What Love Does

What’s the one thing we have that the world doesn’t? Faith? Yes, we have faith. Jesus is the object of our faith. Jesus is whom we have put our trust to forgive us our sins and make us right with God. Hope? Yes. Jesus is our hope. We believe Jesus is coming back for us and we will live in eternity with Him. But we have one other thing that’s found in Jesus that is even greater than faith or hope. Do you know what that is?

That one thing is LOVE. But it’s not the kind of love we normally think of when we speak of love. We know a lot about love. Our lives are full of things we love. We love the laughter and fellowship of friends. We love a stunning sunset with a cool breeze. We love living in such a great community with all kinds of things we love to do. We love pickle ball, golfing, bike riding or taking a walk in the morning sun. We love vacations and cruises. We love our church! And we definitely love our spouses and grandkids. There’s so much to love these days. But that’s not the kind of love I’m referring to. The love I’m referring to is a radically different kind of love. A love that isn’t about us; a love that doesn’t just talk; but a love that does.

This is not a love that can be known through reason, discovered through science, or found through logic. It is not a love based on feelings or desires, but a love that seeks the best for another person regardless of the cost or consequences to yourself. What I am talking about is God’s love. The Bible tells us: God is love. 1 John 4:16 Love is His nature. It is His essence. Love is the very expression of Who He Is. And you cannot know how to love like God unless you have been loved by God. But once you know His love; His love will shatter everything you thought you knew about love. For His love will transform you into a person who might just love others like Jesus has loved you.

Think about how Jesus loves. He doesn’t love like we love. He doesn’t love people to get praise. He doesn’t love to feel good about Himself. He doesn’t love to get others to love him back. No, when Jesus loves, He loves those who don’t deserve love. He loves those who’ve made a mess of their lives, and He loves those who are often forgotten, rejected and starving for love. And when you experience the love of Jesus, His love will accept you, include you, and give you so much more than you ever imagined. But the great thing about Jesus’ love for you and for me, is that it’s meant to be the core characteristic of His followers.

That’s why as we celebrate what God has done for us today, and we look forward to how God wants to work through us in the future – there is no question in my mind as to how God desires to work though us. For what our world needs most from God’s people is God’s love. So, if you brought your Bible with you today, let me encourage you to open it to John 4:1-26, where Jesus is going to give us a refresher course in God’s love, as He encounters a woman in desperate need of what only God can give. So, if you’ve found John 4, Jesus is about to show us the kind of love our world needs. So, let’s dive into this encounter as we find Jesus and His disciples traveling through Samaria in verse 4,

Now Jesus had to go through Samaria. So, He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. John 4:4-6

The first thing we note, is that somehow Jesus “had to go” through Samaria. This is significant because Jews would avoid traveling through Samaria at all costs. You only went that way if you were in a hurry. Not only that, but Jesus is tired and it’s the sixth hour, the hottest part of the day and Jacob’s well is a great place to take a break. So, here’s the scene. Jesus is resting by the well as his disciples go into town to buy food. At this moment, a Samaritan woman approaches the well to draw water. Women who live in a village like hers just don’t do this. They avoid the heat of the day by coming early in the morning or just before sundown. And they never come alone. Yet this woman comes ALONE to the well at noon. So, we read: When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

She is shocked by Jesus’ question. The Samaritan woman said to him, “YOU are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can YOU ask me for a drink? She wants to know “How is it possible, that a Jewish man would even dare make such a request?” A normal Jewish man would never cross this social barrier. What gives?

Jesus not only breaks a sacred social taboo by talking to a woman in a public place, but he also crosses racial, religious, historical and moral barriers. Jews and Samaritans had hated each other for over 500 years. Jews despised Samaritans because they were a mixed race. Historically, when the Assyrians took over Samaria, they deported many of them and replaced them with people from all over their empire. These people brought their own gods and practices and then added to their religious shopping cart the worship of Yahweh, the Jewish God. As a result, Jews held Samaritans in disdain as a polluted race – polluted both racially and religiously.

