Lent 5 - 2 April 2017 - Year A

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 11th Chapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 1 - 53:

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of lMary and her sister Martha. 2 was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, v“Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15  and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb bfour days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to eJesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24  Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection Andy the life.Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.
28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private,  "The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, t“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
38 Then Jesus deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was ba cave, and ca stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odour, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this ion account of the people standing around, jthat they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, "What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49 But one of them Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.

Our experience as human beings deals in a world of measurement.  A house has so many square metres of living space … it has so many rooms.  A refrigerator has so many cubic feet of storage.  A person is a certain height … has a certain eye colour … hair colour … weight.  We even measure time.  The house was built in 1945.  The refrigerator was manufactured in 2015.  The person was born in 1987.  We are used to the idea that we can measure both things and people.
Measurements mean limits.  In fact, measurements tell us where the limits are.  If we say a box is 24cm x 24cm x 12cm we cannot put something that is 36cm long into that box.  36cm is beyond the limits of that box.  We know the limits of the box because we have measured them.
We live in a world where we can measure everything … everything has limits.  That is one of the challenges we have when God reveals Himself as one who has no limits … One who cannot be measured.  It is very difficult to understand that when we say God is eternal, we mean that from God’s perspective, all time is “now.”  When we say that God is omnipresent, we mean that, from God’s perspective, all places are “here.”  God has no limits and that is very hard for our limited, human minds to understand.
Then, as though that weren’t enough, that limitless God decided to save us by taking on humanity into Himself.  Now we have the one person, Jesus Christ, who is both 100 % God and 100% man.  I, for one, am very thankful that God does not ask me to understand how this all works.  Instead He asks me to believe that it is so, and He sends the Holy Spirit to give that belief to me.
Today’s Gospel tells us about people who placed limits on Jesus.  Martha placed limits on Jesus.  She said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Mary fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Some of the visitors who came to comfort Mary and Martha also said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”  Every one of these people put a limit on Jesus.  They all believed that Jesus could have cured Lazarus when Lazarus was still alive, but, now that Lazarus is dead, there is no hope.  They all believed that death was the limit.  They all believed that death was the line where the power of Jesus came to an end.  In a world of measurements … in a world of limits, they believed that Jesus could not overcome death.
Death is a universal experience.  Different cultures have different ways of coping with death, but all cultures must deal with death in some way.  Human experience teaches us that dead is dead.  Once you are dead, there is nothing that can be done.
There can be any number of reasons that death comes.  The immediate cause of death can be anything from accidental trauma to the failures of old age.  In spite of the many different causes of death listed on death certificates, there is only one ultimate cause of death.  The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write, [Romans 5:12] Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
Death spreads through sin.  Do you want to know if someone is a sinner?  Then wait around to see if they die.  You would probably say to me 'oh come on', “Everyone dies!”  Exactly!  That is what the Holy Spirit teaches us through the words of the Apostle Paul.
The message faithfully preached from pulpits across the world focuses on law & gospel … repentance and the forgiveness of sins.  The exception to this is the address at a funeral. This is a time to announce the good news that even though it was sin that ultimately was the cause of death,  the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ reminds us that He was crucified for the forgiveness of our personal sins, and because he's rose from the grave and overcame death forever, we can rejoice, even in our personal grief, that the one for whom we grieve is with their Saviour even as we state sadly at the casket
The only proclamation that can overcome the human condition that ultimately leads to physical death is the proclamation of the man who stood at the entrance to the open tomb and cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”  This is the proclamation of the man who calls out to the dead and the dead come back to life.  This is the proclamation of the man who is also God and who has no limits.  This is the proclamation of Jesus Christ who is Lord of all.
The one who called Lazarus from the grave tells us about Himself with these words: “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”  These are words that can overcome the proclamation of that dead body in that casket.  These are words that give comfort in the face of death.
Sadly, not everyone trusts the proclamation of the one who raised Lazarus from the dead.  Near the end of today’s Gospel, we heard that there were some who rejected Jesus and His message.  Instead of rejoicing that Jesus even has the power to raise the dead, they were terrified.  Their terror drove them to plot the death of the Lord of Life.
Yet, the Lord used even this evil group for His own purposes.  As the Holy Spirit inspired John the Evangelist to describe this evil conspiracy, we hear these amazing words: Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.  The God who has no limits put the very words of prophecy into the mouth of the leader of these evil conspirators.
The powers of evil thought they could conquer Jesus by putting Him to death.  Instead, Jesus allowed them to kill Him and He used His death to conquer sin, death, and the power of the devil.  He then demonstrated His victory by rising from the dead.  Jesus demonstrated the ultimate power over death by allowing death to take Him and then returning life to His own lifeless body.  That resurrection assures us that our death is not the end.  Jesus has promised to return and raise all the dead.  His resurrection assures us that He will keep that promise.  Whether we are dead for four days, four years, or four thousand years, Jesus will raise us from the dead.
There is one great difference between the resurrection in today’s Gospel and the resurrection of the Last Day.  Lazarus is no longer with us.  He had to die again.  When Jesus calls our bodies back to life on the Last Day, we shall never die again.  On that day, all people shall rise with eternal bodies.  We must be concerned for those who reject the gifts Jesus Christ gracefully bestows on us, we know that the Holy Scriptures condemn them, we can only commend them into God's loving hands with prayer for mercy. We can be sure however that those who have the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith will rise to live with Christ in eternal joy.
Each of us will face death many times in our lives.  There will be the deaths of those we love, and, eventually, we will all face our own death.  Take comfort in the confession of our loved ones that, before they died, they confessed their sin and their faith in the salvation earned by Jesus Christ on the cross.  Take courage at the time of your own death that Jesus is the one who conquered death with His death and resurrection and He has promised never to leave us or forsake us.  He has promised to raise us to eternal life.  And He can keep His promises because He is the God without limits.  Amen.
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Lent 4 – 26 March 2017 – Year A

