The Third Sunday in Lent
Third Sunday in Lent
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Reverend Michael J. Moffitt
March 8, 2026
All Signs Point To Jesus
Text: John 4:5–26
For the last two weeks many of us have gathered together for the Lenten Soup Supper on Tuesday’s at 5:00 PM. We then have a time of singing hymns, a short devotional, and then Compline, which is the last of the seven times set by the Church for liturgy. If you haven’t come yet I encourage you to be there.
During the five weeks we’re focusing on five ways that God uses to deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ.
The first week we considered how creation itself reveals to us the power, the glory, the majesty, the beauty, and the creative genius of God. It calls us to a deeper sense of who God is and why he deserves our praise, commitment, and faithfulness to His Word. Creation’s overwhelming awesomeness reminds us that the Creator God is far greater than we can even begin to fathom.
This past Tuesday we spoke of how all of scripture from Genesis to Revelation invites us to witness how Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is clearly seen in all of God’s word. We’re encouraged to daily feed upon the word and find a greater intimacy with Jesus through His word, the Scriptures. In John 5:39 the Apostle quotes the Lord,
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me…”
Today we’ll see a wonderful example of how the stories within the Old Testament scriptures point us to the New Testament reality that Jesus is the Messiah and He came to set us free from bondage to sin and death. Let’s start with a brief look at Exodus 17:1-7. Let me set the scene.
The children of God continue in their wilderness wandering and come to camp at Rephidim. Again when they arrive they realize there is no water for them or their livestock to drink.
Think about this for a moment because this is a significant problem. Let’s go back five chapters to get a sense of the magnitude of the need they had for water and lots of it. Exodus 12:37-38,
And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children. A mixed multitude also went up with up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds.
In addition to the men there were women and children plus a mixed multitude of those who weren’t of the nation of Israel. It’s been suggested that many Egyptians (and perhaps other foreigners) went with them because the God of Israel demonstrated that He was more powerful than the gods of the Egyptians. The total of just people was likely as much as two million, plus livestock.
This would have been the number who walked across the Red Sea on dry ground because God parted the water. The Egyptian army attempted to follow, and God released the water on top of the army and they all perished.
So in our passage this morning we see that clearly that the people of Israel had terrible memories of how God miraculously saved them and provided all they needed. In spite of this they immediately confront Moses demanding water and once again accuse him of leading them and their children out of Egypt just to die from thirst.
Again they have taken their eyes off of the constant visible presence of the Lord and focused on their lack of water. Remember they have seen God deliver His people countless times from when they were in Egypt to countless times of miraculous provision and protection within the wilderness.
They blame Moses who also doesn’t have any water. I can only imagine the frustration of Moses as he rebuked them for their failure to trust the Lord again. At this point they’re furious with him so he does the only thing he can do. He turns to the Lord the true source of all things. Listen to God’s answer to Moses in verses 5–6,
And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which
you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.
This powerful moment reveals the patience and mercy of God. He tells Moses that he was to take his staff, the one where he struck the Nile River in Egypt and the water turned to blood. The same staff used to part the Red Sea. Listen to Exodus 14:15-16,
The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.”
This was the staff that God gave Moses to display the power of God to Pharoah in all of the plaques. Now God is commanding him to strike the rock that God will be standing on and water will gush forth, enough to meet their need.
What’s really going on here? Is their need for water the main point here? No, not at all.
Once again Israel has sinned against God who had been incredibly kind and loving to this people that He had chosen to be His representatives. However, God, who is Holy, could not let their sin go unpunished, so He stood upon the rock and tells Moses to strike it with the staff that had always been used to render Gods judgment. God identified with the rock and took the punishment for their sin upon himself.
By causing the water to flow out of the rock (not something you normally see) God demonstrated that he was not guilty of mistreating his people. The reference is to the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Ezekiel 47:1–12). Later on Zechariah 13:1 points to this reality. “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.”
Many years later the Apostle Paul would point to this exact moment in Israels history and give us a better understanding of what was happening and what it pointed to. Listen to 1 Corinthians 10:1-4,
For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”
One of Paul’s main points was that the rock that was at Rephidim continued to follow them throughout their wanderings, and they continued to have water to drink.
In Psalm 95 that we read this morning the Psalmist references the “quarreling” and “testing” which summed up Israel’s attitude towards God during the 40 years of their wilderness sojourn. Those who rebelled against the Lord during that 40 years never entered the promise land or the eternal rest. Professing Christians must remain faithful if they are to enter God’s eternal rest.
