Exodus 17:1–7 | Romans 5:1–8 | John 4:5–26 (27–30, 39–42)
Give me a drink!
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Grace and Mercy and Peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today is Third Sunday in Lent. We always start of the season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. That’s the ancient tradition of remembering the curse of death and hearing those words…Remember you were dust and to dust you shall return. The curse is a deep reality that all people have to contend with. We try desperately to ignore it, to pretend it is really, that is doesn’t affect us to to our very core. But all those attempts fail. As children of Adam and Eve, we are sinners. And the curse attacks us.
But throughout Lent and throughout our lives as Christians, this somber thought is paired with a hopeful one. The ashes of the curse touch our foreheads and form the sign of the cross. The water of Baptism puts the old sinner to death, but raises a new person to life in Christ. The broken body and the precious blood of Jesus, which He poured out unto death…these bring us forgiveness and life. Because Jesus did not remain dead. The cross is followed by the resurrection.
Even the name of this season, “Lent” carries with it that hopefulness. Lent is an old form of the English word, Length. And it refers to the lengthening of days that happens in the spring time. With longer days comes more light and new life. The bleak darkness of winter is passing away. The lifeless plants are starting to bud and bloom.
And in the church, Easter and the celebration of the resurrection is almost upon us. There we see light of the victory of Christ on the horizon. We see the new life coming.
But what happens before the resurrection? Death. As Jesus himself predicts, before the glory of the resurrection comes the cross. Before the new man rises to live before God in righteousness and purity, the old Adam must first be drowned and die.
So, before Easter, before the resurrection, comes Lent. And so it is that Lent is a season of prayer and penitence. For 40 days, not counting Sundays, we ponder our sins. We confess them to God. Perhaps we fast or we take on extra spiritual disciplines. We strain under all this, as a way of preparing ourselves…fine outward preparation…that’s what the catechism calls it.
Of course there are those who see in all this, too much LAW.
But dear brothers and sisters, we need the Law. We are not against God’s Law. Rather, we believe and we confess that God’s Law is good and wise. It is the perfect and holy will of God. It defines and describes the way of life that God means for us. And the grace of the Gospel is not meant to be a cheap trick…an easy way out of doing what God calls us to do. It is not meant to be a free pass to do what we want to instead of listening to God and living holy and righteous lives as His children.
As St. Paul says, Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! May it never be.
And indeed, Everywhere, EVERYWHERE in the Scriptures we see admonition to live holy lives, and that admonition is not just the Law as mirror to show you how much of a sinner you are…Oh the Law does that, but it also guides us. It teaches us the way to live as dear children of God.
Thus the historic practice of Lent includes fasting, praying, almsgiving. It involves denying yourself, taking your up your cross and following Christ. It involves letting the light of the Law shine, intensely upon your sins that you may truly know them as sins rather than embracing them as no big deal. It involves reordering your love and your life under the call of God rather than the deadly siren song of the world.
But brothers and sister, here we are, almost at the midpoint of our Lenten journey toward Holy Week. This is the Third Sunday in Lent. In three more Sundays we’ll find ourselves at Palm Sunday when the journey to the cross will intensify with Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
And on this third Sunday of Lent, we hear the Gospel clearly, which relieves us of the burdens of this season.
If your Lenten journey seems hard. If it seems like you are hungry and thirst for relief. If it seems like the Law is too heavy and crushing your soul. Then cry out to God. Tell Him that your parched and that you need relief. Say to Him: Give me a drink. Refresh me with your grace, O Lord.
And indeed, He does.
In the Exodus, God’s people who had been freed from slavery were now in the wilderness. They were in the desert, and their food and their water have run out. The fast is imposed on them by God who has led them into the wilderness. The fast means in the wilderness pushes them to the brink. They can no longer rely on themselves, or their wisdom. They must rely on God.
The Exodus, of course, runs parallel to Jesus’ experience in the wilderness, where is tempted by the devil. And His response to the devil is instructive. He says, Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
The people of God must learn this too. They are hungry. They are thirsty. They cannot help themselves. They must rely on God to provide for all of their needs of body and soul.
