Exodus 17 1-7 2008
Lent 3
February 24, 2008
Exodus 17:1-7, John 4:5-26
“Free Water for All”
Introduction: In 1936, travelers near the Badlands of South Dakota were surprised and intrigued as they drove along the highways to see signs that said, "Get a Soda ... Get Root Beer ... Turn next corner ... just as near ... to Highways 16 and 17 ... Free Ice Water ... Wall Drug."
It all began out of frustration when the drugstore was on the brink of closing in Wall, South Dakota. One Sunday afternoon when Dorothy Hustead couldn't sleep, she got up and told husband Ted, "I think I finally see how we can get all those travelers to come to our store." "And how's that?" her husband, Ted asked. "Well, now what is it those travelers really want after driving across that hot prairie? They're thirsty. They want water. Ice cold water! Now we've got plenty of ice and water. Why don't we put up signs on the highway telling people to come here for free ice water?" said Dorothy. The sign(s) went up and the rest, as they say, is history. Now today, on a good summer day, 20,000 people stop by the famous Wall Drug to shop, eat, and, of course, get their glass of "free ice water."
In the days of Moses, ice could only be found on snow topped mountains. In the Sinai desert there were none of those. Franky, there wasn’t even much water either. On reaching Rephidim, the modern Wadi Refayid, about eight miles south of Jebel Musa, the Israelites stop in the Wilderness of Sin and camp. The people are faced with a huge problem. There is no water to drink. They are thirsty.
Water, or the lack of it, is a common theme in scriptures. Isaiah, centuries later, describes in poetry this great need to have our thirsts quenched, and the life that springs from water.
When the poor and needy seek water and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I, the Lord, will answer them, I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water,and the dry land springs of water... so that all may see and know, all may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it. -- Isaiah 41:17-20
The Psalmist cries metaphorically, "O God, you are my God, I see you, my soul thirsts for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water" (Psalm 63:1).
We are very thirsty creatures. Our thirsts are many and varied. We thirst for true friends; we thirst for success; we thirst for meaning and purpose in our lives. We thirst to be listened to and heard. We thirst for release from addictions and chronic sins; we thirst for God and for that which is eternal.
Sinclair Lewis, in one of his books, draws a picture of a respectable businessman who decides to "live it up." He is talking to his old girlfriend. She says to him, "On the surface we seem quite different; but deep down we are fundamentally the same. We are both desperately unhappy about something -- and we don't know what it is." In other words, we are desperately thirsty and for what we do not know.
In every one of us, there is this nameless, unsatisfied longing, a vague discontent, a feeling that something is lacking. And so we go about our lives trying to satisfy whatever it is we think is missing.
The Israelites have a discontent and it is not vague. The Israelites are physically thirsty. Their jugs are dry. What wouldn't they give for a glass of Ted and Dorothy Hustead's free water generously mingled with ice?
The Israelites do what they do best. They quarrel. They complain. They direct their complaints to Moses. "Give us water to drink. Why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?" (Exodus 17:2-3).
Moses has heard this "song and dance" before and he will hear it again (Exodus 15:22-7; 17:1-7; Numbers 20:1-13). Moses confronts their groans and re-interprets and redirects them as a test of the Lord's faithfulness. "Why do you test the Lord?" (Exodus 17:2b). Still the people groan with discontent.
It’s a good thing that doesn’t happen now. Or does it? I will let you decide. But as you do consider what it is we do or do not groan about. Then decide whether this too is a testing of the faithfulness of the Lord. Do we always believe our God will provide for our simplest needs? Or do we think that he has forgotten us and we are left on our own to fend for ourselves?
"Give us water to drink or else ..." -- the Israelites are ready to stone their God appointed leader Moses! Like road rage, which boils over when a driver is provoked, the anger, blame, and suffering are directed towards Moses. They threaten to end his life by stoning him.
As this ill wind of discontent begins to blow, there is a wondrous intervention from the Lord. The Lord said to Moses, "Go ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. I will be there standing in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink" (Exodus 17:5-6a).
After Moses petitions Yahweh for his own safety, lest he be assaulted, he uses the staff as the Lord instructs and strikes the rock at Horeb with great force. Water gushes forth and the people of Israel, at last, are able to quench their thirst.
