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Who's thirsty? In the name of Jesus. Amen. In ancient times, this morning's gospel text was set aside to teach catechumens what it meant for them to put off the old man and be resurrected to new life by being united to Christ. Maybe because this text sets us up to understand who's really thirsty. Is it Jesus or is it the woman? Good job. What does their dialogue prepare us for? It prepares us to hear the word of Jesus. It prepares us to understand that salvation is not only for the Jews, but for the Gentiles also. It prepares us to understand that only Jesus gives us living water so that we may have eternal life. So we listen to the dialogue between this Samaritan woman and Jesus. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. It was the middle of the day, about the sixth hour. That's kind of a nefarious time to draw water from a well. Morning or evening really would have been a better time for that. Perhaps she's having a clandestine rendezvous. Perhaps it's the only time she can go because she's not welcome at other times because of her reputation. But Jesus interacts with her anyway. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. Here we have Jesus, the man, requesting a drink. Who would have thought that the word of God made flesh feels the same things that we do? But he hungers like you do, and he thirsts like you do too. The Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Yet he still speaks and talks to someone who by all rights he shouldn't be. The clean would never associate with the unclean. Jews never considered the Samaritans clean. They are half-bloods, you know, intermingled with the Gentiles. But the Lord breaks the barrier anyway. Is Jesus too good for her? No. It's the Lord who seeks and saves the lost, not the other way around. Jesus answers her, if you knew the gift of God and who it was who is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. But she doesn't know the gift of God, and she doesn't know who's speaking. She wasn't there when John the Baptist said to Jesus, I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me. She didn't get to follow John's finger as he pointed all the disciples' eyes to Jesus and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. If she recognized who Jesus was, she would have realized he is the source of living water. And that water comes from him, that comes from him, gives life eternal. But she can't. It must be revealed to her just as it has been revealed to you. Just like our own catechumens have learned recently about the work of the Holy Spirit. I cannot, by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified me, and kept me in the true faith. The woman tries her best to reason through Jesus' statement. She says. How can you give me living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob? He gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock. And there it is, human reason at work. She can neither see Jesus for who he is, nor understand what he's giving out. Even when his word is attached to mundane earthly things like water. The woman must be given the eyes of faith. 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 forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water well enough to eternal life. So Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of everyone's faith, begins to pry open her eyes with his word, in order that she would see him as he really is. He speaks and she receives. Now she's thirsty. But she still has yet to understand how Jesus will satisfy her thirst. So Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You're right in saying you have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you've said is true. Leave it to Jesus' word to expose her heart. His word exposes our hearts too. Just like he says in Matthew's gospel, out of the heart come all manner of sin. So right here before Jacob's well, Jesus exposes her heart with the law, just like he exposes all of ours. He points her at the sixth commandment. As a Samaritan, she would have been familiar with the law given to Moses at Mount Sinai, and by Jesus' word her sin was exposed nonetheless. Yet he is offering her, a Samaritan, eternal life. Even though Jesus was a stranger to her, he knew her life and her discontentment that came out of her heart. She was never satisfied with what she was given. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. As Jesus exposes her heart and her history, she now tests the Lord to see if what she suspects is true. Where is the proper place to worship God? This question always begins at a place of unbelief. It's always the wrong question. The right question is, how should we worship God? And that's the question that Jesus actually answers. Because if we worship our Lord according to how he speaks and gives, then the gathering place is given, and true and faithful worship will take place. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know. For salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him. And so our Lord continues to open her eyes of faith. Her ears are the eyes of her faith. He speaks and she receives. He speaks faith into her heart. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all named. How does one worship? When the Father and the Spirit and the truth are all present. When the name of God is given and placed on those who Jesus seeks and saves. For in these words of Jesus, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all present. For there is only one Father and the one Holy Spirit. But it is the truth that gives it all away. For there is only one who is the truth, and that's Jesus. Only Jesus can say of himself, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So how does one worship the Father in spirit and truth? Well, when they are worshiping according to what Jesus' word gives. This is why Jesus gives us the baptismal formula in the last chapter of Matthew. Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them all that I have commanded you. And this is why Jesus tells the disciples later in John 6, My words are spirit. And they reveal the truth about who He is and what He says. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. If we attempt to worship God our own way, then we're not worshiping the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit his way. But if we worship God the way Jesus gives us, well then we will worship in his spirit and truth. This is what he gives to the Samaritan woman and to us. If we want to worship rightly, then we must be about receiving what our Lord has for us. What our Lord has to say. But to use our Lord's word, if you knew the gift of God that is before you, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The gift of God is Christ Himself. And what is this living water but a water which assumes a springing source? And where is the source of your life, dear Christian? Where is the fount of every blessing? But the place where Jesus seeks you out and saves you? The place where he makes disciples out of all of you. For there is where he exposes you and everything about you, so he can wash away all your sin and give you eternal life. And what other place does he do that except in baptism? Right where the Spirit of the Lord springs forth and lifts your sins to the surface so he can wash them all away, to name you with his name, to show you how those who are made alive in him now can worship the Father in spirit and truth. His word is spirit. If Jesus speaks it, we must listen. If Jesus gives it, we must be about receiving it. If Jesus exposes our hearts, then sins are revealed. But we must be about letting Jesus do this very thing, because he wants to wash away all of your sins. This is why Luther said, confession and absolution are nothing more than a return to baptism. So that you can hear the purest gospel, and Jesus can wash your sins away with life-giving water yet again. If Jesus delivers to us living water, then we are saved. And there is nowhere where Jesus speaks more clearly than the preaching of His gospel and the administration of His sacraments for you, for all of you. And this is why we believe, why we teach it, why we confess it, that the church is the congregation of saints, and where the gospel is purely taught and the sacraments are correctly given. Because when he opens your eyes of faith, you will see him. You will say, He is the Messiah who is called Christ, and you will know it is he who speaks into your heart even this day, with his word. And if he is speaking to you, just like the catechumens of old, then you too will worship Father, the Father here in spirit and truth, because you're gathered in his name, and he has cleansed you from all your sin and delivered to each one of you eternal life. And then having received Jesus, you, like that Samaritan woman, are go will go out, and you'll tell everyone what you've heard and seen, that you have seen the Christ. Amen. Now the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.