THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
March 12, 2023
Some of you may have noticed the Gospel reading was longer than usual.
No apologies: it is Lent after all, and we have to get into shape for the reading of Passion stories during Holy Week.

Seriously, the story of Jesus meeting with this self-confident sinner is one of the greatest moments in Jesus’ preaching and teaching career.
This story of this living water is a drama about Faith.
John shows us how an individual and a community come to believe in Jesus.
            As always, Jesus takes the initiative. He speaks and the woman begins to sip living water. Her faith makes sense. She knows there is a Messiah. Could it be He? Yes.
She rushes to town crying come and see! The drama expands – citizens come to see Jesus stays, many believe.

What does this story have to do with us?

1. What the woman did
2. What the woman did not do

 

1. She did thirst for living water. Most of us have only sipped it. Few thirst for it the way they thirst for a Bud light. That is our Lenten problem – what are we thirsty for (popularity, best house, or living water?)
2. Reflect on what she did not do: she did not hide her living water in some private do not touch water jar. She went to get others. Many came to believe because of her. Now, I don’t expect you to drop everything and go out – not yet. Something happened at that well. You can feel her excitement. She was all aglow. She looked saved. People believed because she looked like she believed. By her life we could tell she has drunk deeply of living water.