But that’s just the half of it. 300 years earlier the Greeks had used Samaria as a base for their control of Jewish territory. The Jews retaliated by destroying the Samaritan temple on the summit of Mt Gerizim. The Samaritans then responded by penetrating the Jewish Temple, a few years prior to the birth of Jesus, and scattered bones of the dead in the Temple on the eve of Passover, defiling their temple and making it impossible for the Jews to keep the feast. As a result of that defilement, no Jew would ever be caught dead associating with a Samaritan. No good Jew would never befriend a Samaritan, rather you would hold a deep-seated hatred for any Samaritan. To a Jewish man, a Samaritan woman was an inferior human being in every way imaginable. So, what’s Jesus doing talking to this Samaritan woman?

He’s expressing God’s love. And what does God’s love do? 1) Jesus’ love cuts through man-made barriers Here he cuts through them with a simple question: “Will you give me a drink?” Asking that question cuts through every barrier: social, racial, religious and historical. For when Jesus asks her for a drink, he meets her on level ground – as a thirsty human being. He’s thirsty. She’s thirsty. She has access to the well. He asks her for help. Here at the well, there are no barriers. Jesus ignores the walls that are supposed to separate them and treats her as an equal. By making his simple request, Jesus values her as a person – not as a hated Samaritan. That’s what love does. Love breaks down the normal barriers to loving that we construct.

Simply put, we are experts at building barriers. We make up all kinds of excuses that keep us from loving people: “She’s socially awkward.” “His skin color is different.” “He’s mean-spirited.” “She’s an emotional basket case.” You fill in the blank… We all have our reasons for keeping people at arm’s length. And we feel justified putting up these barriers, so we don’t have to love those who are not like us. But Jesus never does that. Jesus loves everyone. Jesus doesn’t build barriers; He tears them down.

Can you imagine if we all loved like this? When Jesus’ kind of love flows through you, there is no one you cannot love. For when you love like Jesus, you impart value to people the way they are meant to be valued… as people created in the image and likeness of God. When you love like Jesus, you impart dignity. When you love like Jesus, you value them because they bear the image of God. This is what love does. Love doesn’t build barriers; it tears them down. Do you know someone who needs this kind of love? Everyone needs this kind of love. And if you know Jesus, you have this kind of love to give.

But Jesus is just beginning to show us how he loves. So, how else does Jesus’ love? Jesus’ love gives more than what you’re looking for. Look at what happens next: After Jesus cuts through decades of division, hatred and disdain, he answers her question with a startling offer: “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.” John 4:10

Jesus is speaking to her spiritual thirst, not her physical thirst. He is saying, “I’ve got something for you more satisfying than physical water.” Sound familiar? This is similar to Jesus’ final invitation to us from the book of Revelation. Remember his invitation: “And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” Jesus is offering her eternal life.

But it’s obvious that the woman doesn’t grasp what Jesus is offering. She thinks Jesus is talking about the water in Jacob’s well. You can hear the skepticism and disdain in her reply: “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, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”
Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:11-14

She has no idea what Jesus is talking about, because Samaritans only held to the first 5 books of the Old Testament. But elsewhere in the OT, God is identified as “the spring of living water” as “the fountain of life” Which is to say: The gift Jesus offers is the abundant life of God Himself: He is offering her the cleansing and invigorating life of the Spirit of God to come to live in the depths of her soul. He’s offering her the deep soul satisfaction that comes from knowing God as her Savior.

Again, it is important for us to understand the human condition of a thirsty soul. Last week we looked at the poster child of a thirsty soul: Solomon. He chased after everything under the sun to find soul satisfaction but came up empty. All of us have some idea of what we think might satisfy our deepest desires. We all thirst after happiness so we drink at the well of experience thinking that good times will quench our thirst. We thirst after intimacy so we drink at the well of relationships, believing that a love or sex will satisfy our souls. Or we all thirst for significance, so we drink at the well the well of performance, thinking that if we do better, we’ll feel better. But the Bible tells us that everything we think might fill us actually leaves us empty: “My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Jeremiah 2:13

Everyone in our world today looks for soul satisfaction from created things than can never fully deliver. But Jesus wants to give us far more than created things. Jesus offers us far more than what we settle for. Jesus wants to give anyone who comes to him, abundant life, spiritual life, the life of God. This is what sets Jesus’ love apart from any other love. No other love can give you this life. Our whole world is looking for something to fill our deepest longings, but what our world offers does not hold water. No matter how much we drink from the well of the world, we will always be thirsty again.

