Old Testament Lesson; Genesis 12:1-8
Epistle Lesson; Romans 4:1-17
Sermon Text; John 4:5-26

In order to illustrate the story I am going to tell you, I have a stack of magazines underneath this box. They're not really there, but imagine that this is a pile of ‘dirty magazines,’ (pornographic magazines.)

Suppose there is a young man who moved out of his house with his parents, and he has moved into an apartment. Even though he knows it is wrong, he has bought a stack of 'dirty magazines,' pornographic magazines. He knows it is a sin. And, it goes against his conscious…kind of. But, he still keeps them in his apartment.

One day, there is a knock at the door of his apartment. He looks out the window and notices it is his mother. He doesn't want his mother to see what he has in his apartment, so he runs and grabs whatever he can. Then he covers them up with a box, as his mom comes walking in. He is standing there, as his mom comes into the room. He tries to keep his mom's attention away from the box and what is underneath the box. He talks about the weather. He talks about what he had for lunch. He talks about whatever he can, because he is trying to attract her attention to anywhere else in the room. His heart is beating, as he is thinking, "If my mom finds out what is under this box, she is going to be so ashamed and I am going to be so ashamed."

Finally, his mom leaves. He has a sense of relief. He uncovers them and continues living the way he had been.

You know, in a way, that is a picture of how our sinful nature often tries to deal with guilt in our lives. Our sinful nature often has some sin that it likes and it likes to be involved in. Our sinful nature thinks, "If somehow I can just cover that up so no one sees it, so nobody knows it is there. I can distract people's attention here, there, and everywhere. If I can just cover it up, then I won't be embarrassed, and they won't be ashamed of me. And, I can continue on in that sin."

Isn't that what happened with Adam and Eve, as soon as they fell into sin? Before they fell into sin, the Bible says they were naked and they were not ashamed. But, as soon as they fell into sin, they covered themselves up. That is the beginning of we, as human beings, trying to cover up, trying to hide things from other people that we are ashamed of, so they don't see them. Adam and Eve also tried to hide from God, Himself, after they had fallen into sin! They tried to cover themselves up, so that God could not see the sin that they had committed. Somehow they thought that might get rid of their guilt.

You see it happening in society today, even in the Christian Church, today. There can be young people who grew up, brought up in the Christian Church, brought up with Christian beliefs, and then they grow up and decide to move in with somebody of the opposite sex. They live together, and are sexually active, outside of marriage. In their hearts they know it is wrong. They know it is a sin. They know they should not be involved in it. But instead of getting rid of it, what do they do? They try to cover it up. "If only I just cover it up, maybe no one will see it, nobody will know about it, and no one will notice. If my mom and dad know, but none of us talk about it, if we can just avoid the whole topic, then the guilt will just be gone. It will be like it is not there. Maybe if I don’t' go to church, I won't hear about that particular sin, and then I won't be bothered by it. And, the guilt won't be there. It will all be gone. It will be like it is not there. Maybe if my pastor doesn't know about it, and it is all covered up, it will be like it is not there."

That is an attempt to get rid of that gnawing feeling of guilt and the shame that goes along with sin, by keeping it covered up and hidden from everybody. Somehow, there is the impression that somehow it will keep the sin even hidden from God, Himself, and then God won't require us to even deal with the guilt that we are living with.

The woman in today's scripture reading, the Samaritan woman who Jesus dealt with today, was a woman who was struggling with guilt in her own life. She was struggling with her guilt by trying to cover it up and hide it, and yet she had this gnawing sense of guilt in her life. Jesus, as God, knew all about her. The Bible says, "The eyes of the LORD are everywhere." And before this woman ever met Jesus, Jesus knew all of her sins. He knew, for example, that she had a real struggle with the Sixth Commandment.

The Sixth Commandment says,

"You shall not commit adultery."

What does this mean?

"We should fear and love God so that we lead a chaste and decent life in word and deed, and husband and wife each love and honor one another."

Jesus knew that this woman had been married five different times to five different husbands. Jesus also knew the man she was currently living with was not her husband, and so, she was sexually active with him outside of marriage, and she was committing adultery. Jesus knew that she probably had a low regard for marriage, and the life-long institution that God had established it to be. She was apparently struggling with the sense of guilt, knowing that was wrong, knowing that it was inappropriate, knowing it was a sin. And Jesus, our loving Savior, knew that a gnawing feeling of guilt was in her heart.

She had a ‘thirst’. She had a ‘thirst’ to somehow get rid of all that guilt. In fact, when Jesus began to talk to this woman, He did not start out by talking about the sin she was involved in. He started out by talking to her about ‘thirst’. And, she thought He was talking about physical thirst. He asked her for a drink of water. And she said, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?"

You see, Jews and Samaritans didn't associate.

Jesus said to her, "If you knew who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water."

Well, He went on and explained that the water He had to give was water that would well up to eternal life. And if she drank the water that He had to give, she would never be thirsty, again. At which point she said, "Sir, give me this water, so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming back here to draw water."