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 9^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 1 – 41:

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. ² And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” ³ Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. ⁴ We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵ As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” ⁶ Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud ⁷ and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

⁸ The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹ Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” ¹⁰ So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” ¹¹ He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” ¹² They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

¹³ They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. ¹⁴ Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. ¹⁵ So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” ¹⁶ Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. ¹⁷ So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”

¹⁸ The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight ¹⁹ and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” ²⁰ His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. ²¹ But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” ²² (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus² to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) ²³ Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

²⁴ So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” ²⁵ He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” ²⁶ They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” ²⁷ He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” ²⁸ And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. ²⁹ We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” ³⁰ The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. ³¹ We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. ³² Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. ³³ If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” ³⁴ They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.

³⁵ Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” ³⁶ He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” ³⁷ Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” ³⁸ He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. ³⁹ Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” ⁴⁰ Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” ⁴¹ Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

Today’s Gospel not only teaches us about the miracle of giving sight to the blind, but it also gives us tremendous insight into the fallen state of the human condition.  We see pride, cruelty, and fear on many levels in this reading.

You would think that giving sight to a blind man would be a cause for celebration.  You would think that the man’s family would declare a feast.  You would think that the entire community would give thanks to God for His many blessings.  That is what you would think.  But that is not what happened.

Instead of celebration, this healing led to great controversy and division in the community.  His neighbours refused to believe that he had been healed.  The Pharisees launched an investigation.  The healing caused suspicion and fear.  In the end, we learn that blindness of the heart is a lot more dangerous than blindness of the eyes.

It all starts out with the disciples’ question, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  This question reflects a form of superstitious thinking that is still with us today.  I would like to think that in the year 2017 there would be almost total acceptance of and opportunity for those with disabilities, but, according to the World Health Organisation, the survival of persons with disability is even today threatened by attitudes, prejudices and beliefs, common among non-disabled people. Unfortunately, there are still a number of ‘modern day Pharisees’ in our communities that have delusions of self-righteousness and believe that disability is inherited from the sins of the parents.

