More Loved Than We Can Imagine
John 4
Welcome.
Last week we said there were two important truths about the Gospel that Jesus shared in John 3 and 4. In John 3, Jesus’ message to Nicodemus was that we’re worse than we think. We don’t just need a little help; we need to start over. In John 4, Jesus’ message to this Samaritan Woman is that we’re more loved than we can imagine.
There are a couple things we want to notice about this woman
Thirsty
She’s been in and out of relationships. We’re told she has had 5 husbands, and the man she’s with now is not her husband. Behind that, I see a woman who is desperately searching for love, searching for someone to love her. She’s thirsty. She gives her body in hopes of finding love. But she’s been rejected again, and again, and again, and again. She’s on man #6, trying to fill her heart.
Hiding
She comes to the well at the 6th hour. She comes to the well at the heat of the day. As I’m sure you recognize, this area is hot. People go to the well early in the morning or late in the evening because it’s too hot to do it during the middle of the day.
And that’s the point. She goes to get water when no one else would go to get water. She’s avoiding people.
In her conversation with Jesus, she’s really interested in this living water that Jesus offers because she doesn’t want to keep coming to the well to draw water (v. 15).
I think she’s avoiding people, she’s hiding. Why?
She gets around with men; she’s an immoral woman. She lives in a very religious society, and she is scorned and rejected by her society. I’m sure people gave her disdainful glares, perhaps even outright insults. She’s been rejected, by men and her society. This is her way of avoiding rejection.
Maybe we can sympathize with this woman. We know what its like to yearn for acceptance, to want to be loved. We’re thirsty too. We try to hard to find approval from our parents or our friends or our society. We’re not a nobody, we’re a somebody. We desperately want people to see us as beautiful, admirable, likeable, lovable.
And we hide too.
We have skeletons in the closet, things we regret, addictions and secrets that fill us with shame. Or we feel this deep inadequacy: we’re not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, talented enough. We’re always trying to prove ourselves.
We hide behind our masks. We put on our smile, our trendy clothes, our successes and accomplishments. We care a lot about the image we project, cause we’re afraid of rejection.
We long for intimacy but we fear rejection. It’s this tension, of wanting meaningful, authentic, open, vulnerable relationships but fearing them at the same time. We want to get close, but we’re afraid to get close.
Jesus is resting at this well, and this Samaritan Woman approaches. “Hey, what’s that guy doing here? No one is supposed to be here. I didn’t want to see anybody. Well, maybe I can just get my water and leave. He probably wouldn’t talk to me. Hey, he’s not from Sychar; he’s a Jew. Oh, surely, a Jewish guy isn’t going to talk to me.”
Jews and Samaritans were racial enemies (v. 9). They probably liked each other as much as Israeli’s and Palestinians today. Jews looked down on Samaritans as people who used to worship Yahweh but compromised, inter-married with Gentiles. They were half-breeds.
And culturally, men and women didn’t speak. 4:27, the disciples were surprised to find Jesus talking with a woman.
Jesus asks, “Will you give me a drink?”
Samaritan Woman, “Uh, what’s going on? This isn’t supposed to happen.” “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.” Why are you talking to me? Why are you asking me for water?!
Yet, in this simple question, Jesus gave her dignity. Probably no one saw her as good for anything. She wasn’t valuable or useful. She didn’t have anything to offer. But Jesus gives her dignity, “Would you help me?”
Jesus drew her interest.
Jesus turns the question around. “If you knew who I was and what I could give you, you’d be asking me for living water.”
Woman, “How would you give me water? Where will you get this living water?”
Jesus, “It’s a different kind of water. Water from this well will leave you thirsty again. But my water will become a spring of water from within. You’ll never thirst again.”
Woman, “Give me this water.”
The conversation starts with Jesus asking, “Will you give me a drink,” which then quick turns into “Sir, give me this living water.”
Jesus was speaking in terms she related too. This is a dry land, water is life. She doesn’t like coming to the well—too much risk. He’s speaking her language.
We have a picture of Jesus reaching out to this fearful and thirsty woman. He so gently reaches out to her. He speaks her language, talks about her interest.
Here we are, at this key moment, “Sir, give me this living water.” And what does Jesus do? He asks her to bring her husband.
She hides. “I have no husband.”
Then Jesus says, “You are right when you say you have no husband. You’ve had 5 husbands and the man you’re with now isn’t even your husband.”
