Water

Third Sunday in Lent, 8 March 2026: Exodus 17:1-7; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42; Psalm 95

The Israelites were quarreling and unhappy. They’d left Egypt, and were in the “wilderness”, a desert. There was no water. They quarreled with Moses. Why had he taken them from Egypt into this unforgiving land, where they and their livestock would die of thirst.

Moses is annoyed: why do you test the Lord? He is also worried, so he cries out to the Lord. And the Lord provides water, after Moses strikes the stone at Horeb. Water came out. People could drink. This is a performance: the Lord instructs Moses to bring the elders with him, so they could see. And the place is named Massah and Meribah.

In the psalm, we learn that the Lord was really annoyed that this had to happen. He says the Israelites had “hardened their hearts” at Massah and Meribah, and tested him. “Forty years long I detested that generation”. The Lord knew how to hold a grudge!

I know I’m supposed to be on the Lord’s side, but as an inveterate water drinker, I sympathize with the Israelites. We need water to live. I’d be worried in the middle of the desert with no water. There’s a reason that water shortages caused by climate change are an increasing cause of global conflicts.

Today’s gospel begins with an endearing image of Jesus “tired from his journey“, resting next to a well. He’s not performing, he’s just sitting by the well, recovering from his travels while his disciples go into the city to get food. It’s a very human image. Then a Samaritan woman comes, and he asks her for water. But she’s surprised, because she’s a Samaritan, and Jews usually did not share food with Samaritans.

As their conversation moves on, the focus shifts from the water in the well, which would refresh Jesus, to the living water Jesus promises, which becomes “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life“. When the woman wants to know more–drawing water at the well is hard work–Jesus tells her to call her husband and return. She tells him she has no husband, and he accurately tells her marital history. This is, for her, the point that convinces her: he knows everything about her. He is a prophet. And then he tells her he is the Messiah, and she believes.

We’ve lost track of the water the woman was going to draw from the well, and the water Jesus wanted to drink. I want to think Jesus got the water that is so refreshing after a long walk. John just moved the story on because he was focused on the recognition of Jesus, and Jesus’ teaching, not the water. And Jesus seems to suggest that food and water don’t matter in comparison to doing the work he has come to do.

Jesus’ disciples are shocked to find him talking to a woman; she goes off and tells everyone to come listen to him. The Samaritans invite him to stay, and he stays for two days teaching. And many more believed because of his word.

We, as humans, need real water. It is necessary for survival. But we also need the water that offers eternal life. We need both.