolize wealth or comfort or status, we simply become greedy. When we idolize our desires or idolize just those feelings of goodness, we become addicts. When we idolize these, even the, what we would consider culturally acceptable idols of family, good family values, then we will pursue it without God at center. This woman is willing to live without any promise from the man she's with in hopes that she will somehow earn that acceptance. And all that she has gotten from it is ridicule and hatred. even being an outcast in her own community. And I know that that seems like I'm reading into that, but there's a reason that scripture tells us that it was noon. Jesus is sitting at the well at noon, and here comes this woman to draw water from the well at noon, which even today, in today's societies in the Middle East where there are still wells outside of town, You go and draw water from the well in the cool of the morning or in the cool of the evening. You do not go and carry a seven-gallon jug of water back to your home at noon in the Middle East. And in fact, it's a huge social event. It's the only time of the day that women can get away from their overbearing husbands, and they can go to the well, and they gather, and it's a time of social activity, and they get to talk, and spill the tea, and share with each other, and this woman is avoiding that. Because she's the source of tea. She's the one that they snicker about. She's the one that they talk about. She's going at noon to avoid the ridicule, to avoid people. I can imagine, like, did Jesus send the disciples to the same town that she was coming from? Did she pass this group of 12 guys? Were they all, as she got close to them, were they talking and laughing, and then they got closer and they got real quiet? And then they pass. Then one of them says something. They all burst out into laughter. Did her ears just burn? Did she think, oh. What, why are there 12 Jewish, this sounds like the beginning of a joke. 12 Jewish men walk into a Samaritan town. And then she gets closer to the well and she's like, there's another one. Great, great. Do you ever, are there people in your life, there are people in my life that when I see them from afar and recognize them, I'm not very happy that I'm walking toward them. It's like, okay, none of you, clearly. Let me make that clear. There's just, you want to make sure they didn't see you, so you can duck down a clothing aisle, and then you realize you're in the underwear aisle, and you're like, ooh, this is worse than if I'd have just said hello. But this woman's like, she's like, well, I gotta get water. And so there she goes, she goes to see Jesus. And Jesus draws her out more and more and more and points out just how well He knows her. And at first, she's pretty taken aback by it, so she goes back to many words again. She's like, sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Riddle me this, Batman. So she throws out this theological conundrum to kind of throw him off. You know, we worship here on Mount Gerizim. You say that we can only worship in Jerusalem. What's the answer? It's great how Jesus gives both. He doesn't shrink from telling her the answer, but He also goes beyond her question. He says, well, first of all, let me tell you, the hour is coming when it's not going to be here or Jerusalem. But then he answers the question, now listen, you worship what you don't know. We worship what we know because salvation is from the Jews. Even the Samaritans believed that God would send a Messiah. They didn't necessarily call him Messiah, they called him the revealer or the prophet. You hear it later when she says, when she kind of blows it off and says, listen, I know when the Messiah comes, He will reveal these things to us. So they believed this was going to happen. Jesus explains to her, look, your forefathers got it wrong. They should not have built that temple. Salvation is from the Jews. A time is coming when it's not going to be a come here to this one centralized place, but it will be a time when God's people will gather in spirit and in truth, and everywhere they gather in spirit and in truth, God will be worshipped. And so she says, well, listen, I know that I know the Messiah is coming. He's called Christ in verse twenty five. When he comes, he will tell us all things. And Jesus says, are I who speak to you, am he? You know, it could be that she's like trying to push it away. Let's just, let's leave these things to the experts. But it also could be that she's genuinely wondering what Jesus told her. She should be wondering, who is this man that asked me for a drink of water? And Jesus, who in so many cases, veils who he is, says to this Samaritan woman, this sinful Samaritan woman who wasn't even looking for him, he says, I am he. I am the Messiah. And so this brings us to the last point when Jesus sees you You're actually safe to be seen This woman leaves her jar and runs back to the town To the very people that have been judging her and Ostracizing her and she goes directly to them and says I come and see a man who told me everything I've ever done. Is this the Messiah?" Jesus saw through all of her cheekiness, as John Calvin would say. He saw through her facade, saw through her red herrings and her smoke screens. and got right to the heart of the matter and did not reject her. He didn't say, you've had five husbands. The one you're with now isn't even your husband. You disgust me. You are the kind of people that are what's wrong today, you're what's wrong with today's society, people like you just living for yourselves, just just throwing off all of the the norms and societal values. And and here you are, you. You disgust me. Certainly, Jesus is calling her to see her sin, but in such a way That she feels completely received by him. That it is actually safe that he knows everything about her. And that because he knows everything about her and seems to have not rejected her, it's actually safe to go and talk to others. And maybe let others know and see me. Tim Keller points out, and we've used his explanation often, but to be loved and not known is nice, and it's sentimental, but you've got to keep up the facades. If I'm loved but not known, perhaps I need to never be known or I'll lose your love. Again, the best illustration is a dog. A dog loves you without knowing you. It's why they're always excited to see you because they don't know what an incredibly jerky person you are. They just think you're wonderful. They love you, but they don't know you. But the opposite is just as frightening, to be known and not loved. This is what the woman experienced in her own town. She was known. They knew these things. And because of what they knew, they did not love her. But to be known completely. A man who told me everything I ever did. And to be loved regardless. That is as safe a place as you can be. Because Jesus's love doesn't just drive him to just let bygones be bygones. It's not just that Jesus said, I know all about you. It doesn't matter. I love you anyway. Jesus says, I know all about you. It matters so much. I will take it. I will die. I will wash you. I will cleanse you. I will give you new birth. I will give you my spirit. All because of my love for you. Wouldn't it be an amazing community that we would be? If every time we got together, We've reminded each other, hey, Jesus knows everything about me. And he loves me. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be part of that harvest that would draw people who would see the openness and the reality that you can belong here as you are figuring this out. And as you belong, you will begin to believe. And as you believe, your life will be changed. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for pursuing this woman when she had zero desire to pursue you. Jesus, thank you for pursuing us. The reason we can confess our sin to you is because, you know. You know, every word before it is uttered, you know, every thought before it takes shape, you know, every desire, every lust, every fear. You know us. And you have pursued us. And we thank you. And so we come to this table celebrating that, remembering that, and being fed and nourished by your love for us. In Jesus' name, amen.