Dr. Roger Parrott, Belhaven University Chapel Series

Well, this semester we've been trying to learn how to be better followers of Jesus, and we've mostly been looking at what we have totally been looking at, the disciples.

And then last week, Mary and Martha, who were very close friends with Jesus.

Well, this week we're going to look at somebody who had no idea who he was.

And next week we're going to look at somebody, Zacchaeus, who wanted to meet him but didn't know Jesus and was trying to get to him.

So very different stories and today's scripture, if you listen to it carefully, what Jesus did with the woman at the well must have put her into a total panic and then turned it right around and made her feel more loved than ever.

Here's the bottom line of the story.

I'm going to start with that.

And here's the concept we've got to understand as followers of Christ, we.

Which is so different from every other relationship in our life, and it's really kind of hard to comprehend until you just focus on it and take it all in.

Here's the concept.

Jesus knows the whole truth about us and still comes looking for us.

The whole truth.

Imagine talking to somebody across a table who already knew everything about you.

Everything.

Every success you've ever had, every failure, every secret of your life, every online post or text you've ever sent, every thought you've ever had, everything that you've ever done that you thought nobody ever saw.

And even those things that would embarrass your mother to tears if she knew about them.

Even those.

How would it make you feel?

How would it make you feel not to know part of it, but to know every bit?

Everything.

All of put most people in a panic, an absolute panic, to know somebody knows us that way.

But that's what happened to the woman at the well when she met Jesus.

But this is what makes the love of Jesus so absolutely different from everything else in our life, because he knows everything about us, absolutely everything.

And he loves us fully anyway.

When you are fully known and fully loved, that is a totally different kind of relationship.

Not only does he know everything about you, but he comes looking for you as he did for this woman at the well.

Well, the story was read for us beautifully.

But let me just summarize it again quickly to make sure we're all on the same path of understanding what happened here.

Now, Jesus was traveling through Samaria.

He didn't have to go that way.

He could have gone around it.

A lot of Jews went around Samaria because Samaria was a place the Jews avoided because they had such conflict with the people there and looked down on those people.

But Jesus went there on purpose.

And he'd been walking a long time through the middle of the day, and it would have been hot as could be.

And he finally sat down at this very famous well, and a Samaritan woman came along to pull water out of the well.

And he was thirsty, so he asked her for a drink.

That simple request surprised her, shocked her, really, because Jews and Samaritans usually didn't even talk to each other.

They kept a distance from each other.

You know the story of the Good Samaritan?

Well, Jesus turned that story on its head because the Samaritan was the hero of the story where Samaritans were hated in the days of Jesus and despised and looked down on as the lowest class of people possible.

But in the story of the Good Samaritan Jesus told, he said a religious leader came and passed by on the other side.

A business religious leader came and passed by on the other side.

But it was a Samaritan who helped the man in trouble.

So that is the context of how much Samaritans and Jews did not come together well, as they talked there too well, Jesus moved the conversation from physical water to deeper, spiritual water in her life.

He told her about living water, and he showed her that he knew the truth about her past and her broken relationships.

But he didn't shame her.

He didn't turn her away.

In fact, she is the one.

He came to Samaria on purpose to see Jesus revealed to her in that moment.

And we're going to come back to this, that he was the Messiah that she'd been waiting for.

And when she found out, when she found out who he was and what he knew about her and that he still loved her, she dropped her water jug and her bucket and she ran back to town to tell everybody.

Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did.

The woman had come alone, probably hoping not to be noticed, because after five husbands and another man she's living with, I don't think she was a pillar of the community.

But she brought the entire town out to the well.

She.

To meet Jesus, to learn from him.

So we need to learn from this story.

It's a critical story in our relationship and following Christ.

So first of all, here's what we need to learn.

Jesus went looking for her.

Jesus went looking for her.

He went through Samaria.

He could have gone another route, but he crossed a number of boundaries to be with her.

First, the Jewish Samaritan thing.

I told you about that.

The male, female.

In those days, men and women did not interact unless there was a chaperone of some kind with them.

And a respected rabbi was someone whose life had clearly gone badly.

So he crossed all that over to talk to this woman.

Now, he sent the disciples into town to get some food because they'd been walking for so long and they were hungry.

And so when the disciples weren't there when this happened, when.

When they came back, they were shocked that Jesus was talking to her.

Why in the world would he talk to her of all people?

We assume that Christ looks for people who look religious, and that's who he likes.

And you know what?

The exact opposite is true.

The exact opposite.

