S2 Ep. 6- "Will you give me a drink?"

A hot noon, an empty jar, and a question that disarms: “Will you give me a drink?” We walk to Jacob’s well and linger there, not to rehearse a scandal but to face the ache we recognize in ourselves—thirst that keeps returning no matter how often we succeed, distract, or control. As we read John 4, we trace how Jesus goes through Samaria when others go around, and how that choice becomes a map for grace that moves toward tension and meets people where they hide.

We sit with the Samaritan woman’s story and watch the layers come off: the social barriers she names, the honest exposure of her past, and the miracle of presence—He knows and He stays. From there the conversation rises into a new vision of worship, not locked to a holy hill or a distant city but rooted in spirit and truth. We explore how truth without spirit can harden into shame, and spirit without truth can float into denial, and how their union becomes living water that does not run dry by nightfall. Along the way, we ask practical, searching questions about the modern wells we keep drawing from—approval, achievement, distraction—and why they leave us thirsty again.

The turning point arrives with a rare clarity: “I am He.” Spoken not to a ruler or scholar, but to a woman at a well at the hottest hour, that revelation reframes who is seen, who belongs, and where God shows up. As Lent guides us, we consider what it means to come as we are, to let ourselves be fully known without fear, and to receive a gift rather than negotiate a wage. If you’ve wondered whether God meets you in the heat of your day, this conversation is an invitation to stop detouring, tell the truth, and drink deeply of grace that stays. Listen, share with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review to help others find the living water too.

Let's Get Into It!!

Transcript

Thirst And Wrong Wells

Reading John 4 At The Well

Why Jesus Went Through Samaria

Noon At The Well And Isolation

Barriers Named And Gift Offered

The Wells That Leave Us Thirsty

Truth Without Shame

Spirit And Truth In Worship

I Am He: Revelation

What Wells Do We Trust

Lent And Living Water

Prayer And Sending Forth

Speaker 0:09

Welcome, friends, to Ancient Truth for the Modern Heart. I'm Steve Pozzato, and as always, I am grateful that you are here to spend this time with me. So far, we have been walking through Lent together for the past few weeks. First we were in the wilderness, and then we were with Nicodemus in the dark. And today we stand at a well. And if we're honest, most of us are, well, we're thirsty. Not just physically, but thirsty for peace, for clarity and belonging, thirsty for something that actually lasts. And this week, Jesus meets someone who has been drawing from the wrong wells for a very long time. And he doesn't shame her, but he offers her something better. So let's listen to that scripture. It's from John chapter 4, verses 1 through 26. Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria, so he came to a town in Samaria called Sikar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink? His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Miss Samaritan woman said to him, You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. Sir the woman said, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself? And did also his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered, Every one who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water. He told her, Go, call your husband and come back. I have no husband, she replied. Jesus said to her, You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true. Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. Woman, Jesus replied, Believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth. The woman said, I know that Messiah called Christ is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us. And then Jesus declared, I, the one speaking to you, I am He. There's a quiet line early on. He had to go through Samaria. Well, technically he didn't. In fact, most Jews likely went around Samaria. It was cleaner that way, safer, less complicated. But Jesus chooses to go through because grace does not take detours around tension. But this isn't just a geography lesson, it's theology. Jesus moves toward places that others avoid. And that means he moves toward people that others avoid. And now let's be at the well. It's noon. It is the hottest part of the day. And not the time when most women came to draw water. Mostly they came in the morning together when the sun is still cool. This woman has come alone. And that tells us something before even a word is spoken. Isolation often signals story, and Jesus begins with a simple request. Give me a drink. He starts vulnerable, not preaching, not correcting, not exposing, but asking. Grace, my friends, very often begins with shared humanity. But the woman responds with tension almost immediately. How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria? In that one sentence, she names every barrier. The barriers based in ethnicity, in religion and gender. And Jesus ignores none of them, but he refuses to be ruled by them. Instead, he says, If you knew the gift of God, and let's take note of that word, gift. Not wage, not transaction, but gift. Gift. And Jesus says something that lands almost like a diagnosis there. Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. And that's not criticism, friends, it's observation. All of us draw from wells, all of us drink from taps, or from bottles, or whatever it is we have. But we still thirst again. Because in life we also draw from other wells. Success, approval, relationships, distractions, achievements, control, the little dopamine fixes throughout the day. And every single one of them eventually leaves us thirsty again. And now the woman hears this and says, Sir, give me this water. She wants relief, but she doesn't yet understand the cost of transformation. Because then Jesus shifts the conversation. And this is the moment of exposure. Go and call your husband. This is where we start to tense up. It sounds like we're heading into confrontation, but listen carefully, because Jesus does not shame her. He names reality. And she tells the truth. I have no husband. And when Jesus responds, he says, You're right. Five husbands. The one you're with now is not your husband. He sees her fully where she is. That is the miracle. Not that he knows, but that he stays. And there are a lot of sermons out there, maybe you've heard some of them, that turn this story into a tale of morality. But the text does not call her immoral. It calls her known. Calls her worthy. It calls her loved. And there is a difference. She pivots. She pivots from personal life to worship debate. Where should we worship then? Here on the mountain or in Jerusalem? It's a brilliant move. When things get uncomfortable, we often shift to abstraction. It's a human thing to do. It's a strategy to protect ourselves. But Jesus answers her sincerely. The hour is coming when true worshipers will worship in spirit and truth. He doesn't say it will be a place, not on a mountain, not in a building, but in alignment with reality. Spirit, alive to God, truth, honesty about ourselves. And my friends, if you've listened carefully or read this story in your own Bibles, that is what just happened here at the well. And then there's a moment of revelation. She says, I know that Messiah, the Christ, is coming. And Jesus does something rare in the Gospels. He says very plainly, I am He. He says this to her. He says it not to a ruler, not to a scholar, not even to Nicodemus in the night, but to a woman at a well. At noon. A woman with a complicated story. And my friends, that matters because that is so often where God meets us. And so the story, it's not about scandal. It's about thirst. And it asks us, where are you drawing from? What well are you returning to that keeps running dry? Where are you isolating yourself when the day is hottest at noon? And more gently, what if the very place you are most known is the place Christ most wants to meet you? Because here's the good news. You do not have to clean your life up before you come to the well. You do not have to resolve your story before you meet the Messiah. You only have to come thirsty. Jesus does not condemn this woman. He does not rescue her dramatically, but he does speak the truth. And he offers her living water. And he stays. And that is what Lent is doing. It is bringing us face to face with the wells that we draw from and to the God who offers something much deeper. Not a quick fix, not a surface relief, but living water. A life rooted in grace. And my friends, sometimes that is what we all need. Because sometimes we are at the well in the heat of the day, drawing that which will leave us thirsting again. Sometimes we feel, can God meet us here? But my friends, God did not meet you there. God was with you the whole time. He has never left. Because God stays. So let us pray, my friends. Christ at the well meet us in the heat of our days, in the places we avoid, in the stories that we share quietly, the things we carry. Name our thirst without shaming it. Offer to us living water and teach us to worship in spirit and in truth. Give us courage, God, to believe that being fully known is not the end of hope, but is only the beginning of it. Amen. My friends, go forth in this next week and spend that time listening to God. Be in spirit and be in truth. Let God into your life to give you the living waters because it is yours, because God stays, and because that water will always be there when we thirst the most. Be well, my friends, and remember to carry the light of love in your heart always. Because wherever you carry love, my friends, there shall you go in peace. Until next time, friends, farewell wherever you farewell.