So, here’s what Jesus’ love does. Jesus gives us more than what we are looking for. He offers us the life of God: a life full of joy, peace and righteousness that only God can give. And when you drink of Him, your soul will be full.

But sadly, this woman still does not understand. She is still thinking on the physical level, and so 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. John 4:15-16

At this point Jesus loves her in a way most people are afraid to love today. He confronts her sin. Or I would say it this way: Jesus’ love sets us free from our brokenness and sin Look at how He does this: 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.” John 4:17-18 Now, we might think at first glance, Jesus is judging her. But he’s simply telling her the truth. Telling her the truth about her sin was the most loving thing Jesus could do for her. Jesus is revealing to her that she needs to stop drinking at the well of relationships in order to find true soul satisfaction. Telling the truth about her sin is how Jesus’ love is about to break through her brokenness. She needs to understand her sin before she can receive the living water Jesus offers.

The bumper sticker Christianity that says, “God wants you to be happy just as you are” is a lie. It’s just not possible for you to be happy just as you are. The Bible says each one of us is a sinner who’s lost our way. Left to ourselves, we are alienated from God’s love, blinded to His goodness, enslaved by our desires, and deceived by our hearts. How happy does that sound? It’s not fun to talk about sin. But the love of Christ never talks about sin to condemn us, but to set us free. And that’s what we see here. Jesus came to heal her and give her a new life. She was drinking from a broken cistern that didn’t hold water. Now, she could drink from the well of eternal life, if she turned from her sin and received what Jesus offers.

So, here’s a big truth about God’s love: Love speaks the truth about sin so love can set you free to receive the life God wants for you. Jesus did not come to judge you, but to deliver you. This is what love does. So, as we see from this encounter, speaking the truth in love is often shocking. It’s like ripping off a band-aid. For now, once she realizes Jesus has exposed her sin, shocked by his insight, she responds to Jesus saying, “Sir,” I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. John 4:19-20

She’s not putting up a roadblock here or changing the topic to avoid her sin. Rather, she is saying something like this: “Sir, if you’re so spot on about me, then who is right about worshiping God? Our fathers, (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) worshiped right here on this mountain, and you Jews, you claim that Jerusalem is the place to worship. Who’s right? Sir, if you’re a man of truth prove it, I want to know the truth. And if you are truly a prophet, then give me the truth.” So, Jesus gives her the truth declaring: “Believe me, woman, 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. John 4:21-22

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24 Can you imagine what she was hearing? This was her life: She’d spent her days shunned by her village, her soul bruised by the men who used and discarded her, and on top of that she was not allowed to worship God, neither here nor Jerusalem. Her life was in ruins. But now Jesus’ love awakens hope for a new kind of life.

This woman had lived without hope for so long. But now Jesus tells her that a new kind of life with God that is not about what religion you embrace or what place you worship, but about a relationship of love with the Father. The time had arrived when true worshipers were now able to express their love for the Father in spirit and truth. Jesus is telling her: You can now know God! You can now love God. You don’t need religion. You don’t need a Temple to worship the Father. You can worship the Father in Spirit and Truth. This is unbelievable! This is amazing. Jesus love for her has just awakened a hope that she thought she had lost.

Jesus tells her it is now possible for her, who had been an outcast from God, can now worship the Father. She can have a spiritual relationship with God. That’s the good news! At this very moment Jesus not only offers her living water but tells her she can have everything her heart has ever longed for. And so, the woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you – I am He.” John 4:25-26

This is the love of Jesus! And it’s the love our world needs. The Father is seeking worshipers. And we have the good news that Jesus is the way to the Father. Isn’t that amazing? Our world, our neighbors, our friends, everyone we lock eyes with, need the love of Jesus. And we have His love to give.

People long to be treated with value: Jesus’ love treats people with dignity and value.

People long for soul satisfaction: Jesus’ love offers life that will satisfy our souls.

People long to be set free: Jesus’s love will set you free from sin!
People long for hope that is real: Jesus’s love points the way back to the Father.

We have what the world needs.
We have the love of Jesus.

So may we become less. And He become greater, so that we might love like Jesus, and bring the love of God to everyone who needs Him. This is our mission. This is why the Church is the hope of the world. This is what God wants to do through us. He wants to love the world through the love of Jesus in us. Let’s pray.