Salvation For All Top to the Bottom

Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God our Father and our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
John 4:5 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the
parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; 6 and Jacob’s
well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting
thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 There came a woman
of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For
His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the
Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask
me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no
dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you
knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’
you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living
water.” 11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and
the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 You are
not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and
drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered
and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never
thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of
water springing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to Him, “Sir,
give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to
draw.” 16 He *said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” 17
The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus *said to
her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have
had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your
husband; this you have said truly.” 19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I
perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped in this
mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an
hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will
you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we
worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour
is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His
worshipers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must
worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that
Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes,
He will declare all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to
you am He.” (NASB)
One of the features of the Season of Lent and Holy Week is the length of the
assigned Scripture readings. They get longer. While longer readings might try
one’s attention span, there’s advantages to them, especially when it comes to
Gospel lessons.
When large sections of Scripture readings come along we not only get see
the specifics, we also see the bigger picture and the patterns given in the Gospel
narratives.
In last week’s Gospel lesson an honorable Pharisee named Nicodemus came
to Jesus to see what it is that Jesus has to say about Himself. Nicodemus comes at
night out of fear of what his colleagues would do to his reputation. He was
regarded as a “righteous” man and he wanted to keep it that way.
This morning we find Jesus in a rather unusual place for a Jew. Unlike
Nicodemus, Jesus isn’t worried about the public perception of meeting with an
undesirable woman or about traveling through a land filled with unclean people.
It was at Jacob’s well that Jesus met the Samaritan woman. The Samaritan
woman was Nicodemus’ antitype. In almost every single way she was the exact
opposite of Nicodemus.
As a Pharisee who was a member of the Sanhedrin and a scribe, Nicodemus
was highly regarded. He was the cream of the crop. A righteous man by the
standards of the day. He was the kind of man people wanted to be around. The
Samaritan woman of chapter 4 is none of these things. Nicodemus sat at the top
the social ranking. The Samaritan woman was the bottom.
As opposition to Jesus increased around Jerusalem, Jesus decided to go to
Galilee. I pointed out a few sermons ago that Jews were not welcome in Samaria.
It was a two way street. The Jews didn’t want to have anything to do with the half
blood heretical Samaritans. Most Jews traveling back and forth between Galilee
and Judea would rather take the long way round and walk through the River
Jordan than take the direct and easier route through Samaritan.
On His way through Jesus stops at Jacob’s well, which was famous in its
own right. He was thirsty. A woman approached and He spokes to her. That was
unusual. As a Jewish man, He ought not even acknowledge her existence, let alone
interact with her. She had a lot going against her.
First, the woman was a Samaritan. She was a half blood of Hebrew and
Assyrian blood. The Talmud and Mishna, Jewish books of law and commentary
said of Samaritan women; “The daughters of the Samaritans are indeed unclean
as defiled from the cradle.”
Second, she held a doctrinal position regarding how and where to worship
God contrary to the clear teaching of the Old Testament. This problem comes out
in this exchange. “‘Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say
that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”
Third, the Samaritan woman was a woman. While there were some cultures
in the Roman empire that treated women well under the law, that was not the case
for the Jews and Samaritans. A woman was not supposed to interact with an adult
male without the protection and witness of a male relative.
Fourth, the woman had a sorted history. She had been married and divorced
five times and was at the moment living with her boyfriend. Five separate men had
given her papers of divorce. I suspect she had issues. Regardless, she was a public
sinner, guilty of adultery, and everyone knew it. That’s why she had to go to the
well alone in the heat of the day.
A righteous Jew day would have never spoken such a woman. He would
have found some other way to get water. But Jesus asks her for a drink and she is
rightly surprised. “How is it that You, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for
drink?”
Jesus doesn’t answer the question as expected. “If you knew the gift of
God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked
Him, and He would have given you living water.’”
Just as He did in His conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus turns the
conversation into a theology lesson. Jesus takes that which is physical, natural,
and needed for physical life . . . water and grafts His Word to it. He vests the
water with His person, His work, and the gift of the God’s Spirit to make living
water.
Jesus taught Nicodemus that a person must be born from on high of the
water and the spirit and as the Moses lifted up the serpent, He too would be
lifted up. Now sitting at Jacob’s well, He turns the conversation to the Living
Water, the Gospel, and the Spirit.
Here is the another really interesting thing about this exchange. As Jesus
speaks the Gospel to her, she knows He is talking about the Messiah. Nicodemus
didn’t get to the conclusion nearly as fast. “I know that Messiah is coming (He
who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.”
Two very different people. The person in chapter 3 sits atop the social and
religious ladder. A good man. He was one of those men that others measure
themselves against. “Oh Lord, I wish I were as honorable, well-liked, and wise as
Nicodemus.”
The person in chapter 4 sits at the bottom of the social ladder. She is a
personal and spiritual wreck. She too was one of those people that others like
measure themselves against. “Oh Lord, I am glad I am not like her, a five time
loser, a woman with issues, a public disgrace, and without shame.”
In order to preach the Gospel in a way that will be heard, Jesus speaks the
Law to Nicodemus. Salvation is not a work of any sinful man, no matter how
righteous he may appear. “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom
of God.”
“Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God.
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit.”
“Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?
“No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven:
the Son of Man.”
Having crucified Nicodemus’s system of works righteousness, He preaches
the Gospel. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal
life. 16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
In order to preach the Gospel in a way that will be heard, Jesus speaks the
Law to the woman at the well. “Go, call your husband and come here.”
“You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five
husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband.”
“Woman . . . [you] worship what you do not know; we worship what we
know, for salvation is from the Jews.”
Just as He did with Nicodemus. Jesus speaks the Gospel right along the side
of the Law to the woman. In so doing He employs water, the Word, and the giving
of the Holy Spirit.
“Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but
the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to
eternal life.”
“An hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship
the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His
worshipers.”
“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and
truth.”
“I who speak to you am He [the Christ].”
Before Christ Jesus, none of Nicodemus righteous deeds count for anything
in regard to salvation. They count for nothing toward being born from on high.
They count for nothing in the Water and the Word of Holy Baptism.
Just as Nicodemus good works meant nothing before God, before and in
Christ Jesus, none of the Samaritan woman’s sind mean anything to Christ and
God the Father. Her sins do not count against the salvation she is given in the
Christ Who spoke to her at the well.
Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman were both helpless and ungodly, each
with their own set of sins. In time they were both made one in Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:5 “The love of God has been poured out within our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 6 For while we were still helpless,
at the right time Christ died for the ungodly… God demonstrates His own love
toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Their story is our story. We all bounce between the sin of selfrighteousness,
which offends against Commandments 1-3 and the moral sins of
Commandments 4-10.
Yet, Christ is here, present in His Word and in the means of grace pouring
out His life giving water and Spirit to you His children. He visits you, gives
Himself to you in Word and Sacraments. You’re sins are forgiven.
Amen
May the Peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.