LENT
3
March
7-9, 2026
Pastor
Timothy J. Spaude
Text:
John 4:5-26
“JESUS: EXACTLY
WHAT I NEEDED!”
Let’s call her Demitra, this woman more
commonly known as the woman at the well. If she followed common practice of the
day she would have a Greek name. Even though the Romans were now in charge,
ever since Alexander the Great had taken over the then known world it was cool
to be Greek, to act Greek, talk Greek, dress Greek and have a Greek name. So
we’ll call her Demitra. Her day started out as normal. She knew exactly what
she needed. Kind of. She needed water. That’s why she was going to the town
well. No running water for normal people. A normal part of everyday life was
getting water from the well. What isn’t normal is going there around noon.
That’s what the 6th hour was back then. Demitra went to the well
around noon because what she needed was water. What she didn’t need was all the
grief from the other women of Sychar. They went to the well in the cool of the
morning. Oh, they looked all prim and proper and thought so highly of
themselves, thinking they were better than she. “Homewrecker” they called her,
among a number of other not so nice names. What did they know about her and her
life? If their first husband had died with no sons to take care of them, what
would they have done? She needed a man to take care of her, she thought. With
the pickings in town so slim she had not been picky and so one after another
had left her after they got what they wanted. What did the others know of the
struggles she had? They might have some choice names for her but she had some
choice names for them too. Greek names. The thought of letting them have it
brought a smile to her face. A little bit of name calling revenge, that’s what
she needed.
Rats! As Demitra drew close, she
noticed someone else was at the well! So much for flying under the radar. It
was a man, A little closer and she could tell he was a Jewish man. That was
better. Everyone knows that the Jews despise us Samaritans so she would not
have to engage with him. “Would you give me a drink of water, please?”
the man asked. Well, that’s weird. So Demitra said to him, “How is it that
you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” He 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.”
Living water? What in the wide world of Zeus and Appollo is living water? “Sir,”
Demitra said, “you don't even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do
you get this living water? 12You are not greater than our father
Jacob, are you? He gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons
and his animals.” The man, (His name was Jesus) answered her, “Everyone
who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks
the water I will give him will never be thirsty ever again. Rather, the water I
will give him will become in him a spring of water, bubbling up to eternal
life.” Ah, thought Demitra! This is exactly what I need! If he has some
magic water so I don’t have to keep coming to the well in the heat of the day,
that would be awesome! “Sir, give me this water,” Demitra said to him, “so I
won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” Demitra
smiled. This was exactly what she needed!
But then Jesus told her, “Go, call
your husband, and come back here.” Demitra felt her face redden. “I have
no husband,” she answered. There it was again. Right in her face. Had
someone been talking? Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say, ‘I
have no husband.’ 18In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man
you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” Demitra
could feel the normal defensiveness grow. Time to deflect! “Sir, I see that
you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but
you Jews insist that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
Nothing like a good old religious argument to get the spotlight off or her sin.
Exactly what she needed!
“Jesus said to her, “Believe me,
woman, a time is coming when you will not worship the Father on this mountain
or in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We
worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23But a
time is coming and now is here when the real worshippers will worship the
Father in spirit and in truth, for those are the kind of worshippers the Father
seeks. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in
spirit and in truth.” Well that didn’t work, thought Demitra. He actually
answered the question simply and with authority. Time for bullet dodging topic
number two! The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one
called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26Jesus
said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.” And then finally Demitra
got exactly what she needed. A Savior. Up to then she thought she knew exactly
what she needed, water for the day, protection from unkind tongues, a man, any
man to make her feel whole. But none of those was exactly what she needed. What
she needed was the Savior, the God man, Jesus Christ. The one who gave her a
clean reputation through the forgiveness of sins. The one who made her whole
with God by giving her His righteousness. The only one who could give her an
eternal life where the problems of sin and its consequences of this life would
vex her no more. Jesus, the Savior. Exactly what she needed.
And exactly what I need and you need
too! Often like Demitra we can think we know exactly what we need and sometimes
we are kind of right. Food, drink shelter and clot11hing are real legitimate
needs that we and all people have. God has graciously promised to supply those
daily needs, though not without our working. Help in time of trouble, when
facing illness or surgery or relationship problems. Those too are real
legitimate needs for real temporary problems. But none of those are exactly
what we need. Like Demitra we all have been led astray by what we think we
need. A man, a woman, a friend to make me feel whole. Like Demitra in pursuit
of perceived needs we can let our guard down and our standards down and be led
into sin and bring into our lives consequences that follow us and haunt us. All
of us have made decisions we are not proud of. We all have those skeletons of
sin hiding in our closets and if someone gets too close to them, change the
subject. Point out someone else’s sin. Anything but deal again with
embarrassing truth. Like Demitra we look for our own solutions to cope. Avoid
people or think you are avoiding God by staying away from worship. Abuse drugs
or alcohol to help you forget. Make someone else the target of people’s anger
and ridicule. Bury yourself in work or activities. None of them actually work.
Most of them bring even more grief into our own lives and the lives of others.
They are not exactly what we need.
It kind of reminds me of when I was a younger
child than I am now. Immature. Not understanding. Christmas time. Presents. Oh
the joy the day the Sears or JC Penny or Montgomery Wards Christmas catalogue
came in the mail! I remember circling all the things I thought I really needed
for Christmas and prayed earnestly to get them. Would it surprise any of you to
know that list was almost exclusively toys? Then came Christmas Eve. Time to
open presents. Oh the disappointment when too many of those presents were
needed things. “Thank you for the socks and undies, exactly what I needed.”
woodenly spoken so the true message was sent. Nobody sees those anyway. What
good are they.” And yet I tell you the truth it was those needed gifts that
were still in use months later when the new toy was broken or cast aside
because wants had changed.
Brothers and sisters, by that
illustration I don’t in any way reduce our Lord Jesus and His awesomeness to
the level of socks and undies but merely seek to point out how easy it is for
us to overvalue the things we think we need and undervalue what we really need.
Jesus gave the woman at the well living water, Himself as Savior. He gave her
hope and future. She would not always be that woman. He gave her value and
purpose. Her response to Jesus’ revelation that He was her Savior was to become
the MVP of her town pointing the rest of the people to Jesus. He was exactly
what she needed.
And you have Him too. You all have
things going on in your life that you need Jesus for. You have real needs and
perceived needs. You have little problems and big problems. You deal with
consequences of past decisions and sins, some which last a little while and
some that will last until your last breath. But none of them will last. Jesus
is your living water that wells up to eternal life and there you will have no
past, no problems, no wants no needs. Just glory. All the time. Jesus: exactly
what I need! You too! Amen.