She is horrified! How did he know? Did someone tell him? Is he going to condemn me? Is he going to reject me too?
But then she realizes, Wait, he’s known all along. He knew, and yet he didn’t reject me. He knew, and yet he spoke to me, he treated me with dignity, he spoke my langauge. He knew, and he still reached out to me.
I had secrets to hide because I feared that if he knew, he’d reject me.
But he’s known all along, and all he’s shown me is acceptance. He’s not pushing me away. He’s offering me living water.
The conversation continues but the big piece that then explodes in her heart is, this man who has reached out to her, accepted her, offers her living water, this man is not just a Jewish Rabbi, a nice stranger from out of town. This man is the Messiah! It isn’t that I’ve been accepted by a man, I’ve been accepted by God!
And when she realizes that, she leaves her water jar and runs back to town yelling, “Come see this man who has told me everything I ever did! Could he be the Messiah?! Guys, I think I just met the Messiah, the Savior! The Messiah met me!”
Here’s a woman, so thirsty for love, so afraid of rejection, and she finds out that
God already knows, God already knows the life she’s lived, the men she’s slept with.
And God already accepts her, God reaches out to her.
The Gospel is not a message about, “Get your act together, clean up your mess, make yourself presentable, and come to Jesus.”
No, it is in our sin, our mistakes, our regrets, our addictions, that’s where He finds us, accepts us, loves us. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Ro 5:8)
We’re all so thirsty for love, for acceptance, for someone to say . . .
Martian Child [picture, http://www.cinematical.com/media/2007/10/mc_1shtfinal.jpg]
David (John Cusack) lost his wife a couple years earlier and is interested in adopting a child. He’s matched with a 6-year-old Dennis. The problem is that Dennis thinks he’s from Mars:
He wears a belt of batteries to keep from floating off.
He fears sunlight, and if outside, stays under a large, cardboard box
He is obsessed with taking pictures and Lucky Charms. He steals. He’s a weird kid.
One of the themes of the movie is to question how important is it to fit in.
The movie challenges parents to question whether we put too much importance on getting our kids to “be like everyone else,” versus accepting them as they are, even if they’re different.
The movie was inspired by a true story of a science fiction writer who adopted a child from foster care. The kid had been abandoned by his parents and was different, didn’t fit in.
There are some kids that feel like they’re really different from all the other kids. All the other kids tease them; they are the rejects of the playground. They are isolated and alone, protecting themselves from ongoing rejection.
Dennis wears his gravity belt because he fears people just float away—like his parents seemed to just disappear. He fears abandonment. He wonders why his parents had rejected him.
For much of the movie David is working to show Dennis acceptance, to earn Dennis’ trust, to draw Dennis out of his protective world. David lets him be a Martian. But over time, David also gets frustrated with Dennis and his Martian-ness.
One night, as David was out at an event to celebrate his writing success and his new book, Dennis runs away. He goes to this building where he says he had arrived from Mars. David finds him. Dennis says he’s going back to Mars.
[Chapter 19, 1:34:10 - 1:37:58]
That’s what Jesus says, “I will never, ever, ever, ever leave you.” I will never abandon you.
You may feel like you don’t fit in, like you’ve been rejected.
You may feel like you’re not good enough, you’re not lovable.
Maybe you’ve made some mistakes, maybe you’re not that proud of your life.
Maybe your whole life has been behind a mask, playing the part, fearing exposure and rejection.
Jesus says, I know your inadequacies, your failures, your sin. And I still love you, I accept you, I died for you, and there’s nothing you can possibly do to change that.
The Gospel is a message of freedom, freedom in knowing that we’re accepted to the core and loved without condition. It is feeling Daddy’s embrace, and hearing him say how much He delights in us, how He smiles on us, how He says we are the apple of His eye (Zech 2:8). This changes us from the inside out.
If you’re not a Christian, we want to share good news. There’s a God who wants to have a relationship with you. He wants you to run into his arms and find unconditional love and complete acceptance.
If you are a Christian, we need to stay in those Father’s arms, to continually experience that joy and freedom of being so deeply loved and accepted.
We celebrate that Jesus died and the cross and rose from the grave. And because He has, we have forgiveness, acceptance, and we have a new life: a relationship with a loving and powerful Savior, a freedom and joy from deep security in His embrace.