Midweek Lent Sermon
4-1-2020
“Behold the Man: A
God Who Thirsts”
When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the
well, it was a very strange interaction.
First, Jesus said to this woman—an outsider, a half-breed, who expected
to have no interactions with any Jews—“Give me a drink.” The woman responded not with water but with a
question, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman from
Samaria?” But then comes this more
peculiar response from Jesus, “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.” Then later, he says, “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” (Jn 4:7-15).
Wait,
what? Water that wells up to eternal
life and quenches an eternal thirst?
Sure, I’ll take some of that. Much
later Jesus told a crowd in Jerusalem, “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.’” If
you are thirsty, Jesus says, come to me.
That’s beautiful, and inviting, and a bit odd.
But
then, the One who promised living water, so that man might never be thirsty again,
as He hangs on the cross – naked, derelict, dying, close to His last breath – He
cries, “I thirst.” Behold, the Well of
Living Water, the Fount of Water Welling up to Eternal Life. Behold, the very Rock who was cleft in the
wilderness to give a wellspring of life-giving water to His thirsting,
complaining people. Behold the One who
created the waters that flow, rivers that run, oceans, water tables, and
bubbling springs. Behold the God who
made six stone water jars of water to be the choicest vintage of wine the
wedding guests have ever tasted, with a vintage to satisfy their taste buds
beyond the simple wedding banquet. Behold
the Man. He is thirsty. Dried up, parched, with His tongue sticking
like Velcro to the roof of His mouth, craving even a small sip of sour wine
from a sponge. Behold, the Man who
thirsts.
Having
taken human flesh, the Second Person of the Trinity now needs to drink water in
order to survive. If this God does not
drink, He will die. The Creator relies
on an element of creation to make it from day to day. With His tongue like sandpaper in his parched mouth,
He wants a drink.
What
about you? For what do you thirst? For what does your flesh ache and groan? Not a drink of water, though. That is far too ordinary. For money, for riches, for power, for
influence, for success, for popularity, for comfort, for security, perhaps. Or
maybe your thirst is more basic, for another swig, for another beer, for a
glass of wine, for another pill to numb the pain, to dull the senses, to make you
forget the cruel realities of living in this world, cooped up in your house and
wondering if your job will be there for you after the curve has been flattened.
Maybe you thirst for more likes, more
reviews, more respect, or a better salary. You, like Jesus, are thirsty.
Jesus
thirsts for you. God has taken human flesh,
flesh which hungers and thirsts, flesh which needs sustenance, flesh which can
be beaten, abused, mocked, nailed to a cross, and hung until it thirsts in
peril for its life. But He’s not thirsty
so that He can live. He’s thirsting
because He can die. He’s thirsting
because he has flesh. He has flesh
because He desires to save mankind. Behold
the Man who thirsts.
Behold
the Man who empties Himself so that you might be filled. Behold the Man who is cut off so that you can
be grafted in. Behold the Man who
thirsts so that you can be satisfied. Behold
the Man who thirsts so that men might drink and never be thirsty again. Behold the man who is parched and dried up so
that you might find in Him a River of Life. Behold the Man who thirsts as He dies so that
you might never die, not like this, not the big death, not this death separated
from God, not death and hell. Behold the Man who thirsts so that you might be
satisfied.
In
Him, your thirsts, your desires, your needs, are quenched. Every thirst points
us back to the days in the Garden of Eden, to the Fall where Man began
thirsting for self-satisfaction rather than to be satisfied with God and his
good gifts. And every thirst points us
forward to the New Creation, to the River of Life, to the renewed heavens and
renewed earth, where all our thirsts, both physical and spiritual will be eternally
satisfied. Your thirsts, even when they
seem shallow and distorted, are really thirsts for this Wellspring, the river
which flows and waters the whole earth anew. Your thirst is a call to remain in Jesus alone
who offers water that will quench every thirst.
Until
then, as you wander in this wilderness between Eden and the New Eden, your
thirst is still good. Like hunger
sharpens your desire for the Bread of Life, the Body of Jesus, thirst chastens
your taste buds to desire something more than water, wine, or temporary
fulfillment. Thirst disciplines you to
desire a heavenly draft. Until you can
slake your thirst with the eternal water of life, there is a river from the
Lord’s Altar which can soothe your parched throat. In the Sacrament is the Blood of Him who bled
for you, who thirsted for your fulfillment, who died so that you might have
life. From the chalice in the Holy
Eucharist flows a river that gives you a foretaste of an eternal quenching, a
stream which can fulfill your deepest thirst.
Now,
I know you are thirsting for this in this challenging time when we cannot
gather together and have the Lord’s Supper.
But be assured that this will not last forever. At some point, we will be able to gather together
again. Christians on the frontier used
to wait for months for their circuit rider pastor to come by on horseback or
buggy to deliver the Sacrament. Lutherans
in Siberia during the days of the Soviet Union waited for decades until a
Lutheran pastor was finally able to serve them once again and bring the
Sacrament to them. Puts our predicament
into a bit of perspective. But even so,
just think how satisfying it will be when we feast together once again. In the meantime, you can be assured that the
waters of your Baptism will quench your thirst until we drink again the wine of
our Lord’s blood.
Behold
the Man whose blood still flows for you. Behold the Man who was dried up with thirst so
that your arid lips could be satisfied with the drink of His blood for true
drink. Behold the Man who thirsted. Behold the Man who bids you thirst no more.
Behold the Man who is the headwater of a new drink, the River of Life, the
water for which you thirst deeply and intensely. Behold the Man who was dried up with thirst so
that you might be quenched with a water that flows to eternal life. Behold the You’re your God who thirsts for
your salvation.
INI
Based on a sermon by the Rev. Jeff Hemmer
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