Welcome to this week’s episode, a special rerun from our Speaking of Life archive. We hope you find its timeless message as meaningful today as it was when it was first shared.
Watch video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvFh7fJMtfs
Program Transcript
Speaking of Life 5016 | Busy Work
Greg Williams
Have you ever been assigned “busy work?” I despise doing “busy work?” It’s the type of work that doesn’t have a purpose except to keep you…well…busy. Sometimes this happens on a job where the boss feels like he needs to keep the employees working even though there is nothing left to do. I understand some busy work was necessary to keep employees employed during the pandemic, but I am easily frustrated with busy work – I want to be productive.
Suffering can sometimes seem like busy work; it can take up a lot of our time and keeps us from accomplishing the goals we have. And there is no getting around suffering; it is something we all face. And for someone like me, I get can get frustrated at the lack of productivity that suffering can induce. But perhaps during those times of suffering, there is a different way to be productive.
We know we will suffer, Jesus himself told us we would. He doesn’t bring suffering to us, but he wanted us to be aware it would come. Then he told us he came to take our suffering upon himself. And he did. He took (and continually takes) all our suffering, including our self-inflicted suffering, to the cross, and redeems it for his own good purposes toward us. The totality of our sufferings are now his which he took through death into resurrected life.
Because of this, our sufferings are now Christ’s own sufferings which we can endure with hope, knowing they will be used to contribute to the ultimate purpose he has for us. But what does this have to do with feeling like suffering is busy work – keeping us from being productive?
Paul addresses this in a rather shocking manner. He speaks of suffering as a point of rejoicing. He tells us that suffering, because of what Jesus has done, can actually produce something important:
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Romans 5:3-5 (ESV)
Suffering is a part of our broken world. Paul doesn’t mean we will enjoy suffering or that we should go looking for it. But, when it comes our way, which inevitably will, we can be assured that Jesus will meet us in our afflictions. This is why we can rejoice. Because our suffering is not lost, through Christ our suffering is redeemed. We can anticipate the good work the Lord is doing in us, through all our circumstances. It’s not a time of busy work – where we are just waiting for the suffering to end – it’s a time of God producing good fruit in us.
Just as Christ learned through his suffering, we too are formed more into the image of Christ through our suffering.
I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.
Program Transcript
Speaking of Life 5016 | Busy Work
Greg Williams
Have you ever been assigned “busy work?” I despise doing “busy work?” It’s the type of work that doesn’t have a purpose except to keep you…well…busy. Sometimes this happens on a job where the boss feels like he needs to keep the employees working even though there is nothing left to do. I understand some busy work was necessary to keep employees employed during the pandemic, but I am easily frustrated with busy work – I want to be productive.
Suffering can sometimes seem like busy work; it can take up a lot of our time and keeps us from accomplishing the goals we have. And there is no getting around suffering; it is something we all face. And for someone like me, I get can get frustrated at the lack of productivity that suffering can induce. But perhaps during those times of suffering, there is a different way to be productive.
We know we will suffer, Jesus himself told us we would. He doesn’t bring suffering to us, but he wanted us to be aware it would come. Then he told us he came to take our suffering upon himself. And he did. He took (and continually takes) all our suffering, including our self-inflicted suffering, to the cross, and redeems it for his own good purposes toward us. The totality of our sufferings are now his which he took through death into resurrected life.
Because of this, our sufferings are now Christ’s own sufferings which we can endure with hope, knowing they will be used to contribute to the ultimate purpose he has for us. But what does this have to do with feeling like suffering is busy work – keeping us from being productive?
Paul addresses this in a rather shocking manner. He speaks of suffering as a point of rejoicing. He tells us that suffering, because of what Jesus has done, can actually produce something important:
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Romans 5:3-5 (ESV)
Suffering is a part of our broken world. Paul doesn’t mean we will enjoy suffering or that we should go looking for it. But, when it comes our way, which inevitably will, we can be assured that Jesus will meet us in our afflictions. This is why we can rejoice. Because our suffering is not lost, through Christ our suffering is redeemed. We can anticipate the good work the Lord is doing in us, through all our circumstances. It’s not a time of busy work – where we are just waiting for the suffering to end – it’s a time of God producing good fruit in us.