In regard to this modern day bigotry, consider the horrible condition of the blind man.  I am not just talking about his inability to see, but also about the judgment he felt from the culture.  Not only must he rely on the charity of others in order to exist, but he must also listen to rabbis speculate on the horrible sin that he or his parents must have committed in order for him to be blind.  So the man is not only blind, he is also burdened with an intense sense of guilt.  Furthermore, the culture has no need to show pity to this man because, after all, he is only getting what he deserves.  The disability, in and of itself, is not the worst problem this man has.

Now think about the freedom that Jesus gave to this man when He answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.  Here was a rabbi who taught that this man was no better or worse than anyone else.  There was no specific sin that caused the blindness.

This man is freed from the specific guilt of his blindness, freed from the condemnation of the culture. This is a revelation that overrules bigotry and legalistic judgement forever.  Here we learn that the fact that we are not blind or deaf or lame has absolutely nothing to do with us or our parents before us.  There is nothing within us that prevents us from suffering any calamity that there is.  Whenever we observe anyone with any kind of mental, emotional, spiritual, or physical disability, our only response can be, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” – or simply “that could have been me!”.

Of course, this teaching is not the end of this account.  Jesus had already given the man spiritual insight into his blindness.  Jesus continued to teach by giving physical sight to the man as well.

Jesus returned the man’s sight in a most sacramental way.  According to our definition of the word sacrament there must be three parts.  There must be a command from God.  There must be the forgiveness of sins.  There must be visible elements.  This healing almost qualifies.  Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva.  Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent).  Here we have the command of Jesus.  We have visible elements, spit and dirt.  About the only thing that makes this not a sacrament is that the gift was the gift of sight and not the gift of forgiveness.  The forgiveness will come later.

Of course, the man went and washed and came back seeing.  This is terrific.  This is wonderful.  This is a cause to rejoice.  Then the account has to go and spoil it all with an extra bit of information.  Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.  That act of grace was all the ammunition the bigoted Pharisees needed.

You see God’s law forbade work on the Sabbath and the Pharisees had a lot of traditions about what constituted work on the Sabbath.  The problem was that most of these traditions were based on human opinions and not on the Word of God.  According to the man-made tradition of the elders, Jesus had just violated the Sabbath; but this caused a severe contradiction.  There were some among them who claimed that if Jesus violated the Sabbath, then God would not give Him the authority to give sight to the blind.  There it was, according to their traditions, Jesus had worked on the Sabbath, but God had given sight to the blind anyway.  The Pharisees had no choice.  They had to mount an investigation into the incident.

At first, they tried to prove that there was no miracle, but, all the witnesses agreed there was.  His parents testified that until recently, he had been blind from birth.  The community at large agreed.  The man himself insisted that he had been blind.  The clear and unassailable testimony proved that there had been a miracle.  The man who had once been blind could now see.

Then the Pharisees tried to come up with a way for Jesus to give sight to the blind and still be a sinner.  As you read the account, you can almost see the Holy Spirit at work in the man who had been born blind.  He began to perceive that the Pharisees were afraid.  He began to realise that the miracle Jesus had done threatened them.  He began to see that the Pharisees were clueless.

Notice the progress of the interrogation.  At first, the blind man answered their questions with respect.  Over time, He began to poke fun at them.  By the time they came to the end of the interrogation, the blind man was preaching to them.  The blind man did not even have a full understanding of who Jesus was and, yet, what little he knew, he confessed.  I once was blind, but now I see.  Eventually, the Pharisees had a temper tantrum and threw the blind man out of the synagogue, but, by then, the blind man didn’t care.  He knew that the man who healed him was more important than the Pharisees or the synagogue.

Jesus then found this man.  That is the way it always is.  Jesus finds us.  We do not find Him.  Jesus revealed His true identity to this man and the man worshipped Jesus.  The man who was saddled with physical blindness and the guilt of his sin was now free.  He was free to see.  He was free of the Pharisees.  He was free of the Synagogue.  Most of all, he was free of sin.  The Holy Spirit had given him faith in the one, true saviour, Jesus Christ.

