John 4: 4-19; 27-30; 39-41
March 7, 1999
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
Something to Hide
I can remember times when I arrived to class without having completed my reading assignment for that day. I’m sure some of you have experienced this before. I can’t decide whether to go or not. I had all good intentions to keep up with the readings and all, but unexpected things came up that required my attention. Besides, the professor has no idea of what I’ve been going through this week! He should understand. I should go to class because it’s 20% of the grade. Maybe I would just come in and slip in one of the chairs in the far back. Maybe he won’t even see me. And please, God, please don’t let him call on me!
Last week, Nicodemus, a Pharisee with honors and an upstanding reputation came at night to see Jesus. He didn’t want his friends to catch him talking with Jesus. Who knows? Jesus may have easily been one of those religious fanatics? Or maybe he came at night because his Pharisee friends have criticized Jesus, and Nicodemus didn’t want them to see him going against their backs talking with a suspicious Rabbi. Or perhaps, he was searching for answers that he thought only Jesus could provide. And what if Nicodemus was wrong about Jesus, he didn’t want to be caught talking with him. He came late at night. He had a reputation to protect.
Today, Jesus confronts the Woman of Samaria. The time was noon, an unlikely time for a woman to be trekking out to the local well for water. Fetching water was a task carried out either first thing in the morning or at sunset to avoid the sun’s scorching heat. This woman had something to hide to come at the hottest time of the day. She was avoiding being seen and seeing anyone else.
Nocodemus, the woman at the well and I were sneaking around, ducking under cover to hide from the light, sitting in the back to avoid being seen, and embarrassed in one form of another about who and what they and I have become. We couldn’t be honest with ourselves.
Be Honest with Ourselves
How honest are we with ourselves? Contrary to what we would like to believe, we are all able to be like this woman of Samaria. Our own lives may not be too different from the woman at the well.
- We also come at noontime.
When have we avoided facing important issues in our lives? These may be problems at our jobs, our relationship with our spouse or important person in our lives, or hard decisions about our finances. Sometimes, our problems are so great that we want to put them off—to avoid facing them and the consequences that
surely will come along. Our desperation for avoidance imprisons us from being free to live life fully today. Couples who are experiencing marital stresses exchange glances trying to avoid talking about the issues that are slowly widening the gap away from intimacy. Like the Samaritan woman, we come at noontime to avoid facing difficult situations of life. We want to be able to draw living water in the morning and in the evening too when we can hold up our heads unashamedly as good people.
- We have hateful biases.
The Jews and Samaritans during Jesus days didn’t get along. There was enough animosity between Jews and Samaritans that Jesus could have avoided talking to her. When Jesus asked her for a drink of water, the woman said, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria? Jews just didn’t share things in common with Samaritans. Perhaps from the very beginning of time, during Jesus’ time, and still present today, we continue to see prejudice and hatred toward people who are different from us. Our disregard for others is probably one of the deepest sins of being human.
When I was growing up in the Roxbury section of Boston, our neighborhood went quickly from Italian to Black. Maybe it was redlining or white flight. I don’t really know. In any case, our neighbors were not Piccetti or Giuliani anymore but Franklin and Washington now. One of the things I remember my parents saying is how we used to call our neighbors: white devils and black devils. We always referred to ourselves as Chinese people. Ingrained and embedded in our minds and hearts and in our everyday speech, we are prejudiced toward people unlike ourselves. Jesus speaking to a Samaritan woman breaks down the barriers that separate us. These inner hurtful biases that we harbor need to be eliminated from our lives.
- We have dark secrets.
Unlike Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman has no name. It is easier to have had five husbands and the one she is currently with is not her husband either if you don’t have a name. Leaving aliases at different places makes it harder for people to track you down for favors and unmet obligations. Like the woman of Samaria, we too have dark secrets that we are unwilling to share. These bad memories in our past continue to haunt us to no end that we become afraid that someone will find out. We all have done a few things that we’d prefer that no one know about.
Listen to a story about a thief called The Magic Seeds.
A thief was sentenced to death by hanging for stealing a small package of meat. Before he was taken to the gallows he was allowed to address the king. “Your majesty,” the thief said humbly, “I am the only man living who knows how to plant an apple seed that will grow and bear fruit overnight. To atone for my crime I would like to teach you and your court the secret. I will need a shovel, a handful of apple seeds, and a maiden who has not tasted love’s first kiss.”
Eagerly the king, his 13-year old daughter, and all his advisors gathered in an open field to learn this most wonderful secret. In the most elaborate manner possible, bowing and making dramatic gestures, the thief dug a small hole. “Now,” the thief said, “the water must be poured in the hole by this tender maiden.”
The king’s daughter stepped forward and carefully poured a small container of water in the freshly dug hole.
“We are ready for the actual planting,” the thief said addressing the assembled group. “The seed can only be placed in the earth by someone who has never taken a single item that did not belong to them, no matter how small or how long ago.”
“I would like to have my most trusted advisor, the prime minister, be the one who plants this magic seed in the ground,” the king announced.
Hesitating, the prime minister said meekly, “I am afraid that I am not eligible, your majesty. When I was young I took a jacket that was not mine.”
“Perhaps it is best that our loyal treasurer be the one to plant the seed,” the king said quickly.
“Majesty, “ the treasurer said with some embarrassment, “you forget that in a previous position I foolishly kept a small amount of money that did not rightfully belong to me.”