She wanted to not ever be thirsty, again. However, Jesus was not talking about physical thirst. He was talking about a ‘thirst’ that He knew she had - to get rid of this guilt that she was trying to get rid of by covering it up and pretending it was not there.

Now, look at what Jesus did. Once she says, "Give me this water so I won’t get thirsty," Jesus wants to show her where she really is ‘thirsty’. And so, He begins to "lift up the box" that she is using, trying to cover all of her guilt underneath. And what does He say? "Go, call your husband and come back."

She did not have a husband, did she? She was living in adultery with someone. And so, He is beginning to point out this sin that she is trying to cover up. And what does she do? She tries to cover it right back up, and says, "I have no husband."

So Jesus "lifts the box all the way up" and says, "You are right when you say you have no husband. In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

The Lord laid bare before her all of her guilt, all her sin. He showed her that He saw all the intimate details of her life.

So, what did she do? She said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews think that we must worship in Jerusalem."

What does she do? She totally tries to distract from what he was talking about, and tries to point away, "let's not look at what is ‘underneath the box.’"

Brothers and Sisters, you know that covering up guilt, pretending like it is not there, and trying to distract God's attention to other things does not get rid of the guilt. It is still there. It still condemns eternally. Jesus wanted this woman to see that there is a way to be rid of this guilt. There is a way to be free.

Jesus, by exposing her sin, did not want to cause her to think, "God must hate me." But, He was coming to her as her Savior, and showing her, "You are the exact person I came for. I came to people who are ‘thirsty’ to get rid of this gnawing feeling of guilt that they have in their lives. I want to quench that ‘thirst’ so you don't have that sense of guilt anymore." Jesus showed her that if you are troubled by your sin, if you have a horror of God's judgment and Hell, then have confidence. "You are the one I want to talk to. You are the one I want to show my mercy to. You are the one I want to save."

Ultimately, we know this woman came to believe that Jesus was her Savior. That is the only way to get rid of the guilt you and I have in our lives. Instead of trying to hide our guilt from other people, or from God, Himself, (which we can never do. We could never hide our guilt from God. His eyes are everywhere.), our Lord wants us to see that our guilt was laid on Christ. The Bible says,

"The LORD has laid on Him

the iniquity

of us all."

That guilt of ours needs to be exposed. We have to see our need of a Savior, so that we find our comfort in that passage of scripture that says that the LORD has laid on Him all my sins, all my guilt. That was laid on Christ. The Bible says,

"Our sins

were nailed with Him to the tree."

All of our sins, all of our guilt were taken off of us and were nailed to Christ. And on the tree, Christ, with His holy, perfect, sinless, spotless life - the holy sacrifice of God - gave up His holy life as the God Man, as our substitute, in our place, taking on all the shame. The Bible says,

"He scorned the shame of the cross,

enduring the cross's shame."

All the shame that you and I deserve, because of our guilt, our sin, Jesus endured on the cross. He made full, complete, and absolute 100% payment for all of our sin, so that our sins are washed away. They are gone. Our sin is not gotten rid of by us trying to cover it up and hide it so that nobody sees it and God can't see it.

Christ has gotten rid of

our sin.

Christ has removed

our guilt.

God has declared

us forgiven.

He has declared us free from guilt. He has declared that our sin has been removed as far as the east is from the west. It has been tossed into the depths of the sea, never to be brought up again. And, in replacement of that sin, God has given us the holy life of Jesus Christ, as if it is our very own life. By the obedience of the one Man, the many were made righteous. By Christ's holy obedience, God declares us to be holy. That is the only way that our ‘thirst’ can be quenched, and to be rid of our guilt. It is quenched totally and completely, in Christ.

When our ‘thirst’ is quenched, our guilt is gone, and when we know our sins are forgiven, then instead of living in darkness, hoping our deeds are never exposed to the light, because we don't want them to be exposed in the light, then we want to live in the light.

We want to live in the light of our Savior.

We want to live in a way that gives honor to the One who purchased us at a huge price. We want to live in a God-pleasing way. And when we do fall into sin, (we won’t be perfect on this side of the grave), when we do fall into sin, instead of trying to cover it up and hide it from ourselves and God, Himself, we repent of those sins. We cling to Christ's forgiveness – His full, free, complete forgiveness. And then, we go forward, and out of thanksgiving, we live for Him.

Isn't it interesting that the woman from our text, became a wonderful evangelist? The Bible tells us that she went and told everybody in the town about Jesus. And you know what she said? She said, "He told me everything that I ever did." He exposed all my sin. She wanted them to know that, because He also freed her of all her guilt. She knew He was the Savior of the world. And she wanted her fellow town’s people to have that same great joy and comfort that she found in Christ.

You have been freed. You have been freed from your guilt. The Lord knows everything you have ever done. And, He has forgiven all of your sin. Let's go out and tell our friends, so that they too can be free, free in Christ.

Amen.