He deliberately went looking for someone whose life was really messed up.

Up.

You today may feel far from Jesus because your life is a mess, but that doesn't mean Jesus is far from you.

He's looking for you, especially if your life is messy.

Well, Jesus started with what she wanted, and he led her to what she needed.

She came looking for water.

I mean, you know, they didn't have running water.

You got to get water from the well.

She came looking for water, and he said, give me a drink.

And that conversation evolved into this discussion about living water that he could give her.

Well, her response to that is, she's thinking water out of this well to drink.

If he can give me living water, that means I don't have to come back to the well.

So, yeah, I'm interested in Jesus because he can make my life easier.

And if she gets us living water, she doesn't have to come back to the well all the time.

And, you know, I think a lot of people come to Christ that way because we want Jesus to make our life easier.

We want to make the problems go away.

And if we just come to Jesus, all the problems will go away.

It doesn't work like that.

But Jesus was not offering her convenience.

He was offering her transformation.

Complete transformation.

Ordinary water leaves you thirsty again, doesn't it?

What Jesus gives quenches the deep thirst of her life.

We spend an enormous time, amount of energy trying to deeply satisfy the needs of things that make us thirsty again.

Our water buckets.

Our water buckets of achievement and relationships.

Maybe appearance, maybe approval, maybe money, entertainment, fun, be wanted, be noticed, success.

Now, none of those things are necessarily wrong.

The problem is expecting them to satisfy a thirst that can't be satisfied because we're always needing more of whatever that is.

Some of the greatest disappointments of life come from expecting temporary things to satisfy eternal needs.

It will not happen.

So we keep going back to the well, the well that makes us thirsty, over and over and over again, believing that somehow this time it's going to be different.

When we go to that well, Jesus started with what she wanted, what was water, and he led her to what she needed.

And then we see in the story, Jesus would not let her avoid the truth about herself.

Now, in this conversation, it comes to what feels like a really abrupt turn.

Jesus says, go and get your husband.

It almost feels like Jesus changes the topic, but he's really not changing the topic at all.

He's moving from the water buckets to the real thirst of her life.

And she says, I don't have a husband.

And Jesus responds.

And this is when the panic had to set in.

He says, yeah, I know you've had five husbands, and the man you're living with now is not your husband.

Notice what Jesus does.

He doesn't humiliate her.

He doesn't condemn her in front of a bunch of other people.

But he also doesn't pretend her choices don't matter.

They do matter.

He tells her the truth.

You see, Grace does not ignore the truth about us.

Grace means he knows the truth and still invites us to come closer to him.

Jesus already knows every part of your story, Every part of your story.

He knows even the parts you are trying the hardest to hide.

Wow.

For her, must have been a panic.

He knew everything, but he was sitting at the well waiting for her anyway.

Now, her response to this was.

Was fascinating.

She said, well, sir, you must be a prophet.

You must be a prophet.

Now he just said, you got five husbands and you're living with another man.

And her response was, you must be a prophet.

Well, what was she trying to do?

She's trying to change the subject.

And we often change the subject when Jesus gets too close, don't we?

Jesus had just touched the most personal part of her life, and now she wanted to talk about religion, who he was, where to worship, all about theology.

They went in this long discussion about this.

You see, that part of the Samaritan thing.

The Samaritans had Jewish roots in their religious life, but they added in these other religions as well.

And so that's what the Samaritans spent all their time talking about, was religious stuff.

So that's where she went.

And we do this too.

It's easier to debate the truth than to face the truth.

Why does God allow suffering?

Is the Bible really true?

What about other religions?

Other churches hurt me.

We change the subject.

We would rather discuss God than deal with God when he gets too close.

Well, Jesus was being truthful with her because truthfulness matters.

If you're going to follow Christ, it requires complete honesty.

Trying to hide something from Jesus, it just fools Aaron.

He already knows.

So Jesus tells her now, this is remarkable.

This is remarkable.

What happens next.

Jesus tells her he's the Messiah.

Now, she knew about the Messiah.

She knew the Messiah would come someday because she had those Jewish teachings in her.

And he reveals to her that he is the Messiah.

Now, here's an amazing thing.

This is the first.

The first time Jesus tells anybody who his real identity is.

And think about who received it.

Think about who received it.

A woman who had five husbands, living with another one, probably somewhat of an outcast in her community.

And she's the first.

The woman with the messy life that needs living water.

Jesus tells I am the Messiah.

Wow.

Well, Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah to the person everybody else would have overlooked.