One by one the king’s advisors coughed, sputtered, and explained meekly that they were not able to plant the seed. Finally, even the king admitted that he once took a small item that belonged to his father.
When each had spoken the thief addressed the king. “The members of your court are men and women of the highest ethical standards. They are recognized as devoted public servants, yet not one of them can say they have never taken anything that did not belong to them. How is it that I am to be hanged for taking a bit of food?”
“You are a wise and crafty man,” the king said to the thief. “I now give you a full and complete pardon.”
We all may have hurtful biases and secrets that we want no one to know about. Nevertheless, we are able to function and live active and productive lives like the king’s court advisors. But when we become honest about them, we are able to go on with life and the truth frees us from our fears. Our honesty will lead to freeing others whom we
imprison with our own biases and secrets. The thief is pardoned for his crime because the king’s advisors as well as the king himself were honest about themselves.
When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman, he confronted her deepest feelings and darkest secrets that she had about herself. These feelings of shame caused her to avoid contact with others. Her identity as a Samaritan made her feel less valuable of a person than the Jews. While still able to carry out her daily chores of drawing water, cooking, and caring for her husband, she was living with dark secrets of a checkered past of infidelity and sin. Her life was filled with dishonesty because she was not able to love herself for who she was and what she has become.
God Knows Us
It must have been very disconcerting for this Samaritan woman to let Jesus see right through her, to know everything about her. She couldn’t avoid Jesus’ telling her all about her past. And what Jesus saw, was no big deal! Jesus was not shocked by this woman’s past. He continued his conversation with her, leading her to hear Jesus confirmed that he is the coming Messiah. When she returned to her village, her testimony led many to believe in Jesus the Messiah.
God is never shocked about the things that we have done. Regardless of how horrible and terrible our past has been. Regardless of how much shame and embarrassment we have caused to ourselves and to our family. Regardless of what we may have done that we hide away and don’t want anyone to know about. God is not shocked by what has happened. God is not shocked at me for some of the bad things that I have done, much worse than not getting my reading assignment completed. God is not shocked by what you have done either.
John 2:24-25 said, “Jesus knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.” God knows our deepest thoughts. When we pray to God, we know that all our hearts are open, all our desires are known, and from whom no secrets are hid.
Perhaps the most frequent response that I have encountered when people are considering the Christian faith is they feel that they are not good enough. “I’m not as spiritual as this other person.” “I still have to get the rest of my life together before I can attend church.” “God doesn’t want me. I have done too many bad things.” We will never be “good enough” for God. That is the reason why we have Jesus Christ. Through the saving act of Jesus Christ on the cross, he took on all of our shame, all of our wrong doings, all of our darkest secrets and gave us another chance. We are accepted by God by faith rather than by deeds. We are loved by God by our faith even when there are still some of the deepest and darkest secrets of life that are too hard to face.
The Samaritan 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!” She must have spoken with some men because they said, “He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” Finding it hard to
believe this Samaritan woman, they left the city to meet Jesus for themselves. The passage said, “Many Samaritans from that city believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony.”
Who would have guessed that a woman of that repute would testify to Jesus’ identity as the coming Messiah that many from that city believed? God took a Samaritan woman with a bad reputation, dark secrets, and despised by her neighbors to share in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus saw through this woman and exposed her deep, dark secrets. 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, ”He told me everything I have ever done.” (John 4:39) When Jesus helped her to be honest with herself, she once again became a whole person. She was then able to leave her water jug at the well and quickly ran back to the city to tell about what she saw. She didn’t care what others might be saying about her. She was once again a whole person. She didn’t need to hide anymore by coming at noon to draw water. She probably burst into the crowds gathering around the city square to announce what she just experienced with Jesus. She is now a woman with a name known by Jesus himself.
God Knows Us Well Enough to Forgive Us
You may be thinking to yourself, “What is wrong with my life today? I have all the conveniences and things that I need. I am happy, don’t mess up my world!”
It is something like this. There was a little boy who was floating his boat on the pond when the boat drifted away. A man came by, saw the boat drifting away from the boy, and began throwing stones on the far side of the boat. The boy asked, “What are you doing?”
But then something very interesting happened. As the stones hit the water beyond the boat, they created ripples which pulled the boat back toward the boy. Even though the stones disturbed the smooth water, they achieved the desired results.
This is how it is with God sometimes. We maybe thinking that our lives are fine, but we may be drifting away from God because we still have these hurtful biases and dark secrets that make us feel unworthy. God throws disturbing stones out beyond us in order to pull us back to the shore of God’s love.
Like the Samaritan woman, we may be seeking for God to expose our hurtful biases and dark secrets to be whole again. And when we share our biases and dark secrets with God, he is not shocked. God knows what we have been up to all along. Our lives are like a Japanese tea bowl. It is strikingly beautiful because the bowl had been broken and pieced back together. Instead of trying to hide the flaws, the cracks were emphasized—filled with silver. The bowl is even more precious after it had been mended.
By being honest with our hurtful biases and dark secrets, by identifying the cracks in our lives rather than trying to hide them, we are mended and made whole again. We are
more beautiful and precious in God’s eyes because we have confessed to him all of our past deeds, and by faith, we are forgiven and made whole again.
Let us pray.
Dear loving God, help us to find within ourselves the courage and honesty to face our hurtful biases and dark secrets in our past. We pray to be delivered from who we are to become what we can be—your children worthy of your forgiveness and dedicated to your ministry on earth. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, we pray. Amen.