What the Bible Actually Says About Your Past |04.16.26|Is That In the Bible? pt.1

I walked into the cafeteria on the first day of sixth grade with a tan tray, a chocolate milk, and absolutely no idea where to sit. We had just moved, and I was going to a new school. All of the other kids in 6th grade had been there for years, and the friend groups were solidified.

But I had just moved to town and enrolled and didn’t know anyone. And when we went to lunch, I went through the line, turned towards all the lunch tables…

…and I froze. I didn’t know where to sit. Everywhere I looked, people were already in groups, and I didn’t know whether I was allowed to join any of them.

Have you ever entered a room and felt like you didn’t belong? Or that you were written off the moment you entered?

Maybe you showed up to a party and felt judged by the people there. Maybe it was when you showed up to a meeting. Maybe it was when you walked into church.

But you did the quick scan of the room and immediately felt in your gut, “I don’t fit here. These aren’t my kind of people. They wouldn’t want me here if they knew me…”

Maybe it’s not a room that you entered. Maybe you felt like you didn’t belong with God. Maybe you’ve avoided having a conversation with him for a while, because somewhere along the way you started to believe the lie that your past, your track record, your complicated life… had disqualified you from connection with God.

[Scripture Ref]

If you've ever felt like you are too broken, your past is too messy, or that you're not the kind of person God would want to use, this message is for you. And our Jesus story today has some good news for you, too. So open your Bibles with me to John 4 (???).

I’d like everyone to have a Bible open in front of them, because we’re starting a new series today, where we look at some incredible scenes from the life of Jesus as portrayed in the show, The Chosen.

But the point of the show isn’t to replace our Bible reading. In fact, if you’re someone who has watched the show before, I hope that it makes you go back to your Bible to read MORE, because that’s the purpose of depicting the life of Jesus. It’s meant to send us back to the Word to connect with Jesus even more.

So we’re moving from screen to scripture today, but before we watch this clip and read the text it comes from, I have to give you a little context. Because Jesus is a Jewish man, and he’s going to have a conversation with a Samaritan woman.

Now, you might already know about Samaritans, or you’ve heard the story of the “good Samaritan,” or you’ve heard about the non-profit called Samaritan’s Purse. But back in Jesus’ time, any of Jesus’ followers would have had a gut reaction to the word “Samaritan.”

Because Jews and Samaritans did NOT get along, and it all stemmed back to 700 years before Jesus’ time, when the country of Israel was under attack by the Assyrian Empire.

The northern half of Israel was demolished and half of the population was taken prisoner and deported to all other parts of the Empire. Then the Assyrians imported in foreigners that they had defeated in other parts of their empire. That way, the people are all spread out and mixed and no one can raise up a revolt.

And so the Jews who are left behind in Israel to work as manual labor for the Assyrians end up intermarrying with the new foreigners that were brought in, and that also means that their religious practices blend as well.

So you’ve got Samaritan families who are keeping the Jewish practices and praying to Yahweh, while ALSO setting up a shrine to a rain god, because that’s what grandma’s side of the family does.

Well, decades pass, and the Jewish exiles return, and they get back and they look at the people who had remained and they say, “You’re not a true Jew. You’re not a pure-blood anymore!”

But the Samaritans who had stayed in the land and intermarried are like, “What do you mean? We’re the ones who stayed! We kept Yahweh worship alive! You’re the ones who left and were influenced by foreign ideas!”

And THAT started 700 years of mutual exclusion, religious disagreement, and generational hatred.

Maybe it would help you understand for you to think of this: Who is a group of people that make your jaw clench with anger when you think of them?

I’m not talking about someone that you’re mildly irritated with. I’m talking a physical REACTION that happens when you think of them. I’m talking about, who are the people whose values feel like a direct threat to everything YOU hold sacred?

Like, what is one of the things you hold most sacred in your life? Is it your family or the family unit? Who is someone who is trying to break that apart?

Is your Lutheran upbringing or your Christian faith one of the things that you hold most sacred? Who is the group that is standing against that?

Maybe one of the things you hold most near and dear is your identity as an American. Who, in your mind, is someone that is trying to devalue that or dismantle that?

I’m trying to get you to think of someone that makes your gut tighten, or your jaws clench, when you just think about them.

THAT’S what the Jews felt about the Samaritans (and vice versa). Everything about them is a direct threat to our way of life. Everything about what they stand for is in direct violation of what I hold most sacred.

That’s the situation that Jesus is about to walk into when he sits to chat with a Samaritan woman. Keep your Bibles open to John 4, and let’s watch this clip:

[VIDEO: Woman at Well] → [blank]

Powerful stuff. And we’re going to dig in to that whole scene, but first, let’s make sure that the screen sends us back to the Scripture. So I’m going to invite you to STAND for the reading of God’s word from John 4.

[John 4:3-30]

[John 4:4]

Jesus “had” to travel through Samaria. Now, most Jews would avoid Samaria when they were travelling from northern Israel to southern Israel. They would cross over the Jordan river and add a couple extra days to their trip, just to avoid travelling through Samaria.

It would be like if someone lived in Milledgeville and hated Sterling and Rock Fall so much that they went through Polo and Dixon just to get down to Tampico.

But Jesus wasn’t just taking a short cut because he didn’t want to travel extra. He “HAD” to go through Samaria, because he was on a mission to meet this woman.

[John 4:6]

Which is why he was sitting at the well and waiting for her at noon that day. Now, the clip mentioned the reason why she was there at noon, because it was customary for the women to go to the well to collect water for the day together as a group, early in the morning before it got super hot outside.

But the fact that this woman is there by herself at noon means that either she’s not welcome with the group in the morning, or because she’s avoiding them. In either case, she’s socially isolated.

Maybe because of shame, or because of the ways that the others ostracize her, or just because of the built-up weight of her complicated life… she’s been excluded from her own community’s basic daily rhythms.

[John 4:7-9]

So when Jesus asks her for a drink of water, it’s surprising, because that would have been super taboo. First, she’s a woman, and he’s a man, and it wasn’t following the polite customs for men and women to be hanging out in public like that.

Second, according to some Jewish teachers at the time, they said that Samaritan women were to be treated like they were ceremonially unclean at all times. So when she brings that up, she’s calling out the elephant in the room. She’s doing a bit of a boundary check, “don’t you people think that anything I touch will make you unclean?”

[John 4:10]

And it’s almost as if Jesus isn’t even willing to dignify that with a response, because he’s not limited by those things, but he pivots immediately to offering her something instead, “I have living water, and I’m willing to give it to you as a gift.”

And the woman still has her defenses up. She seems like someone who has HAD to build up a pretty thick callus because of what life has thrown at her, doesn’t she?

“Fresh living water? How are you going to get me water when you don’t have a bucket? Or are you talking about a different source of water than this well? Do you think you’re too good for the water from this well? It was dug by Jacob, who we Samaritans claim as OUR ancestor, too, by the way!”

[John 4:13-14]

And Jesus isn’t limited by her stance, but keeps offering, “Yeah, I’m not talking about regular water that quenches thirst temporarily. I’m talking about something that changes you from the inside out, that transforms your life into an eternal life, and overflows out of you in a way that impacts and transforms others.”

Even when she is defensive or deflecting in this conversation, Jesus proves that he’s not interested in the argument.

He’s interested in HER…

[John 4:16-17]

And then Jesus does something unexpected. He says, “go, get your husband.” And she says, “I don’t have one.” And Jesus says, “I know… You’ve had five. And the man you’re with now isn’t your husband.”

Now, I’ve heard people teach on this passage before and make the claim that this is proof that she’s a bit of a “loose woman.” And you might have even caught the part in the clip where they say that her first husband was abusive, and her second husband was good but she still left him anyways.

The Scripture doesn’t give us those details. But we DO know that in the 1st century, women didn’t hold the social power to be able to choose and then discard five husbands. More than likely, she didn’t run through five men. Instead, she was probably widowed at least a few of those times. Or she had been divorced by the MEN who had all the cultural authority to discard her and none of the obligation to keep her.

So I don’t think there is ANY evidence that this woman had loose morals. No, she’s a survivor who has been handed a hard life that she didn’t fully choose, and she’s been doing what she could to get through.

And Jesus knows all of it, and notice that he’s NOT shaming her. He’s not reciting the list of her failures. Because, look at his tone: he’s not condemning her.

He KNOWS her. Every chapter of her life. Every loss. Every man who left….

…Every day that she chose to come get water at noon because the whispers and assumptions from the other women were too much to bear…

Jesus knows all of it, and he’s still right there with her. Still offering.

[John 4:19-20]

And if it were me talking to Jesus, and he had just laid out the laundry list of my whole life like that, I would have been a bit overwhelmed. And I think the woman is, as well, and so she pivots to a generations-old theological argument about the proper location to connect with God.

“Our people worship here. Your people say you have to worship in Jerusalem. Which is it?”

It’s a deflection. And a smart one at that, because people often get theological when they want to avoid being personal.

[John 4:23]

And notice that Jesus doesn’t dismiss her argument, but he cuts right through it: “Pretty soon, it won’t matter whether you’re on this mountain or that mountain. Because God is Spirit, and he’s looking for true worshippers who are willing to worship him in spirit and in truth.”

In other words, Jesus is saying “the era of ‘only MY GROUP has access to God’ is over. God is not owned by a people group, a zip code, or a denomination.”

[John 4:26]

And then the woman seems to connect the dots, and she says, “I know that the Messiah is coming. The savior is coming who will explain this all to us.”

And Jesus says, “I am he.” [...]

The actual greek words that John uses here are ego eimi, which is translated as “I AM.” The divine name. The same name that God gave Moses at the burning bush. “I am that I am.” Yahweh.

And this is the first time in the entire Gospel of John that Jesus explicitly, clearly, UNDENIABLY says: “I am the Messiah. I am God.”

And the first person that he reveals himself to? Not a religious leader. Not a priest at the temple. Not some theologian in Jerusalem. Not even his own disciples!

He reveals himself for the first time to a Samaritan woman, who is collecting water at noon alone because she has a complicated past that has given her a strong defensive posture.

So, if you've ever felt like you are too broken, your past is too messy, or that you're not the kind of person God would want to use, this message is for you. Because Jesus’ love is not limited by your past.

And here’s the part I think I love the most. The woman who thought she was forgotten by God… Jesus is on a mission to go straight to her because she’s a valuable daughter made in the image of God.

But not only that, he CHOOSES HER to be the first messenger to her own town. And when she tells them what he said to her, the townspeople BELIEVE HER and they all come out to connect with Jesus. Jesus ends up staying there for multiple DAYS, ministering and teaching.

The woman who was an outcast in her own town became the key that opened the door for Jesus to minister there.

But notice how she did that: She didn’t have some polished theological argument. She didn’t give an incredible speech. In fact, it looks like she’s still in process with her own faith journey, because in v29 she says, “Could this be the Messiah?”

She doesn’t declare… she invites. She’s still processing. She just simply shares how Jesus showed up for her personally.

So if you’re listening and you don’t think God can work through you because you don’t know what to say or how to evangelize or how to lead a Bible study… just look at this woman!

She just shared a personal experience. “Here’s how Jesus impacted me. And I’m still processing myself.” And God worked through THAT to bring a whole town out to connect with Jesus!

You see, God doesn’t need to wait until our theology is perfect. He doesn’t need to wait until we’ve practiced what to say in the front of the mirror and gained confidence. God isn’t limited by the fact that we are all still mid-transformation!

[Jesus’ love]

Because, Jesus’ love isn’t limited by your past. God’s power isn’t limited by your skills, your fears, or your doubts.

And I KNOW that some of you listening to me right now have some really good doubts! I know you’ve been telling yourself that you don’t know enough yet. You’ve been telling yourself that you’ve been gone too long. That the other people at church have it more together than you do. So you tell yourself God can’t use you yet.

Or maybe you’re telling yourself that everyone would think differently of you if they knew about your week, your search history… if they knew about your marriage… your record… all the ways you’ve been trying to satisfy the thirst, to fill the gap you feel in your life.

So you tell yourself that God can’t use you yet. But I need to tell you: Jesus’ love isn’t limited by your past. What you’ve done doesn’t render his grace powerless.

And some of you who've been here for years are hearing that and thinking — 'okay, but that's for someone like him, not someone like me.'

Because you’ve been faithfully connected to church for decades, but somewhere along the way you started to believe the lie that your best days of usefulness were behind you.

Maybe you feel like the church has moved on. The younger people with more energy are the ones that God is working through now…

I hear you, but I need to point you back to our text: This woman was written off by her community and probably herself. And Jesus made her the first evangelist of his identity as the Messiah.

God does not retire the people he loves. He sends them on mission to the people that they are connected to.

Jesus is not limited by your past, and he’s not limited by your strength or abilities.

Every barrier and obstacle that this woman had… her ethnicity, her gender, her moral history, her social standing, her religious tradition… Jesus crossed every single one.

Not accidentally… DELIBERATELY. “He HAD to go through Samaria,” because he had to get to her.

And he wants to get to YOU. And once he does, his mission of grace doesn’t stop with you. It flows THROUGH you.

[living water]

And Jesus is asking you the same thing he asked the woman. Not “are you good enough?” Not “have you cleaned up first?” Not “are you outgoing and energetic?”

Just: “what are you thirsty for?”

She came to the well because she was thirsty. But after she had her experience with the living water that Jesus offers, she ran off to tell everyone, and she LEFT her water jar.

That water jar was the whole point of her trip out to the well in the middle of the day! And she forgot it. Because when you meet Jesus, the thirst you came with suddenly seems small. The thing you thought would satisfy… you just, leave it behind.

What has that thing been for you? What is the thing that you keep going back to that never quite satisfies? The relationship, the achievement, the doomscroll, the numbing.

Jesus is offering living water, and he’s offering it right now, right here, to you.

He’s not waiting for you to get your life together first. He asking you to say yes to him. Receive the living water of his grace in your life. And if you’re hearing me, and you’re wanting to say yes to Jesus for maybe the first time, then maybe God is calling you to the waters of baptism next Sunday! So talk to me after service and we can start a conversation.

But receive living water, then drop the jar and go tell someone…

Because once you’ve received from Jesus… once you’ve experienced Jesus in your life, even in a small way, your next step is the same as hers: leave what you came with and go tell someone.

Remember, you don’t have to give a 3-point gospel presentation. You don’t deliver a memorized script. You just share one honest thing: “here’s what Jesus has done in my life recently. I think you should come and see.”

That’s how we live into our mission as a church this year for Each One Reach One. Remember? In the parable of the shepherd, Jesus leaves the 99 to find the One lost sheep. Who’s your One? Who is someone who is close to you, but far from God?

It’s not your job to save them, or convince them. But God wants to work through you to reach out to them. Jesus does the rest. Your job is just to drop the jar and go and tell someone what you’ve experienced with Jesus recently.

[END]

I want to end with this reminder: Jesus didn’t connect with that woman because she deserved it. He sat down with her at the well because he loved her. He crossed every boundary to reach her, not because she had earned access to God… but because grace isn’t something you earn. Grace doesn’t wait for us to try and earn it. Grace moves first.

That’s what Jesus did for her. It’s what he does for all of us.

Jesus left the glory of heaven and crossed the ultimate boundary and became human so that he could sit down in our experience and draw near to us.

And he knows everything about you. Every experience. Every loss. Every hidden trip to get water. And he is still offering his love and grace to you, saying “I am the Savior. I am who you need.”

The woman came to the well thirsty… and left filled.

She came wearing shame and left carrying a mission.

She came as an outsider and left as the first witness. [...]

That’s what Jesus does. He finds the unqualified, draws near to us with love, gives us living water, and sends us back into our world to reach those close to us so that we can tell them: come and see this Jesus who impacted me.

Isn’t that good news?