He didn't first tell it to the king.

He didn't first tell it to a Roman official.

He didn't go tell the religious leaders.

He didn't even tell the disciples.

At this point, they didn't know.

He told this woman in Samaria that he just met, that he came to see on purpose.

We sometimes think Jesus only wants people who look impressive on the outside and have everything in their past all cleaned up.

And that's who he's really interested.

Her past did not keep her from being loved by Christ.

He knew every bit of it and he loved her.

Well, then, see, in the story, the woman leaves behind what she was carrying.

Now, she came there for water.

That was the most important thing of the day.

But it wasn't important.

It wasn't any longer important because she put down the burden of trying to fill that need for her thirst because she was finding the living water.

And she runs, runs back to the village and she tells everybody what happened.

She runs to the very people she was probably coming in the middle of the day to avoid.

Because most women would come to the well early in the morning or late in the evening because it was cooler.

She came in the middle of the day because she probably didn't want to see anybody.

They knew some of her past.

They didn't know it all, but they knew some.

They looked down on her.

She was trying to avoid them, but she ran to them.

She ran to them.

So what's the thirst that you carry every day that you have to keep refilling the bucket.

Desire to be seen.

Desire to be loved, to feel secure, to be at peace.

We keep tearing the buckets of the well to be refilled.

The buckets of achievement and approval and relationships and possessions and plans, hoping one of them will finally make life satisfying.

But when Jesus meets us, we can put down our heavy buckets because we found what our soul needs the most.

Well, her greatest embarrassment became part of her story.

She told everybody.

She said, come see the man who told me everything I ever did.

Those were her words.

Everything I ever did.

He could possibly be the Messiah, she told him.

She doesn't have all the answers.

She doesn't have a theological presentation.

She doesn't even have a long relationship with Jesus.

She's known him for what, 20, 30 minutes?

Here she simply tells them that Christ knows everything about her and he still loves her and you've got to come meet him.

And the very thing she wanted hidden most in her life becomes the thing she talks about.

He told me everything I ever did.

And they all came to see him.

They all came out of the town in a hurry to see him and to learn from him.

And this is astonishing, because before meeting Jesus, being known was her biggest fear.

And after meeting Jesus, being known became liberating for her.

She's telling the whole town, he knows everything and he still loves me.

And he does for you and me as well.

Well, when you realize that Jesus knows everything about you and still loves you, you no longer have to live, terrified that someone will discover who you really are.

Now, that doesn't mean we go around and announce every private failure.

Don't do that.

That's probably not going to be helpful.

It means our identity is no longer controlled by what we're trying to conceal.

So she told everyone about the Messiah.

A Jew who came to Samaria to transform her life, which by itself is more than enough.

And the woman discovered that the safest place for the full truth of her life was in the presence of Jesus.

And so many people are trying to run from Jesus to hide the full truth of their life when he already knows.

And he says, come to me.

Cause I love you.

He knew her failures.

He knew her disappointments.

He knew where she'd messed up.

He knew her relationships.

He knew her thirst.

And Jesus did not walk away.

He offered her living water the same.

Jesus knows everything about you and about me.

Everybody walking into this chapel today is carrying a bucket of some kind.

Something you think you need.

Something you're tasting.

Something you hope will satisfy.

Something you keep returning for a refill because it wasn't enough from the last time.

And again, some of those things are okay.

They're not bad, but they're not going to satisfy.

We need to put down our buckets and let the living water satisfy us.

Now, the story raises three critical questions I want to close with that might help you put down the weight of your bucket.

The first one is this.

What do you keep going back to refill, hoping it will finally satisfy you?

Buckets are heavy of water.

Put them down.

Putting down the burden that thinks that's the thing that's going to make all the difference because it's not.

The thing that makes the difference is the living water from Christ.

Second, what part of your life are you trying to hide from Jesus?

What part of your life?

Some of you are hiding stuff.

Well, you think you're hiding stuff from Jesus, but you don't have to hide the thing you're most afraid of.

You can talk to him about.

You say, help me with this.

I'm struggling.

And you can follow him with freedom from fear in doing that.

And the third question is, what are you depending on to convince you that your life has value?

When you are fully known and still fully loved, that's absolutely the deepest love possible.

When Jesus knows everything about you, all the good, all the bad, and he still loves you and he still wants you and he still comes looking for you, it doesn't get any better.

And that's what transforms our relationship with Christ.

When we understand what the woman at the well found that day.

Let's pray together.

Our benediction.

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.

God bless.