March 8, 2026; John 4:5-42; Third Sunday of Lent
Today’s Gospel is incredibly rich, but I would like to focus on one small detail within it. When the Samaritan woman finishes talking to Jesus, she runs back to her town to tell others what she had experienced. And at that point, the text tells us that as she goes, she leaves her water jar behind. Why is that important? With all that is going on in this story, why does the gospel writer stop to tell us that the woman does not take her water jar with her? On one level the answer is obvious. She does not need the water jar any more. She used the water jar to draw water out of Jacob’s well for herself and her family. But as she talked to Jesus, he offered her living water, that is the water of his relationship with her. Now, possessing that living water, she no longer needs to worry about the water in the well or the jar by which she used to obtain it.
So on one level, the answer is simple. But the Gospel so emphasizes this detail that I would like to push it a bit further. I would suggest to you that this detail is telling us that when Christ leads us to a new place in our lives, we must be willing to leave behind the place that once was ours.
When our children become old enough to leave home for college or to begin a new career, it does us no good to lament their absence and the loss of regular contact with them. We must believe that Christ is leading us into new circumstances and in them we will be blessed and hopefully have an opportunity to form a new and different relationship with our children. The old relationships are no longer possible. When an important relationship in our life comes to an end through divorce, death, or disagreement among friends that cannot be bridged, we do not help ourselves by continually tossing over in our mind what we could have done differently or how we could have stopped the relationships from ending. We need to believe that Christ is leading us to a new place and in that place we can thrive even though the old relationship is no more. When we begin to lose abilities, physical and mental, because of sickness or advancing age, it does not serve us to feed our anger or depression over the things we can no longer do. Instead, we must believe that Christ goes with us into the future and will be with us to put together our life in a way that it still has potential and joy. Resenting things because they are not the way that they used to be will only hold us back.
Throughout our lives, Jesus is regularly leading us to a new place. Because we believe that he loves us, we need to trust that in that new place he will give us living water. And the new water that Jesus gives will not leave us thirsty. That is why it is wise and necessary to leave old water jars behind.