You see, although Jesus had little respect for the man-made traditions of the elders, He had the utmost respect for the Word of God.  He kept the Word of God in every detail.  He knew the full impact of sin’s curse including blindness and every other disability.  He offered up the perfection of His life in order to take the eternal impact of sin onto Himself.  With His sacrificial death on the cross, He earned the forgiveness of sin for all mankind.

All people who insist they have no sin are spiritually blind … just like the Pharisees in today’s Gospel.  They are doomed to eternal suffering.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, those who believe in Jesus Christ are free.  Even if they are physically blind, their spiritual sight is 20 /20.  Like the man who received his sight in today’s Gospel, they have spiritual sight and will live with their saviour forever.  Amen

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Lent 3 – 19 March 2017 – Year A

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the fourth chapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 5 – 42:
 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. 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.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 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, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. ³⁵ Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. ³⁶ Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and 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 labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.”

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 Saviour of the world.”

There is an advantage to reading the Bible in large sections.  You notice the continuity in the narrative and the overall structure and purpose of the Word of God becomes evident.  This can lead to some wonderful revelations concerning God’s love for us. I can still remember the first time I read John 3 and 4 in one sitting.  Here are two chapters that show us that God’s salvation is truly for all people.

We heard the beginning of John 3 in last week’s Gospel.  This is the account of an honourable Pharisee named Nicodemus coming to Jesus with some honest questions.  This morning, we heard the beginning of John 4.  This is the account of the Samaritan woman at the well.

Pharisees were the leading members of society.  Jesus meeting with Nicodemus would be the equivalent of meeting with a Federal Parliamentary Minister.  In today’s Gospel we learn that the woman at the well had a sinful reputation and she was a Samaritan.  In the culture of that time and place, she was at the bottom of society and Nicodemus was at the top.  It would be hard to find two more different people.  Regardless of this, both of these people were sinners and both of these people needed Jesus and His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.

The beginning of today’s Gospel tells us that Jesus was in Samaria.  This is very unusual.  Most Jews traveling back and forth between Galilee and Judea would actually walk to the Jordan and cross it before heading north or south.  You see, Samaria was between Galilee in the North and Judea in the South.  Jews would rather make the effort to cross the Jordan twice so they could walk around Samaria instead of walking through Samaria.  The Jews despised the Samaritans so much that they didn’t even want to travel through the country of Samaria.

The second problem was that the Samaritan was a woman.  There were some cultures around the Mediterranean basin that pretty much treated women as equals, but the Jewish and Samaritan cultures were not among them.  There were strict rules about the interaction between men and women.  Basically, a woman was not supposed to interact with an adult male without the protection of a male relative … a father, husband, adult son, big brother, or similar relative.  A solitary woman at the town well was a scandal waiting to happen.

Thirdly, this woman had a history.  She had been through multiple marriages and was currently living with her boyfriend.  She was guilty of adultery.

So, if we total everything up, Jesus had three very excellent reasons not to talk with this woman.  No one would blame Him.  Everyone would understand.  As far as the culture was concerned, this woman was a scraping from the bottom of the barrel. Note that it was the culture that placed Nicodemus at the top of the heap and the Samaritan woman at the bottom of the barrel.  God’s judgment has a different standard … His holy, righteous law.

According to that law, we are all the same.  Jesus said, ^{[Matthew 15:19]} “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”  The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write, ^{[Romans 3:23]} “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Moses recorded the Lord’s thoughts after Noah’s Flood, ^{[Genesis 8:21]} “The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”  These verses and many others teach us that God’s law judges us all and finds that, according to God’s law, we are all scrapings from the bottom of the barrel.

In our worship services, we confess our sins to Almighty God.  In different variations we confess: Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean.  We have sinned against You in thought, word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.  We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.  We justly deserve Your present and eternal punishment.  We tell God that we are the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel because our sin corrupts us.  We tell God that we deserve the scrap heap of eternal punishment.

