Sermon Text: John 4:5–26
Date: March 8, 2026
Event: The Third Sunday in Lent, Year A

John 4:5–26 (EHV)

So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the piece of land Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there. Then Jesus, being tired from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8(His disciples had gone into town to buy food.)

9The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10Jesus 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“Sir,” she said, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this living water? 12You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his animals.”

13Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty ever again. Rather, the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water, bubbling up to eternal life.”

15“Sir, give me this water,” the woman said to him, “so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband, and come back here.”

17“I have no husband,” the woman answered.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say, ‘I have no husband.’ 18In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

19“Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews insist that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will not worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23But a time is coming and now is here when the real worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for those are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”

Living Water Heals the Parched Soul

This has been a bit of a weird winter, rain-wise, hasn’t it? It hasn’t been the super-dry winter we became accustomed to in years of drought, but it also seems to have been feast or famine with the rain. We’ve had like three stretches of a lot of rain, with almost nothing in between. Water might be one of those things we don’t think about much until we don’t have it, when the water restrictions start coming because of a lack of rain, when the thirst suddenly grips us out of nowhere, and we want nothing more than a big glass of water.

Water is important to plants, animals, and people. It’s a universal need and necessity, so it’s a powerful picture whether you’re talking to your neighbor about the weather or Jesus speaking to someone at a well 2,000 years ago. Jesus uses the illustration of water to clarify amazing spiritual truths that apply to us still today. Jesus instructs the woman at the well, and us along with her, that the Living Water that he provides heals the sin-parched soul.

At the time of our lesson, Jesus’ ministry was gaining traction. We heard last week in our Gospel from John chapter 3, about Jesus’ meeting with one of the members of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus. Chapters 3 and 4 of John’s Gospel give us beautiful examples of the sort of one-on-one ministry that Jesus, at times, was able to carry out, a ministry that often seems to be more productive than his preaching to the crowds.

Jesus is in Samaria, a region to the north of Judea and south of Galilee. As a general rule, Jewish people didn’t go into Samaria. The Jewish people detested the Samaritans, stemming back to the exile of the Northern Kingdom by Assyria more than 700 years before this conversation at the well took place. Assyria’s method of conquering was to take over a nation, deport 2/3 of the people there, and then import roughly the same number of people from elsewhere in the empire. That way, there was never a majority of people in an area that felt like they were at “home” and thus would be far less likely to revolt against the government.

This mixing of populations—1/3 Jewish and 2/3 from elsewhere in the world—had the effect of creating a people with a hybrid religion. It was a mix of the truth of God’s Word and a lot of other stuff that people brought with them when they were exiled from their homes elsewhere. The result was that the Samaritans had the Torah, the first five books written by Moses, but not the rest of the Scriptures. This is why the woman at the well knows about Jacob from Genesis and knows a bit about the Messiah who was to come, but seems to be missing a lot of other key pieces of information. This hybrid religion presented an “uncanny valley” effect for the Jewish believers so that, in many ways, the Samaritans were even more unsettling to them, spiritually, than the out-and-out pagans. The mix of truth with falsehood was more upsetting than pure falsehood.

It’s interesting to note, then, that the verse just prior to our text this morning states very matter-of-factly, “[Jesus] had to go through Samaria” (John 4:4). There was no option for Jesus. Why? Because he had work to do and a soul to speak to. To Jesus, it didn’t matter what language, nationality, or faith the person was. As we saw clearly as day last week, Jesus came because God so loved the world (John 3:16). Jesus’ work and Word was for everyone.

As Jesus’ disciples were heading into town to buy supplies for their journey, Jesus stayed behind at the well. Humanly speaking, he was tired and wanted a break, but divinely speaking, he knew the person that he needed to talk to would be at the well soon, and he wanted a chance to speak with her alone.

Jesus starts with small talk, asking for a drink of water. This drink will serve as an illustration to the point he wants to get to: the water of faith. He eventually says, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty ever again. Rather, the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water, bubbling up to eternal life.”

The woman’s first reaction is joy. If there was really water that you could drink once and would keep you hydrated forever, think of the time she could save coming to the well! Think of the money you could save on your water bills! “Sir, give me this water,” the woman said to him, “so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” And then Jesus drops a bomb on her heart: Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband, and come back here.” “I have no husband,” the woman answered. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say, ‘I have no husband.’ In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

She wasn’t ready for the Living Water. She could look at it, but then it only showed a reflection, and the reflection wasn’t good. I sometimes struggle with remembering to drink water. I’ll sometimes go an entire morning and head to lunch and realize that I’ve not had anything to drink except probably too much coffee, and suddenly I feel really, really thirsty. Ideally, though, I keep the water bottle on my desk so I can see it and be reminded to drink. Jesus’ preaching of the law to this woman did the same thing, only it showed her her spiritual thirst.

