5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 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. [1]
7 A woman from Samaria came 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 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.) 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 nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. [2] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 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.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 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 now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on 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 the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people 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 (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 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 indeed the Savior of the world.”
Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Our text today is the Gospel lesson read, especially this verse, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” Thus far our text.
Dear friends in Christ, Secrets. Every single one of us have secrets. Things that we don’t want those around us to know about. Things that we are afraid to bring up, or to even hint at. We will do anything in our power to keep them secret, to lock them up and hide them away. In fact often with our secrets, we even try to hide them from ourselves.
That is what the woman in our text today is dealing with. She has gone out to fetch water from the local well, just like she had probably hundreds of times before. She waits to go out until the hottest part of the day, to avoid meeting other people, to avoid people who might know her secret. You see, she has a secret that she tries to keep buried away, where no one can see it. Her secret? That she has been married 5 times before, and that each of those marriages has ended for one reason or another. Finally she has given up on marriage all together, and is now in a relationship outside of that sacred bond, living with a man that is not her husband at all.
As she goes out something is different. As she arrives at the well, there is a man there, a man weary from travel. The man asks her for a drink. The woman is caught off guard. She doesn’t like speaking to people, she doesn’t want to open up her life to anyone, let alone this man. “How can you a Jew talk to me a Samaritan woman? Don’t you know that you Jews don’t get along with us Samaritans?” In other words, leave me and my secrets alone. Don’t pry where I feel you have no business.
But this man is not a regular polite man. This man is the Way the Truth and the Life incarnate. He is God’s living Son hidden in human flesh. This is Jesus. Jesus doesn’t allow secrets to separate Him from His people, be they Jew, or Samaritan, or even you.
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. 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”
This response catches the woman off guard. She isn’t sure what to think, or how to respond. The words of Jesus, the words of God have caught her off guard. Suddenly she is interested. No more thirst? That means she won’t have to sneak to the well, that means she won’t have to avoid other people on her way, it means she would be able to keep her secret. “Give me this water, Sir, that I may drink and not have to come to this well every day.”
But now Jesus’ word calls out her secret. Now Jesus pulls out her secret and its fullness. “Go and get your husband first, and I will give you this water.” Jesus’ question hits close to her secret. “I have no husband she replies,” trying again to avoid her shameful secret. But Jesus already knows her secret. Jesus already knows her sin. He already knows about five husbands. He already knows she is in a relationship outside of marriage. There is no point for the woman to play any more games with Jesus. He knows and won’t look the other way.
Friends, what secrets do you try to keep from Jesus? What things to you hide away in your heart hoping that no one will ever find out about? What secrets do you have? Are they related to sex and marriage, just as the woman in our text? Have you been in an extra marital affair that you know was wrong, and are now hiding it? Have you lived with someone who was not your spouse or have you condoned this behavior for friends or family? Or are your secrets a little more subtle than that? Have you stolen, have you lied, have you hurt someone? Have you gossiped, judged, desired revenge? Do you feel shame about some terrible action that you have done? Do you lock up those sins out of fear and shame and hide them away? Do you try not to even think about them?
Friends each person here, each and every person, has sinful secrets that they do not want to be known. Each of us has these secrets because each of us is a sinner. Each of us has turned against God in our thoughts, our words, and our deeds. We know we have done them, and we know that we are often embarrassed and ashamed of how we have done them. We don’t want to confess that sin. We don’t want to tell anyone about it, we hide it and keep it secret hoping beyond hope that it will go away.
But friends, just like in our text today, Jesus knows your sin. Jesus knows your sin, you can’t keep it hidden from him. You can’t lock it away from him, because just like the sin of the woman in our text, Jesus knows. Jesus knows what you are ashamed and embarrassed of. Jesus knows what wrong things you hide away. Jesus knows, and Jesus does not condemn you, just as he does not condemn the woman at the well.
Jesus does not condemn you, because he has taken your sin upon himself in the “living waters” of Holy Baptism. In those waters He knows your sin because He has taken your sin upon himself and borne it to a bloody cross where he killed it. In those waters of baptism, those sins, even those secret ones, are drowned and destroyed in water, as you are raised into eternal life. You receive forgiveness, life and salvation as your sin dies with Jesus in the living water of Holy Baptism. And as you rise again you will never thirst again, because in Jesus you receive everything that you need to support this life and body.
What is more, as you come to church, you know that you may freely confess those sins that bother and burden you, all of them, without fear. Jesus already knows them, and he still loves you. Jesus knows them and He freely gives you forgiveness for them. This doesn’t mean you may go on living in them. It doesn’t mean they are ok. It means you may leave them completely and totally behind you, as he bears them for you. It means you no longer need have shame or fear of them, because now they belong to Christ.
What is more, we are also the body of Christ. We come together and confess our sins side by side, with no one less sinful than any other, no person being less guilty. And then together we hear that “Jesus has had mercy upon us,” just as on the woman at the well. And as we come here next week to receive the Lord’s Supper, we also share each other’s burdens. As we come and kneel, we share in the pains and the joys of each person here. As Jesus has carried your sins, we also help to carry our brothers and sisters in the faith as they deal with their sinful lives. Jesus has served us, and we now serve each other.
Friends, in Jesus, you have received living water. Jesus knows all that you have ever done, or will ever do, and has still loved and forgiven you. What a miracle! What a blessing! Forgiveness even for you and I, the worst of sinners in the living waters of Holy Baptism. Jesus, for you. Jesus for your sin. As the text says, “we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world,” and of you.