So now lets turn our attention on our Gospel reading from John 4: 5-26. Once again John is focused on the central changes that Jesus was bringing to the Kingdom of God.
Jesus and his disciples were traveling from Judea to Galilee, and the shortest route was to pass through Samaria. However, Jews who hated Samaritans would rather cross the Jordon River twice to avoid any contact with them. Actually, the feeling was mutual, the Samaritans also hated the Jews. The sad thing is that they had an historical connection with the people of Israel.
David Guzik in his commentary on the Gospel of John explains.
Their faith was a combination of commands and rituals from the Law of Moses, put together with various superstitions. Most of the Jews in Jesus’ time despised the Samaritans, disliking them even more than Gentiles — because they were, religiously speaking, “half-breeds” who had an eclectic, mongrel faith. The Samaritans built their own temple to Yahweh on Mount Gerizim, but the Jews burned it around 128 B.C. This obviously made relations between the Jews and the Samaritans even worse.
You’ll notice that the woman tells Jesus that the well she is drawing from was originally Jacob’s, whose name God changed to Israel, the father of the 12 tribes.
Listen to John 4: 5-6,
So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
It’s easy to forget that Jesus was God incarnate yet also fully man. He was weary and needed to rest and some water to drink. He sent his disciples into Sychar the nearby town to buy food. He could have gone with them, but this woman was the reason he was there. Jesus wasn’t just seizing an opportunity to share with this women who he was. He was there intentionally, to see her, to change her life.
When the woman arrived she must have been cautious because she didn’t know him, but she knew he was a Jew. It was customary that a Jewish man would never speak with a Samaritan women so when Jesus asks for a drink of water she is surprised and says so. Jesus response must have confused 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.”
She points out that he was no bucket or ladle to draw water and the well is very deep. I’m guessing that she was also thinking to herself, If you have this amazing water then why are you asking me for a drink?
At this point she must have been surprised that Jesus hadn’t walked away from her. Most people did. There was a reason that she came for water in the heat of the day unlike the other women in her town who came in the morning before it got hot. She was an outcast an immoral woman. Disrespected and shunned and yet this man was still there talking. Well it wouldn’t be long before he found out who she really was.
Jesus continues talking about the water he’s offering her in verses 13–15.
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
The woman hears Jesus talking about water but he’s talking about real life. He’s offering himself. Then Jesus begins to draw her out by asking her to go and get her husband and come back. I imagine that she felt a sudden hollow feeling in her stomach and thinks to herself, Okay here it comes.
She responds that she doesn’t have a husband, and Jesus replies,
“You’re right. You’ve had five husbands and the man you’re with now is also not your husband.” She offers no explanation- no defense. Just her life spoken out loud by someone who wasn’t there for any of it. Now he knows the truth. Now he sees her for who she really is. So she tries to change the subject and point out that the Jews and Samaritans have different places where they worship God.
Then Jesus lets her know that things are about to change. Where worship takes place will cease to be the point because “the day is coming and is now here when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.”
It’s the next part in the dialogue that is the payoff. John 4:25–26,
The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
I love this story because this woman could not imagine that she had any self worth left. But Jesus did something that surprised her, he stayed, he listened and then still didn’t walk away. He knew she was ready and in need of a Savior.
Even more important is that Jesus didn’t take the shortcut between Judea and Galilee to save time. He came to see the Samaritan woman at the well at the time he knew she would be there. It was also important that the disciples not be there because they would have only reacted to the fact that she was a Samaritan and a woman. They weren’t ready or able to see through the eyes of the Savior.
Jesus had not come for the self-righteous, the qualified, and he wasn’t even in the temple but meeting elsewhere with those who were broken and knew it. He came right where they were.
She came to the well to draw water for the daily need but found the promised living water. She was about to drink of the living water that would satisfy her thirst ,and it came from the Rock who was Christ.
Are you thirsty?
You likely know the rest of the story. She went to telling everyone about the man who told her all that she ever did. The amazing part is that she goes back to tell those that she was avoiding to come and see this man who told her all that she had done and yet he didn’t walk away. The town goes out to meet Jesus and talked Him into staying a few days and many more believed that Jesus was indeed the Savior of the world.
One of the most amazing parts of this story is that this woman, a Samaritan became the first evangelist proclaiming that Jesus Christ was/is the promised Messiah.
What might he do with you if you come to him in faith and repentance? Let’s pray.
©2026 The Rev. Michael J. Moffitt
