John 4:5-42[1]
There are some aspects of our faith that seem
to be clear enough. God loves us; he always has, and he always will. There are
other aspects of our faith that we may never understand until we are face to
face with Jesus. How can God be one God who is three? How could Jesus be fully
God and fully human? How can this world created by our loving God be so filled
with pain and wrong? These are questions that the believers have wrestled with
for centuries, and I’m not sure we’re going to understand any possible answer
we might receive because God’s ways are infinitely higher than ours! In a time
when people want simple answers, that can be a problem.
One of the aspects of our faith that I’ve
wrestled with for over 40 years is “eternal life.” Part of it is
straightforward enough: it’s the promise that God chooses to be
God-who-is-with-us, and that means God chooses us to be with him for all
eternity. But “eternal life” in John’s Gospel has another aspect to it. This
“gift of God” is something that Jesus came to bring here and now. It’s the
message from the start of John’s Gospel: “in him was life and the life was the
light of all people” (Jn 1:4). It’s the claim that Jesus himself makes: “just
as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life
in himself” (Jn 5:26). And it’s the promise of John’s Gospel: Jesus would be
“lifted up” so that everyone who believes may “have life” in him (Jn 3:14-15).
Not in eternity, but right here and right now. I’ve wrestled with what that
means all my life. And I’m still not entirely sure!
Let’s back up and take a closer look at our
Gospel lesson for today. One point of the story is that Jesus, by his very
presence, offers the Samaritan woman, along with the people of her village,
eternal life. Again, not in some far-distant future, but then and there. In
fact, the rather unexpected encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman (unexpected
particularly for his own disciples) did not happen by chance. Rather it was
something Jesus “had” to do (Jn 4:4): it was a part of his mission, part of him
doing what God had sent him to do. As I mentioned last week, the reason why
Jesus could offer “eternal life” to her and the people of her village was
because Jesus, as the “Word” of God become flesh, makes God’s presence
available to everyone in such a way that they may receive eternal life through
their faith in him. As we look closely at this encounter, we find that “eternal
life” was something he was offering them right then and there.
Jesus initiated this encounter by an
unexpected request: he asked the Samaritan woman for a drink of water. That
just wasn’t done in that day. So we can understand when she reacts with
surprise: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”
(Jn 4:9). Jesus’ response is one that I think we are beginning to see was
characteristically puzzling, at least in John’s Gospel. He said to 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” (Jn 4:10).
Just as he did with Nicodemus, Jesus used a phrase that could be
understood in two ways. And just like Nicodemus, this woman misunderstood
Jesus. She thought he had access to some hidden source of “flowing water,”
which is one way to understand “living water.” But what he meant was that this
“water” was life-giving. Jesus said it this way, “The water that I will give
will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14).
Jesus had come there to bring “eternal life” as the “gift of God” to her and
the people of her village. Not in some far-distant future, but right then and
there.
I don’t think she understood Jesus any better
than we might if we had been there that day. But one thing this Samaritan woman
did: she kept engaging Jesus with questions until her faith awakened. What we
should bear in mind is that she was not likely to be picked by anyone to be the
example of what it meant to believe in Jesus. And yet she kept responding to
him in a way that he was able to lead her to faith. At first, it began to dawn
on her that she was dealing with more than a Jewish man asking a Samaritan woman for a drink of water. Her
journey to faith didn’t happen immediately. It was a gradual process. That’s
the point of the dialogue between her and Jesus: Jesus was drawing her step by
step to faith in himself so that she could receive the “gift of God.”
Toward the end of their discussion, she says
that when the Messiah comes “he will proclaim all things to us” (Jn 4:25).
Perhaps she was saying more than she knew. I certainly don’t thing she expected
Jesus to respond, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you” (Jn 4:26).
This reminds us that the key affirmation of John’s Gospel is that Jesus
is the one who was “with God” and “was God” in the beginning and who became a human
being (Jn 1:1, 14). In John’s Gospel, Jesus makes God’s presence available to
everyone in such a way that they may receive eternal life through their faith
in him. Again, not in some far-distant future, but right here and right now. That’s
what Jesus meant when he said that the “hour is now here” (Jn 4:23): the gift
of God is available now because Jesus is the “Word” of God made flesh.
This is something that that I’ve struggled to understand all my life. Part of the
reason for that is that many who preach this message make it out as if Jesus is
promising us everything we can hope to find when we come face to face with
Jesus right here and right now. That just doesn’t line up with my life
experience. After all these years I’m still left trying to answer what it means
to have “eternal life” right here and right now. Let’s start with the part that
seems straightforward. Having “eternal life” as the “gift of God” here and now
means we can know that everything that had to be done to secure our destiny in
God’s loving presence forever has been done.
But in John’s Gospel
it means more than that. Because Jesus embodied the life of God in himself, he
is able to give that life to us. Not “when we all get to heaven,” but right
here and right now. That means that can have a different “quality of life” here
and now. And in my experience, what that boils down to is that we can know that
God has loved us from before the foundation of the world. It means that God
showed that love for us by coming among us to heal our brokenness in the person
of Jesus Christ. And it means that we have nothing to fear from whatever may
come our way because nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. While we may
not fully understand all that “eternal life” means for us here and now, I think
we can follow the Samaritan woman’s example. We can continue to ask our
questions in the assurance that Jesus will keep leading us to faith, and will
keep giving us the “gift of God.”
[1] ©
Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 3/12/2023 for Hickman
Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
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