If I were God I would have let their dry tongues turn into the sands of the parched desert. This is what they deserved. What does God do? He gives them a spring of life. This free gushing water is grace. It is a sign of God’s unmerited favor literally poured out for an undeserving and grumbling people. This pure, cold liquid, as a gift from God, transforms discontent and grumbling into satisfaction, and brings back hope to a joyless people.
In another time and in another setting, God's grace is expressed through the prophet Isaiah. "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters: And you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price" (Isaiah 55:1).
The ear spitting silent scream of longing is satisfied only by the grace of God…His unmerited favor. Where is satisfaction to be found? What satisfies that unquenchable thirst. It is God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ. The more undeserving we feel, the thirstier we are. We are the most thirsty when we believe that our thirst can never be quenched. That is when the cold mountain spring of God’s grace satisfies the most. No wonder John Fort Newton, the old slave trader, marveled that God's grace could extend even to a "wretch" like himself. "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me." But grace doesn’t save. It never has. Jesus Christ saves sinners. It is through Him, through His punishment on the cross for our sin, that God gives us this gift called grace. Jesus calls the thirsty to Himself. It is the most desperate of us that He calls. He can not satisfy the thirst of a holy man with no thirst, just as you can’t heal a sick man that doesn’t believe he is sick. Jesus satisfies. God's love and forgiveness through the cross of Christ as an unconditional gift satisfies the most desperate thirst.
One day, Jesus travels through Samaria and stops by Jacob's well near Sychar, he meets a woman from Samaria. Jesus is tired and thirsty. He is not as thirsty as the woman that He meets at the well. He asks the Samaritan woman for a drink and engages her in conversation. The woman is puzzled because Jesus, a Jew, asks her for a drink, an unthinkable act. Jesus answers 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." The Samaritan woman asks for this living water. Jesus tells her that he is the living water.
What is amazing is the person that Jesus chooses to offer this living water to. A Samaritan, not a Jew, a woman, not a man, a sinner, not a righteous person.
Jesus knew that the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well had five husbands. He knew that she was hiding away by getting her water at noon in the heat of the day. She was a tainted, dirty, dusty soul, most likely rejected by those around her. Jesus calls a spade a spade, “Where is your husband/” She answers honestly. Jesus lets her know that He knows all things. She cannot hide her life from the eyes of the Lord. For her there is no where else to go, no place left to hide – “Sir, give me this water.” Jesus does give her what she asks for. He is the gift of God that comes down from heaven. To this sinful woman Jesus revels himself to be the Messiah. For that Samaritan woman life changed forever. Jesus Christ is the Living Water that changes our lives.
Steven L. McKinley, pastor of House and Prayer Lutheran Church, Richfield, Minnesota, writes in an article, "Knowing Laughter," "Grace, after all, is good news. The best news there ever was. We are saved by God's grace active in Jesus. It's a done deal. Our sin has been put away, wiped out of the books ... time to have the biggest party there ever was ... "1
What happens next? When we have filled our cups with the living water it spills out all around us. We bring the living water with us wherever we go. The grace we have received changes us, makes us reach out, empowers to be the people of God and the bearer of living water.
It is interesting to note the enthusiasm of the Samaritan woman to tell her story. She lost the shame of her sin, rather it has been placed on Jesus. She came to the well in solitude; she returns with a congregation. She cam to the well as one disgraced; she returns as one graced!
The villagers ask Jesus if he will remain with them. Many villages in Galilee ask Jesus if he would leave, this one asks him to stay. And he did remain for several days, we are told. At the conclusion of this time the townspeople say to the woman: “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard him ourselves and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the World. It is no longer second hand; it is a firsthand witness. It is the strongest witness in the world. No one can argue against it. It is a witness that says, yes, I know that it is true because I have experienced it in my own life.
The pages of history have not changed the village of Sychar too much. At night there is still the same howling, lonely, wind that blows against the blistering sand. The well——it is still there too. There is something else that has not changed or vanished with the ages either. That is the living water that is offered to you and to me this morning. Jesus came for you. Jesus died for you so that you will live. Because of Jesus your sins are forgiven. Drink from Him and His well and you shall never thirst.
"Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters: And you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price" (Isaiah 55:1).