She had not lived her life as God wanted her to live it. She had been steeped in at least present, if not past, immorality and lifestyle sins. Her relationship with God was damaged, and Jesus needed to show her just how damaged it was. It wasn’t until she took a look at herself in the reflection given by that Living Water that she saw herself as she truly was. It wasn’t until she caught just a glimpse of that Living Water that she realized how spiritually thirsty she really was.

What would Jesus say to you if you were there with him at the well? And what would be your response? Maybe he would ask you to call your spouse, and you’d have to admit that you have no spouse, though at times you live as if you do. Maybe he would ask you to leave your job, but you’d have to admit that work and money were more important to you than he is. Maybe he’d ask you to set aside some of your leisure time to follow him, but you’d have to say that you value those breaks from work too much to spend them in church or in Bible Study. Whatever our personal issues and struggles are, it wouldn’t take long for Jesus to point out our parched souls and the need for that Living Water, would it?

Thankfully, Jesus doesn’t leave the woman at the well hanging, nor does he leave you and me hanging, either. He doesn’t leave us to stew in our sins, to be overwhelmed with sorrow about them, to worry about whether we will die eternally of spiritual dehydration. No, Jesus continues with the woman. He addresses her spiritual confusion, whether arising from her being a Samaritan or from her own personal misunderstandings. He said, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will not worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But a time is coming and now is here when the real worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for those are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.””

Jesus said boldly and confidently that salvation was coming! It would come from the Jewish people; it would come through the Messiah, and at that time, everything would change. No longer would there be rules to follow about worshipping at this site or that site. No, the Savior would come and set all people free to worship God in spirit and truth. People would know right and wrong. They would know all that God wanted them to know, because that’s the type of informed followers that the Father is looking for!

The woman said with a faith that is perhaps startling given the broader context, “I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” For all the confusion, for all the hybrid nature of her religious life, the truth of a Savior coming into the world, the truth of the Messiah coming to set his people free, remained present and cherished. The Messiah would explain all things: sin, forgiveness, worship, and every other question that the people had.

For as startling as the woman’s confession was, perhaps Jesus’ words are more so. The translation here, “I, the one speaking to you, am he,” perhaps does a disservice to what Jesus actually said. Jesus capitalized on this woman knowing the first five books of Moses, so he went right back to Exodus 3, right to where God called Moses. When Moses was terrified, one of the excuses he made was that he wouldn’t know what name to give the people when they asked the name of the God who sent him. God’s answer was simple and straightforward, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14). He is the God who always was, always is, and will always be.

Jesus here literally says, after the woman says that she knows the Messiah will explain all things to them, “I am, the one speaking to you.” Not only did his answer confirm that he was, in fact, the promised Savior, but he was also the God who spoke to Moses in the burning bush. He could offer her the Living Water that would well up to eternal life, not because he would have a bucket to draw it with, but because he was that Living Water. He would be the forgiveness she desperately needed. The Savior and Teacher that believers had long been hoping for was finally here, sitting with her at the well. He was all that she needed to quench her eternal, spiritual thirst.

Jesus is all we need, too. As we become more and more aware of our sins and our need for a Savior, as I became aware of my spiritual thirst and my need for refreshment becomes all the more apparent, I know where to look. We don’t look to the empty, hollow philosophies of this world, the focus on self-esteem, or the ridiculous notion that we can fix what is spiritually wrong with us. That water will not only leave us thirsty again, but it is a poisoned spring that will hurt rather than help. Instead, when we’re thirsty, when we feel spiritually parched, we know our Savior has that Living Water that washes away sins and meets every need. No matter what question Jesus might have asked us, no matter what sin or trouble has had its claws in us in the past, right now, or will in the future, Jesus is the solution to it all. The dryness of sin is completely overwhelmed by his Living Water.

Our Messiah has come. He has explained everything to us. This Lenten season, we see him once again bear our sins by enduring the unending dryness of hell so that we can be well watered. Thank God for his complete refreshment to our sin-parched souls! May we daily drink from his Word, the bubbling spring of his forgiving love! Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria