John 4:5-42
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus 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.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him.
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
That Samaritan woman can not be at that well with Jesus. The math just doesn’t math. She’s a woman… A Samaritan… She’d had a series of husbands. The first century social/cultural math calculation makes that scenario impossible! And yet, there he is, Jesus, just hanging out like he uses a different sort of math altogether! We’ll come back to that…
The first century social/cultural math says Jesus should have brought anger, offense, and revulsion to his meeting with this woman at the well. But what did he bring? Thirst. He was thirsty.
In Jesus’ mind there was no reason to make this situation into some impossible calculus problem! There was no reason to get differential equations or integrals involved! He was thirsty. This woman had a bucket. They were at a well.
Thirst + bucket + well = hydration. Easy.
Trying to solve that problem with the social/cultural math of the day made it into a hopeless problem… an impossible cause. But when Jesus brought his math to the very same problem… it became no big deal. It was… easy… a miracle!
It’s crazy! Isn’t it? Those ridiculous ancients! Am I right? People who insisted on using their ridiculous, nonsensical, ignorant, and idiotic social/cultural math to complicate things and demonize people! We modern people would NEVER do that, would we? Would we? Yeah we would. And we do! All the time! Here’s just one example: homelessness.
The prevailing social/cultural math calculates that homelessness is a hopeless problem… an impossible cause! That’s mostly because homeless people have so many other issues that need to be addressed before you can even think about finding them a home. Really complicated stuff, like mental illness, addiction, joblessness, and the list goes on! That math just don’t math! Except… here’s the math they use in Finland.
Homeless Person - Homeless = Person.
Finnish people who experience homelessness have all the same issues… mental illness, addiction, health issues, employment difficulties… but the first thing they get there is an apartment. Their own, permanent apartment. Of ALL their problems, you know what problem they DON’T have after they get an apartment? Homelessness. After they get an apartment…they… don’t… have… homelessness. Then, from that one, safe, stable location… a place they can count on and call home, they have a base to begin working on all the rest.
When people try to solve that problem with the social/cultural math of the day it becomes a hopeless problem… an impossible cause, but when Finnish math (which is also Jesus math) gets applied to the very same problem… what do you get… a human being with dignity… A person with a home… a miracle!
But what about a REALLY hard problem? What about figuring out where people are allowed to pee? Kansas recently passed a law that is now expected to cost taxpayers MILLIONS of dollars to implement. This law, among other things, tries to legislate where people can pee. Women, men, non-binary, trans, adults, children. Where can they pee? Kansas, using the social/cultural math of an unnecessary culture war, has made this into a hopeless problem… an impossible cause. But creating a place where everyone can pee is actually simple. Christ Trinity solved this issue decades ago with a very simple equation: A PNP (thats a person needing to pee) + toilet = Person (brain exploding mime).
That’s not just theoretical math either! We’ve been testing it in our “technology incubator” for two and a half decades! I’m sure you’ve been a test subject. The technology incubator is located between the sanctuary and the Parish hall and it features a toilet, floor to ceiling walls, and a lockable door. It has successfully processed PNP’s who identify as men, women, non-binary, trans, children, and adults without incident for more than two and a half decades!
I make fun, because if I didn’t make fun, I’d ugly cry about how STUPID and HURTFUL it is to have people use such flagrantly de-humanizing social/cultural math on a non-problem, like “WHERE CAN I PEE”, when that same problem is so easily solved with just a little, very basic, Jesus math!
Each of these examples is an impossible problem or hopeless cause, ONLY because people have chosen to use social/cultural math instead of Jesus math. This lesson… this parable… is showing us… I think… that there really are no genuinely hopeless problems or impossible causes out there in this world. All that exists is the fear, pride, and ego that keeps us from using Jesus math and treating the “other” as a beloved children of God.
But the social/cultural math we continue to insist on using just doesn’t math! It is overly complicated, ineffective, and hurtful! It only perpetuates impossible problems and hopeless causes. It never solves them!
It really is very much past time for our world to abandon that hurtful kind of social/cultural math and instead embrace a math that scatters the proud… casts down the mighty… lifts up the lowly… fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty. It is time for our world to pick up on Jesus math and stop perpetuating impossible problems and hopeless causes. It is time for us to abandon all that takes life from us and instead honor the life we've been given… and live that life abundantly. Amen.
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