Grace Lutheran Church

Rev. Evan Gaertner

Lent 3

“Courting at the Well”

John 4:5-26

Christi and I met each other when we went to high school together. Our lockers were near each other and we shared a lot of classes together. I passed her note in math class to ask her to Junior Prom. Christi and I met each other in high school. People today are meeting their loved ones on the internet, at grocery stores, parties, at night clubs.

So where does a guy in the Bible go to meet bride?

Looking back at the first two books in the Bible Genesis and Exodus we can find a couple examples of men going to the well to find a bride. The well was a place for community. Divisions also could be found at the well as well as different people claimed ownership of the well. So it is at this place of community and identity that we find the leading men of the Old Testament going to find a bride.

Abraham told his servant to go back to the homeland and find among his kindred a wife for his son Isaac. The servant went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor. When evening came this servant had his camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water. Then he prayed, “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. Behold I am standing by the spring of water and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down you jar that I may drink.’ And she shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels’—let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac.”

I want you to think back to a time when you were nervous and you stood in front of your mirror. I can remember running through in my head the conversation I would have in my head when I would ask Christi to marry me. I practiced what I would say and tried to imagine what she would say. I might have even prayed to God for confidence.

I can imagine this chief servant of Abraham looking down into the water of the well and seeing his image illuminated in that water and working through how this conversation was going to work out.

He was at the well to find a bride for his master’s son Isaac. The servant ended up meeting Rebekah who married Isaac. Rebekah gave birth to two sons, Esau and Jacob.

When it was time for Jacob to find a wife he also went back to that same homeland and found a well to find his wife. Jacob came upon a well in a field where the sheep were watered. He asked the guys there if they knew Laban, his mother’s brother. They said, “Sure and his daughter Rachel is coming right now with a flock of sheep.” Jacob rolled the stone from off the well as soon as he saw Rachel coming towards him. Then Jacob went up to Rachel and kissed her and introduced himself.

So both Isaac and Jacob found wives at the well. Indeed the well turns out to be a pretty good place for those Old Testament guys to find their bride.

Moses also found his bride at a well. Moses fled from Egypt and Pharaoh because he killed a man. He stayed in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well. The seven daughters of Midian came and drew water. Some shepherds came and chased the girls off, Moses came to their rescue and helped them water their sheep. Moses ended up marrying Zipporah, one of those seven daughters that he rescued at the well.

Not everyone of course found their bride at the well. There was not a love potion in that water that we can bottle and market.

Rebekah, Rachel, and Zipporah are all described in very flattering ways. But now I want you to consider the conversation that Jesus has with the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus stopped at Jacob’s well. Jacob’s well is still there. The well bottom has varied in depth through the centuries, from 240 feet to 67 feet and is presently 125 feet deep. A person can still go to this well and an Orthodox caretaker will drop a bucket down and bring back fresh and cool water up for people to drink from. This well which Jesus asked for a drink of water from is fed by underground springs. Because the water is moving and not from a cistern, the ancients called it “living water” a term which Jesus gave a new and special meaing.

Jesus worn out by the trip he and the disciples were on, sat down at this well and a woman, a Samaritan woman, and asked her, “Would you give me a drink of water?”

How do you think ladies would that work as a pickup line?

This was a special moment. The woman was taken a back that Jesus would talk to her. One reason was that he was a Jew and she was a Samaritan woman. The second reason we find out later was she was trying to hide going to the well during the noon of the day. She has had five husbands and she was now living with a man who wasn’t even her husband.

Jesus talked to her. Jesus noticed her. Jesus told her the truth. He said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I will give will be a life-giving spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”

This woman would not be the kind of woman that a matchmaker, or match.com, or eharmony.com would have picked out for Jesus. This woman would not make the sort of bride that the king of kings, the Lord of Lords should have as his mate. But here we are with Jesus at the well with this woman. He was talking to her about the eternal life that he was offering to her.

Jesus was giving this woman a loving encounter that changes her. With five husbands and now living with a man that wasn’t even her husband, the idea of love had been confused for her. In living in a land where Jews and Samaritans didn’t talk to each other just because of where they lived, the idea of love in community had been confused for her. We all are thirsty for unconditional love. We desire to be seen for more than the labels others have placed upon us. We desire to be loved even past our mistakes. In the middle of her life, at the noon of the day, when love and community had become broken for her, Jesus brought his healing touch and offered her a drink from the well of everlasting life.

Jesus is the bridegroom and we are his bride. Jesus has come to our world filled with divisions and brings in his person and work the forgiveness of sins. Only Jesus can offer you the healing touch of love that can wipe away the sins of the world and bring you back into a relationship with him. As we bring Jesus into our relationships we have an opportunity to bring to someone broken and confused the healing touch of the love of Jesus.

Jesus Christ has chosen you to be his bride. Jesus wants to have a personal relationship with you and wants you to go and be a witness in this world of this love. Faith in Jesus Christ is trusting that he wants you to be with him. He knows you and all the reasons why you would not be a good match.

Soli Deo Gloria< –>