And when all this waiting, this discipline, this fasting becomes too much for them…when their weakness is exposed…they cry out to Moses, the servant of the Lord, saying, “Give us water to drink.” (Exodus 17:2)
Moses is at the end of himself when he hears this…his weakness is exposed too, and he too cries out to God, asking “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” (Exodus 17:4)
No how about you? Have you ever felt like you were at the end of yourself. Like you just couldn’t take it any more. Like you were about to fall apart? To lose it?
Maybe you have. Maybe it came like an outburst of anger…the people were angry with Moses. They yelled at him: Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? (Exodus 17:3) There’s a fearful rage there.
And often times the other side of that is tears. We lash out at God and our neighbor on the one hand. And then we collapse into tears. We can’t do this God.
More than once, as a pastor, I’ve felt that way. There’s so much to do. Preaching, teaching, administering the sacraments. There’s so many opinions about how this should be done. About style of worship. About length and content of sermons. And then there’s the leadership of the congregation in mission and ministry. And not to mention prayer and care for the sick, the suffering, the homebound and the dying.
Like Moses, sometimes I say, “What am I supposed to do?” Thankfully, so far, no one wants to stone me. So far.
But you see all of this serves God’s purposes. He looks at me and He looks at you and He lets us see the truth. We are weak. We are not able to fulfill God’s Law and expectations. We can’t do anything, except point others to Christ, who does it all.
Remember what St. Paul says in our epistle reading:
While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)
While we were weak. God’s power is made perfect in weakness. The weakness of the people of God wandering the wilderness. The weakness of the Lenten fast. God’s power is made perfect in weakness. Because in acknowledging our weakness, we are finally telling the truth. Our only hope, our only future is in Christ. His life, His death, and His resurrection.
The people of Israel’s hope wasn’t in Moses. He was a good and faithful pastor, but He was a man, nonetheless. A fallible man. Your hope isn’t in me. With the help of God I do my best to faithfully proclaim God’s Word and administer His sacraments. But I am a man. A fallible man. The longer I’m here, the more you’ll know that and see it.
And all this must serve to direct our hope and our pleas, not to man, but to God. To him we cry out: Lord, help us. Lord, save us. Lord, give us something to drink, for we are thirsty.
And with all patience and composure, with grace and mercy, God relieves his people, weak and sinful, and grumpy as they are…
The LORD said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” (Exodus 17:5-6)
And as with the plagues of Egypt and all the other mighty works He does, all this is meant to testify to God’s greatness, His mercy, His love. All of this is so that the people of God would know and be reminded once again, that the Lord is God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He is kind, He forgives us, and He has our life, our future and all things in His hands.
The same pattern persists in our Gospel reading for today. Jesus meets a woman at a well. This Samaritan woman is a sinner. She comes to the well in the heat of the day, to avoid others. And who does she find there, but Jesus?
He questions her, prods her. He pushes in towards her. Give me a drink, he asks.
You, a Jew are asking me, a Samaritan for a drink?
Then He tells her: actually, it’s you who should be asking me for a drink. If you only knew. If you could only be honest about your sin, your sadness, your struggle. If you would only tell the truth and confess, then you would hear and know the relief of God’s love. Your thirst would be quenched by the only one who can quench it.
She spars with him in conversation. But finally she believes. And she has life and relief in His name.
And so it is with you and me this day. Lent can be hard. We fast, we pray, we remember our sin with sorrow. We struggle with the devil and we struggle with God.
But today, we remember the one whose victory is about to be declared on the cross, and whose light is about to break forth from the tomb. We remember that He is the one who hears us as we cry out. As we say, I’m hungry, I’m thirsty. God give me relief. Help me, O Lord.
He hears our cries. And He answers us. He answers with Words of Absolution: I forgive you all of your sins. He answers us with the Water of Holy Baptism…remember that you are Baptized. Remember that you are a dear child of God. He answers us with bread and wine, which are His true body and blood. Take and eat, you who are hungry. Take and drink, you who are thirsty. And know that in this Word and Sacrament there is relief from all your burdens, and there is peace that surpasses understanding. For you. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
The Peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in the one true faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.