Just as Christ learned through his suffering, we too are formed more into the image of Christ through our suffering.
I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.
Psalm 95:1–11 • Exodus 17:1–7 • Romans 5:1–11 • John 4:5–42
Today’s scriptures for the third Sunday in Lent asks us to consider the ways God satisfies our thirst. These passages provide a powerful picture of God’s sustaining love and our need for a trustworthy God, especially in times of thirst and testing. Our call to worship, Psalm 95, invites people to remember grace with joy and thanksgiving. It begins as a song of worship, inviting us to sing, shout, and bow down before our Maker who is both Creator and Shepherd. Yet the psalm ends with a warning: do not harden your hearts as Israel did. In Exodus 17, the people of Israel wander through the wilderness, weary and thirsty. Their physical need for water mirrors a deeper spiritual hunger, a longing for assurance that God has not abandoned them. In their frustration, they quarrel with Moses and test the Lord. Yet God responds with mercy rather than anger, providing water from the rock. This moment reveals God’s steadfast grace even when we doubt. In Romans 5, Paul shows how that same grace flows to us through Christ. While we were still sinners, quarreling and doubting, God poured out divine love through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Hope does not disappoint because God’s love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Finally, in John 4, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well and offers her “living water.” Her story fulfills the longing of Exodus: the thirst that only God can quench. We see that God’s love knows no boundaries, offering new life to all. Together, these scriptures remind us that God meets our deepest thirst with grace that restores, redeems, and overflows.
God Satisfies Our Thirst
John 4:5–42 NRSVUE
In 2014, CNN reported the story of hairstylist Mark Bustos from New York City. Every Saturday, Mark Bustos walked through the city with a backpack full of scissors, clippers, and a folding stool. He wasn’t heading to a salon. He was looking for those who were forgotten.
Mark would spend one day each week giving free haircuts to people who did not have a home. He always began with the same words: “I want to do something nice for you today.”
He didn’t just cut their hair; he connected with them. He listened to their stories; he asked about their hopes and fears. They didn’t just receive a haircut; they were reminded that their lives matter.
Mark said, “Everyone deserves to feel good about themselves, no matter where they live or what they’re going through.” His simple act of kindness reminds us that sometimes the smallest gestures, a haircut, a smile, a few kind words, can remind a person of their worth. It can satisfy a need for connection and belonging. Kindness can be like a drink of water when you’re thirsty.
There is a kind of thirst everyone knows. Sometimes, after a day in the sun, playing or working hard, all you can think about is a glass of cold water. But there’s another kind of thirst, a longing inside, when something is missing. This inner thirst can feel like loneliness, a need for hope, or the search for meaning.
Are you thirsty for more? What do you long for?
This story we are going to read next is about more than water. It is about a thirst every person carries — and the God who comes looking for us in the middle of our thirst. The good news is simple and deep: in Jesus, God meets us in our thirst and gives us the life we cannot give ourselves. It’s a story about how God satisfies our thirst.
Let’s read the sermon text from John 4:5–42. (Read or ask someone to read the passage now or during the “scripture reading” portion of the service.)
5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)
10 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.”
11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?”
13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!”
19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 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” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you speaking with her?”
28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! Could he be the Messiah?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?”
34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 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 truly the Savior of the world.” John 4:5–42 NRSVUE
A Well, a Woman, a Surprise
John 4:5–6 says:
So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
Jesus is tired. Jesus, God-with-us, is weary. What does this tell us about God? God is not far off. God does not hover above human life — he steps into it. In Jesus, God knows what it is to be worn down, thirsty, and in need. This is the Incarnation: God becoming human in Jesus, not in theory, but in flesh, dust, and fatigue.
He sits down at Jacob’s well. Then the Samaritan woman arrives.
Verse 7: A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” The woman responds in surprise (v. 9): “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?”
This question tells us how shocking this moment is. Jesus is breaking several unspoken rules at once. Jews and Samaritans did not get along and usually avoided each other. Men also did not speak openly with women they did not know. And a Jewish person would never drink from a Samaritan’s cup.
So, when Jesus asks her for water, it isn’t a small request. It is unexpected and risky. It tells her that Jesus sees her, not as someone to avoid, but as someone worth speaking to. He crosses lines that others were taught to stay behind. That’s how this life-changing conversation begins.
The Offer of Living Water
In verses 10–14, Jesus makes a startling promise:
… 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.”
Jesus contrasts two waters:
Well water is temporary. You drink, and you thirst again.
Living water is permanent. It becomes a spring inside you, a source that keeps giving.
Jesus gives a spring of water welling up to eternal life. He gives a gift. He gives himself. Jesus is the living water.
This is what Christians call grace — not something we achieve, but something we are given. Living water is God’s own life poured into empty places, poured into us.
In this way, God satisfies our thirst.
When the woman says she wants this water so she won’t have to come to the well again (v. 15), she is still thinking in terms of literal thirst. But Jesus begins to peel back layers, inviting her to consider that he is more than a man at a well.
He tells her, “I who speak to you am he,” that is, he is the Messiah (v. 26). He is identifying himself directly.
This is a turning point because Jesus, as the Messiah, the One who saves, will become the One who thirsts. On the cross, Jesus will carry our thirst, shame, brokenness, and sin in his very own body. Then what flows to us is forgiveness, peace, and new life. He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. This is the finished work of Christ.
Through this story, we see the heart of the triune God. The Father sends the Son so lives can be made whole again. The Son meets this woman in her real life — tired, thirsty, and burdened, and gives himself to her without conditions. And the Holy Spirit is promised as living water — God’s own life flowing within her, restoring what has run dry. This is not a lonely God demanding effort, but a Father, Son, and Spirit moving together to bring life.
An Invitation
After this conversation, something remarkable happens. The woman leaves her water jar behind (v. 28) and goes into the town to tell others:
“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” (v. 29)
Because she told her story, people come to meet Jesus. Many believe because of Jesus’ words (v. 39–42). They say:
“We ourselves have heard him, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
The woman becomes an evangelist, bearing witness to what she has found. She does not receive a plan or training — she receives living water. And it spills over. Mission here is not pressure; it is overflow.
The story is not merely an encounter; it’s an invitation into God’s mission. You and I have received that same invitation. Has God changed your life? You are invited to tell your story. We join God’s mission when we tell others that God satisfies our thirst.
What does this story mean for me today?
- God sees your thirst.
Each of us thirsts: for love, purpose, acceptance, forgiveness, rest. You may try to fill them with things, approval, achievement, busyness, or relationships. But often those things let us down. Jesus met the woman at her moment of thirst. As he invited her, he invites us to trust him with our thirst.
And the good news? God already knows your thirst. Before you name it, before you understand it, Jesus is already sitting at the well with you. You are already fully seen.
- Jesus meets you where you are.
In the middle of her messy life, Jesus was with the woman at the well.
This is the heart of the Incarnation — God does not wait for us to get better before drawing near. In Jesus, God steps into our real lives, our weariness, our confusion, and even our mistakes or shame. There is no version of your story that can separate you from the love of God.
- God grows your understanding.
The Samaritan woman didn’t immediately understand everything. She asked questions. She stayed in conversation. We often treat faith like a checklist, but faith here is not about having the right answers.
Even our faith is a gift from God. Jesus, the Son of God, has perfect faith in his Father, by the Spirit. And he shares his faith with us. He shares everything with us, including living water.
When Jesus offers living water, he is not testing the woman in the story — he is inviting her. God is not afraid of our curiosity, questions, and even our objections as he grows our understanding. He’s patient while grace is at work in us.
- God’s living water changes you.
Jesus changed the woman’s life. She left her jar, went into town, and testified or told others what she had witnessed. Her priorities shifted. The faith Jesus shares with us changes us.
The Father draws us toward life. The Son gives himself to us and for us. And the Holy Spirit becomes the living water within us — reshaping what we love, how we see, who we become, and how we live. Change is not something we force; it is something God grows.
- God has a mission in the world.
God is already at work long before we arrive. Jesus says, “Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” Mission is not carrying God into the world. It is noticing where God is already giving life and stepping into his mission with humility and love.
Jesus tells the disciples (and us): “Lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest” (v. 35). Be alert to people around you who are thirsty for living water. Sometimes we speak. Sometimes we listen. Sometimes we serve. Sometimes we simply show up with compassion.
You don’t have to have it all together. The Samaritan woman was not perfect, yet she told others about Jesus. Our ordinary lives can become places where others taste living water too by pointing them to Jesus.
Conclusion
Hair stylist Mark Bustos offered haircuts to strangers, reminding them that they are worthy of dignity. Mark’s kindness met a physical need that pointed to something deeper: the longing to be seen, valued, and loved.
Mark’s kindness mattered. But kindness alone does not save. Jesus does. Only Jesus saves.
Through his life, his death on the cross, and his rising again, Jesus has opened a spring that never runs dry. This is not something we earn or maintain — it is a gift.
Jesus satisfies thirst by giving himself.
Jesus carries our shame, sin, and dryness in our place.
Living water flows because Jesus is emptied on the cross.
The good news of this story is simple and deep: in Jesus, God comes to us in our thirst and gives us the life we cannot give ourselves.
God satisfies our thirst — fully, freely, and forever.
Chris Breslin—Year A Lent 3
Listen to audio: https://cloud.gci.org/dl/GReverb/GR073-Breslin-YearA-Lent3.mp3
Sunday, March 8, 2026 — Third Sunday in Lent/Easter Preparation
John 4:5-42 (NRSVUE)
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Program Transcript
Chris Breslin—Year A Lent 3
Anthony: All right. Let’s transition to our next text of the month. It’s John 4:5–42. It’s a lengthy one, and so we have decided to spare you all of that reading. We’re going read a portion of that and then discuss it. It is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for the third Sunday in Lent / Easter preparation, which is March 8.
Chris, would you read it for us, please?
Chris: Sure.
So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 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.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You[g] worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 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” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” 27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him. 31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” 39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 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 truly the Savior of the world.”
Anthony: This is the lengthiest continuous conversation Jesus has with anyone recorded in Scripture. It’s a woman, and not just any woman, but a Samaritan woman. Chris, what might this tell us about the God revealed in Jesus Christ?
Chris: Looking specifically at Jesus, sometimes it can be helpful to come up with kind of adjectives that are just like really particularly descriptive to the passage that you’re focusing on. And the two that I came up with were, this is the circuitous and exhausted Jesus. Okay.
Anthony: Tell us.
Chris: Yeah. I don’t think it is like a small detail that Jesus goes a really strange way along to go through Samaria in Sychar. One of the commentators, Dale Bruner, has a great John commentary, and he says, Jesus leaves “strategic Judea in Jerusalem in the south for a season away in seemingly less auspicious Samaria and Galilee in the north. Yet deep things happen in these externally out of the way, less impressive places. God is no more respecter of places than he is of persons. Wherever he is at work is a very significant place.”
And so, Jesus going this circuitous way that doesn’t seem at all accidental — surprising but not accidental, right? Samaritans, from what I can gather, are shady because they are synchronistic, they’re pluralistic. There is a history here. They sort of worship God, but also keep some of their own worship practices alongside of that. They’re not like pure in like a religious purity kind of thought purity sort of way.
I’m not sure there’s like a great analogy here, but I don’t know. I was trying to think what this could be like for a conservative Christian, someone who they might be like nervous and interfacing with — like maybe like a Mormon or a Rastafarian or like an indigenous American who like has some Christian thoughts and practice and worship, but also has a lot of other stuff going on, right? Maybe we can imagine as gaps widen in our world. Who is your theological outgroup, folks who are like a little bit exotic, but also a little bit dangerous, right? In some ways the theological commonalities of Jews and Samaritans are maybe more confusing in light of the theological and cultural differences.
And so, Jesus, it seems, despite the past in this present, sidles up to this woman at the well. And there’s a history of wells in Scripture, and particularly this well. Abraham meets Rebecca at the well — that’s Isaac’s future wife. Hagar is met by an angel of the Lord at a desert spring of water, which is basically a well. And this is Jacob’s well. So, I think that’s hinting that this is like the middle of God’s unfolding story. And that’s happening in a kind of a strange place that Jesus purposes to be.
So, the other word was exhausted. What the heck does it mean for a Christology that Jesus was exhausted?
Anthony: Yes.
Chris: And then the outpouring of that, like Jesus is exhausted. So, it seems like the disciples spring into action. They’re gone because they’re going to buy food to help him, and then he asks for help from someone who has no business helping him.
Anthony: Yeah.
Chris: Like, even if Jesus isn’t the Word made flesh, even if he’s just some random Jewish dude, like you shouldn’t be asking her for help. I also think like it’s an interesting contrast between this woman and our previous pericope with Nicodemus, like man, woman, Israelite, Pharisee, and a Samaritan, teacher, housewife, night. It says he met the woman at high noon, like in the middle of the day. Even how they respond. Like, Nicodemus refers to Jesus as teacher. She refers to Jesus as prophet and Messiah. This exhausted, out-of-the-way person. So, those are some of the things that I noticed. Those are some of the things that that I feel like I learn about the God revealed in Jesus from this story.
Anthony: I’ve had the privilege of worshiping with Oak Church, where you pastor, and one of the things I’ve appreciated about you, you have a narrative way of preaching, and I know you value imagination, that we would spiritually imagine what’s happening and contextualizing that to our world. I’m going to ask you to do the same here.
We get brief insight on this woman’s testimony about Jesus, but what do you imagine she told her friends about Jesus and how she might’ve responded to this incredibly unexpected conversation?
Chris: Yeah. Start with what she said, “I know that Messiah’s coming. He will proclaim all things. Come. See. He told me everything I’ve ever done.” And then she says, “He can’t be the Messiah, can he?” Yeah. And then, this human-divine Jesus goes and eats something. And after that, the Samaritans ask Jesus to stay with them and he does. So, in the process of that hospitality and that intimacy more come to trust in Jesus, and I think this is all because of this incarnation ministry move of Jesus.
Some initially trust what the woman said, but more were coming to trust in Jesus because of what he said, what they saw, and that he was with them. This again, like in light of the Nicodemus encounter, that idea that some can’t and some willfully won’t see in here, I think it’s remarkable that when Jesus comes close to these theological Creole folk, they are opened up and included in the very life of God.
So, in a lot of ways her testimony is opening them up to an encounter and experience with Jesus. She is like an evangelist host. She makes room for these encounters to happen by her questions and by her proclamation, but also by her, like, invitation and introduction of them to Jesus. It’s really remarkable how her encounter and experience then gives way to all of these other encounters and experiences.
Anthony: And when the Spirit comes upon you, you will be my witnesses. Hallelujah.
Program Transcript
Chris Breslin—Year A Lent 3
Anthony: All right. Let’s transition to our next text of the month. It’s John 4:5–42. It’s a lengthy one, and so we have decided to spare you all of that reading. We’re going read a portion of that and then discuss it. It is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for the third Sunday in Lent / Easter preparation, which is March 8.
Chris, would you read it for us, please?
Chris: Sure.
So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 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.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You[g] worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 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” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” 27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him. 31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” 39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 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 truly the Savior of the world.”
Anthony: This is the lengthiest continuous conversation Jesus has with anyone recorded in Scripture. It’s a woman, and not just any woman, but a Samaritan woman. Chris, what might this tell us about the God revealed in Jesus Christ?
Chris: Looking specifically at Jesus, sometimes it can be helpful to come up with kind of adjectives that are just like really particularly descriptive to the passage that you’re focusing on. And the two that I came up with were, this is the circuitous and exhausted Jesus. Okay.
Anthony: Tell us.
Chris: Yeah. I don’t think it is like a small detail that Jesus goes a really strange way along to go through Samaria in Sychar. One of the commentators, Dale Bruner, has a great John commentary, and he says, Jesus leaves “strategic Judea in Jerusalem in the south for a season away in seemingly less auspicious Samaria and Galilee in the north. Yet deep things happen in these externally out of the way, less impressive places. God is no more respecter of places than he is of persons. Wherever he is at work is a very significant place.”
And so, Jesus going this circuitous way that doesn’t seem at all accidental — surprising but not accidental, right? Samaritans, from what I can gather, are shady because they are synchronistic, they’re pluralistic. There is a history here. They sort of worship God, but also keep some of their own worship practices alongside of that. They’re not like pure in like a religious purity kind of thought purity sort of way.
I’m not sure there’s like a great analogy here, but I don’t know. I was trying to think what this could be like for a conservative Christian, someone who they might be like nervous and interfacing with — like maybe like a Mormon or a Rastafarian or like an indigenous American who like has some Christian thoughts and practice and worship, but also has a lot of other stuff going on, right? Maybe we can imagine as gaps widen in our world. Who is your theological outgroup, folks who are like a little bit exotic, but also a little bit dangerous, right? In some ways the theological commonalities of Jews and Samaritans are maybe more confusing in light of the theological and cultural differences.
And so, Jesus, it seems, despite the past in this present, sidles up to this woman at the well. And there’s a history of wells in Scripture, and particularly this well. Abraham meets Rebecca at the well — that’s Isaac’s future wife. Hagar is met by an angel of the Lord at a desert spring of water, which is basically a well. And this is Jacob’s well. So, I think that’s hinting that this is like the middle of God’s unfolding story. And that’s happening in a kind of a strange place that Jesus purposes to be.
So, the other word was exhausted. What the heck does it mean for a Christology that Jesus was exhausted?
Anthony: Yes.
Chris: And then the outpouring of that, like Jesus is exhausted. So, it seems like the disciples spring into action. They’re gone because they’re going to buy food to help him, and then he asks for help from someone who has no business helping him.
Anthony: Yeah.
Chris: Like, even if Jesus isn’t the Word made flesh, even if he’s just some random Jewish dude, like you shouldn’t be asking her for help. I also think like it’s an interesting contrast between this woman and our previous pericope with Nicodemus, like man, woman, Israelite, Pharisee, and a Samaritan, teacher, housewife, night. It says he met the woman at high noon, like in the middle of the day. Even how they respond. Like, Nicodemus refers to Jesus as teacher. She refers to Jesus as prophet and Messiah. This exhausted, out-of-the-way person. So, those are some of the things that I noticed. Those are some of the things that that I feel like I learn about the God revealed in Jesus from this story.
Anthony: I’ve had the privilege of worshiping with Oak Church, where you pastor, and one of the things I’ve appreciated about you, you have a narrative way of preaching, and I know you value imagination, that we would spiritually imagine what’s happening and contextualizing that to our world. I’m going to ask you to do the same here.
We get brief insight on this woman’s testimony about Jesus, but what do you imagine she told her friends about Jesus and how she might’ve responded to this incredibly unexpected conversation?
Chris: Yeah. Start with what she said, “I know that Messiah’s coming. He will proclaim all things. Come. See. He told me everything I’ve ever done.” And then she says, “He can’t be the Messiah, can he?” Yeah. And then, this human-divine Jesus goes and eats something. And after that, the Samaritans ask Jesus to stay with them and he does. So, in the process of that hospitality and that intimacy more come to trust in Jesus, and I think this is all because of this incarnation ministry move of Jesus.
Some initially trust what the woman said, but more were coming to trust in Jesus because of what he said, what they saw, and that he was with them. This again, like in light of the Nicodemus encounter, that idea that some can’t and some willfully won’t see in here, I think it’s remarkable that when Jesus comes close to these theological Creole folk, they are opened up and included in the very life of God.
So, in a lot of ways her testimony is opening them up to an encounter and experience with Jesus. She is like an evangelist host. She makes room for these encounters to happen by her questions and by her proclamation, but also by her, like, invitation and introduction of them to Jesus. It’s really remarkable how her encounter and experience then gives way to all of these other encounters and experiences.
Anthony: And when the Spirit comes upon you, you will be my witnesses. Hallelujah.
Small Group Discussion Questions
- Jesus broke social and cultural barriers by speaking with a Samaritan woman. How can we follow Jesus’ example and cross boundaries to show love and acceptance to others?
- Jesus offers “living water,” meaning spiritual life that satisfies our deepest thirsts. How does Jesus meet our thirst and longings?
- The woman immediately told others in her town about Jesus, and many believed because of her story. Why do you think sharing personal experiences of faith is so powerful?
- Share a time you told another person about Jesus.
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