Sermon for March 8, 2026, Third Sunday in Lent

John 4:5-15 (Third Sunday in Lent—Series A)

“The Gift of God in Living Water”

Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, Enfield, CT

March 8, 2026

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our text is from the Gospel Reading recorded in John 4:

⁵Then [Jesus] came into a village of the Samaritans called Sychar near the field which Jacob gave to his son Joseph, ⁶and Jacob's well was there. Therefore, Jesus, being exhausted from the journey, sat beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. ⁷A woman from Samaritans came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸For his disciples had gone away into the village so that they might buy some food. ⁹Then the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is that you, a Jew, ask from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) ¹⁰Jesus answered and said to her, “If you had known the gift of God and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” ¹¹The woman said to Him, “Sir, you do not have a bucket and the well is deep. Therefore, from what source do you get this living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and he himself drank from it as well as his sons and his flocks?” ¹³Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks from this water will thirst again. ¹⁴But whoever should drink from the water which I will give to him shall surely never thirst, but the water which I will give to him will become in him a spring of water bubbling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I should not thirst and not have to come here to draw [water].”

           Spangler’s Spring at Gettysburg is a natural spring on the south base of Culp’s Hill. It was occupied by both Confederate and Union troops during the battle, and for a time was in between the lines. Legends developed that local truces were called during the night of July 2nd where both sides allowed the other to pass safely to the spring to fill their canteens. Having a natural, flowing spring from which to get drinking water is much preferable to drinking water from a pond or a cistern (a large container for holding water) where the water can quickly become stagnant. Stagnant water is a breeding ground for bacteria and algae. Springs are flowing sources where water is continuously moving, which naturally reduces stagnation risk.

Jesus offered to the Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar “living water.” “Living water” was understood to be moving spring water, running water, which was flowing and not sitting in a cistern or holding tank. On a physical level, “living water” is the highly sought-after fresh spring water, whether on a field of battle in Pennsylvania or in the hot dry climate of Israel, as opposed to stagnant water that might likely carry disease.

We know from John’s account that Jesus didn’t really have in mind an actual naturally occurring spring. If He did, He would have told the woman “the source” from which she might “get this living water” (v 11). What Jesus was directing the Samaritan woman to was something greater than a physical spring of fresh water, something greater even than Jacob’s well that was doing a wonderful job providing water to the village. So, what do you think Jesus had in mind?

Since Holy Scripture itself interprets Scripture, listen now to what we read in Jeremiah 2:13. Here God told Israel, “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13 ESV, emphasis mine). The Lord Yahweh calls Himself the fountain of living waters, that is, water that originates and nourishes life, with whom is the fountain of life, that is, from whose Spirit all life comes. Baal and the idols Israel was worshipping had no life and could give out no life, just as tanks with holes or cracks can’t hold water. Humans, created by God and for God, cannot live without God. If a person forsakes the living God, he or she passes into the service of dead, unreal gods. Forsaking the living God is in fact exchanging Him for an imaginary god in whom there is no life.

You and I fall into that trap too, don’t we? Have you ever put your trust in yourself or placed your love and trust in something or someone other than the one, true God? We all must confess that we have. When you and I fail always to look to God first and foremost for our well-being, we are rejecting Him as our source of life and “living water.” In doing so, we build “cisterns” to hold our trust in human achievements such as intellect or technology. We put our love and trust in human goodness or in religious devotion, money and possessions, or pleasures such as food, drink, sex, sports, or entertainment, even family and friends. But these “holding tanks” are cracked. They leak. What’s more, they lead to stagnation. Drinking bad water can make you very sick, and in some cases, can lead to death. Fear, love, and trust in false gods, idols, and the “cisterns” of our own making, do lead to everlasting death.

We have tasted the stagnant water of our idolatry. We have sipped the cup of tainted water of our greed and sinful desires. We have endured first-hand the sickening effects of the polluted water of our own sin and guilt. This water never satisfies. It never quenches our spiritual thirst and longing to be who God created us to be. In our thirst for God, in our panting for streams of life, an invitation sounds forth from the Lord through Isaiah: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters!” (Is. 55:1 ESV). In John 7, our Lord Jesus, on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, repeated the invitation, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38 ESV). John writes explaining Jesus’ words, “Now this [Jesus] said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive” (John 7:39 ESV). Scripture interprets Scripture! This is the same water offered to the woman at the well, the same water offered through the prophet, the same water Jesus offers and gives to you through His Word and Sacrament—the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is poured out like water. In Exodus 17 we heard that God provided His people with free water in the wilderness, from a rock! Jesus offered the Samaritan woman this “living water,” and it would cost her nothing. It also costs you nothing—the gift of God given to you through water and the Word in Baptism. Baptismal water is required only once, for through it, the Holy Spirit is given, and with the Spirit is given also the life of the Spirit, the life of faith in Jesus Christ that receives the forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, and eternal salvation.

You see, the gift of God in the living water of the Spirit is without price. God forgives your sins for free. He grants you eternal life for free. But it cost God the Father the life and the blood of His one and only Son. Jesus, the Son of God took upon human flesh and became subject to human need, even to thirst. The well at Sychar was not the only place that Jesus was thirsty. Jesus was nailed to a cross on Calvary’s hill. As He hung there, bleeding and dying, John tells us “Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When He had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed His head and gave up His spirit” (John 19:28-30).

Jesus Christ became thirsty for you and me so that you and I would never thirst again. Jesus thirsted as He hung on the cross, bearing our sin and enduring our death. Burdened with our sin, Jesus became sin for us. We can certainly say that on the cross, Jesus became spiritually thirsty too because our sins were laid upon Him. We can hear Jesus saying to us from the cross, “I am happy to reverse the order and give you a drink. In fact, that is why I am here on the cross. I am dying for your sins so that you might drink from the living water of life eternal that I will give you through the Holy Spirit. Freely receive the forgiveness of sins which My death wins for you. Drink of the spring of living water without cost. I thirst in your place so that you no longer will.”

By God’s grace, our sins are forgiven because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. We have new life, eternal life, abundant life, through the living water of the Holy Spirit given to us in Baptism. As Jesus said to Nicodemus in our Gospel last Sunday, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Jn. 3:5-6 ESV). As Baptized children of God, you have been given faith which trusts in Jesus as your Savior by the power of the Holy Spirit Who works through water and the Word of Christ. Because of this gift, Christ dwells in you through the Spirit. The Spirit Himself has become a spring of water bubbling up to eternal life as He delivers to you the fruits of Jesus’ cross and resurrection—sins forgiven and life forever.

Living water flows from the tree of Jesus’ cross to you in the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit delivers to you personally, by means of the Gospel, Baptism, and Lord’s Supper, the refreshment of forgiveness and eternal life that Jesus won for you. The gift of God in the living water Jesus has given to us, the Spirit Himself, continues to be for you a spring of water bubbling up to eternal life. Amen.