3 Lent Year A 3/8/2026
Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
Being thirsty is uncomfortable.
When you forget to bring a drink on a long walk…
or when you are working out in the yard…
on a hot day…
in the Florida heat…
You just long for a nice cup of refreshing water.
Thirsty… we have all been thirsty before.
In our Gospel reading, John describes Jesus as thirsty…
He was tired out by his journey…
He sat down next to a well and rested…
A lady came for some water…
And Jesus asked for some water.
However, as they talk… the conversation changes…
Jesus ends up offering the lady… living water!
“This water,” Jesus says, “…those who drink of this water that I give them will never be thirsty again.”
And he goes on to say, “The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
God still offers this water for us today…
When we repent of our sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ…
Believing in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension…
Receiving his saving grace by faith…
The Spirit of God comes into our life and transforms us.
Making us a new creation…
A redeemed creation…
Transforming us by the living water that he springs forth in our soul.
Now Jesus is also declaring something else here too.
He is talking with a Samaritan woman.
In this day and age, Jews did not talk to Samaritans…
They did not like their race, their culture, or the way they worshipped… Simply put… Jews and Samaritans had deep racial and ethnic issues.
They would usually walk miles out of their way then to journey through land that was occupied by Samaritans.
The Jewish establishment wanted nothing to do with this race of people.
But Jesus was no ordinary Jew…
He broke the mold.
He talked with the ones he wasn’t supposed to talk with.
He also broke the mold because he spoke with a woman.
You didn’t do that in the first century.
Women were considered property of their husbands in this culture and time.
It wasn’t proper for a man, let alone a Jewish Rabbi, to talk directly with a woman.
But Jesus shows her that God is up to something new.
The encounter begins with what may seem an ordinary request –
A drink of water.
But Jesus pushes the conversation ahead…
He speaks of a time when the rifts between God’s people will be healed, when true worship will be centered neither on a certain mountain…
nor in the city of Jerusalem.
They, and by implication all people, will worship together in spirit and in truth.
This time will come when the Messiah comes.
And the woman has some inkling of where he’s headed in this conversation…
Because she too has been waiting for the Messiah.
Samaritans were waiting for a messiah to come just as the Jews were waiting…
Although there is some difference…
The Jews were expecting a political Messiah…
A messianic King in the mold of King David…
To overthrow the Roman occupation.
In contrast, the Samaritans were looking for a prophetic Messiah…
More like Moses…
A teacher…
Who will restore the true way of worship.
This is why she says:
“I know that Messiah is coming”…
“When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”
And it’s in this moment that the plot turns, and with it the entire arc of history – Jesus says, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
Jesus declares that He is the Messiah…
The One they have been waiting for.
From this moment on, the woman’s life story changes.
She believes Jesus…
She shares about Jesus with those around her…
She was an outsider, but no longer.
She was alone; now she is part of the family of God…
Her life has been transformed by Jesus.
When we truly come face to face with Jesus…
Our lives are transformed by his grace.
He shows us mercy…
We don’t deserve grace or mercy…
But he loves us despite our sinfulness.
And it is this grace and mercy that he shows us…
and by the power of the cross he rescues us from our sin.
It is by his grace that we have power over sin in our lives…
It is these revelations in scripture that we turn to in the season of Lent.
Reminding us of our deep need for Christ…
For the renewal that he brings into our life.
To be reconciled with God through the merciful act of Jesus Christ.
Understanding what Christ has done for us…
What he calls us to… by His grace…
Impacts the way we think about sin…
And it brings us to repentance…
And yet, even as we reflect in this moment, we realize that our lives are more than introspection…
The Gospel is more than just for us…
Christ was on a mission to call people to himself…
And we are also sent on this mission…
We are called anew to the work entrusted to us by Jesus.
For one thing, we are reminded to not react like the disciples in our story.
John, as narrator, gives voice to their unspoken thoughts:
“Why are you speaking with her?”
Too often these thoughts roll through our minds.
Yes, Jesus, we know you love all people, but surely you don’t mean people like that!
He surely can’t mean those people – did you see what they posted on social media?
You see…
There is a deeper calling here…
one that pierces our preconceived notions of God’s love and our misremembering of the story.
It moves beyond theories and theologies of the gospel and reminds us that the love of God in Christ Jesus is for all people…
especially those who have yet to hear these saving words of Jesus…
A Messiah for all people.
A Savior for the world.
There are still people at the well in the midday heat…
those written off by society, looking in from the outside.
The gospel drives us toward them with a word of hope that transcends race, gender, nationality, marital status, or anything else the world would use to separate us…
To say that their identity is not worthy of receiving the grace of Jesus.
In Christ our Lord, all such division is transcended and healed.
We are sent to those who yearn to have their longing thirst satisfied.
The message of Jesus – the gospel – many of us know so well is the very thing that so many are yearning to hear.
The people of God are called to welcome others to these life-giving baptismal waters.
The promise we have in our reading today is what the story points toward…
Looking at the Gospel of John as a literary work…
We can trace out the key word of thirst.
On four occasions the word thirst is used.
In our reading, Jesus was thirsty and wanted a drink.
And then he declares:
…whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.
Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
Later in John 6.35 Jesus proclaims:
I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
And then in John 7.37, as the Jewish Religious Leaders debated who Jesus was… St. John writes:
On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.
The next and last time we find this word thirst is when Jesus was thirsty when he hung on the cross…
Jesus said: I thirst.
(John 19.28)
The One who had come to quench everyone’s thirst…
Now became the One who was thirsty.
Here, on the cross, he took on the sins of the whole world…
Feeling the desperate need of God as he died for his creation.
But, here also, he provided the way that the sins of the world can be forgiven.
Jesus experienced our thirst so that our thirst can be quenched by him.
In Christ Jesus, our thirst becomes satisfied.
And this is the message we treasure…
And the message we share.
This is our calling…
To share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people around us.
God has given us eternal life…
God has given us living water…
And because of this promise we share this good news with the people around us.
Going into the world…
Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all people…
No matter who they are.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone.
Amen.