The fact that Jesus shared the Gospel with this woman teaches us that Jesus came to save the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel.  Jesus transcended the cultural barriers between Him and the woman in a very simple way.  He asked for a drink of water.  Then He talked about the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian by comparing it to living water … a bubbling spring that continually brings healthy water to the surface.  Last week, Jesus had told Nicodemus that He must be born of water and the Spirit.  Now this week, He is the source of living water – water that will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman was intrigued and that is when Jesus began to work on her with the law.

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”  This was a reasonable request.  As I said before, men did not normally interact with women outside of their family.  Instead, a man normally went through another man who was closely related to the woman – a husband, father, adult son, or some other close relative.  In this case, however, this ordinary request began a process that would cause the woman to confront her guilt.  She had no husband.

Then Jesus laid her sins out before her.  He said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”  Jesus laid out this woman’s lifestyle of adultery – a sin that was punishable by death.  Even though today’s culture would celebrate this woman’s life style choices, adultery still is a sin – a sin that earns eternal punishment under God’s Law.

It may seem that God is cruel when He forces us to face our sin, but that is not the case.  This is actually part of the love that God has for us.  As the Holy Spirit shows our sin to us, He shows us that we cannot save ourselves.  He shows us that we must receive our salvation from outside of ourselves.  He shows us our need for a saviour.  This reality check with the law prepares us for the living water of the Gospel.

You see, once the Law has softened our hearts, the Holy Spirit uses the living water of the Gospel to show our Saviour to us.  Notice how Jesus brought the Gospel to the woman.    The woman said to [Jesus], “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”  The same Jesus who presented this woman with her sin now shows her the salvation from that sin.  Jesus is the Gospel in the flesh.  He is the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one.  He is the saviour from all our sins.

The Holy Spirit used these words to work faith in this woman.  It was just as Jesus had said.  She became a spring of living water.  The living water of the Gospel quickly became a fountain in this woman.  The woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”  The living water produced an instant missionary.

Think about the woman’s message.  A man who tells her about all she did is telling her about all her sin.  In response, she went to all the people who know her and her reputation and told them, “Come, see a man who told me about my reputation as a sinful woman.”  She confessed her sin to the people and invited them to see the man who knew all about those sins … and the Holy Spirit used her confession.  He worked the miracle of faith in this town.  This miracle caused a Samaritan town to invite a Jewish rabbi to teach them for two days.

 Eventually, the people of this town confessed, “We know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.”  These people only had the books of Moses, but that was enough.  They knew that this was the Seed of the Woman that God had promised to Adam and Eve in the Garden.  They knew that this was the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob through whom all the nations of the world would be blessed.  They knew this was the fulfilment of all the sacrifices required by the Law of Moses.  They knew that this was God’s sacrifice who would give up His life for the sins of the world.  Because Jesus lovingly hammered a Samaritan woman with the law, a Samaritan village came to the knowledge of God’s salvation through the teaching of a Jewish rabbi – a Jewish rabbi who is their saviour.

The Bible’s main message is that God saves the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel.  In order to do this, the Son of God took on human flesh, lived a perfect life under the law, and died on the cross.  He did this to save sinners … the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel.  Only sinners qualify for this salvation.  That is the reason that it is an act of love for us to remind each other that we all qualify for that salvation, for we are all sinners.

When flight attendants give instructions for emergencies at the beginning of a flight, they tell the passengers to place the oxygen mask on themselves first and then on the people around them.  In a similar way, when Jesus tells the church to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His name, we need to proclaim it to ourselves first.  We need to begin with our own evil self and the forgiveness that Jesus has for us.  Only then can we proclaim that message to others.  It is only when the church proclaims that message to herself first that she can go on to proclaim it to the world.

Our message to the world is not that Christians are better than anyone else, but that Christians are in the process of becoming honest about our sin.  It is only as we see our true depravity in the law that we begin to see the love that God has for us in that ^{[Romans 5:8]} God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Through that death we receive forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, for where there is forgiveness of sins there is also life and salvation.  Amen

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen