The End of the Story

The Rev. Joseph Winston

March 27, 2011

Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ.1
There seems to be a certain type of person who takes great pleasure in telling
you the end of the story before you have even started watching the movie or read-
ing the book.
Maybe you know someone like this. This individual brings you every last de-
tail of a first run movie before it opens in theaters. How does he do it? He down-
loads the entire film from the Internet before the show appears in theaters and
watches the whole movie from beginning to end. (Does the program BitTorrent
ring a bell for anyone?) Now, he can describe for you all the details of what is
going to happen, whether you want to hear them or not.
People who want to know how a story turns out before anyone else does, often
go to extreme lengths in order to be the first one that has read the entire book.
1
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians
1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3.

1
Early drafts of the work and advanced copies of the manuscripts do not always
stay in the hands of editors. These rough versions of the document are “spirited
away” to eager fans that then read every word. Sometimes the shipping companies
help. Instead of waiting for the official ship date, a few copies leave early and the
waiting audience quickly devours the book. Scholastic Press had this “problem”
with the Harry Potter series. If you wanted to read the book without knowing
the ending, it often was difficult to do that without people wanting to tell you
everything.
This type of behavior is not limited to the motion picture or the publishing
industry. There are some sports fans that want to know the outcome of a big game
before everyone else. In the days before the Internet and cable news networks,
these people carefully tuned their AM radios to the team’s flagship station. With
a good antenna and a little bit of luck, you could hear the plays and you knew the
final score before the next newspaper was delivered.
If you happen to be one of those individuals who like to know the ending
before everyone else does, I have some Good News for you. Eternal life starts
now (John 4:14).2 And I am so sorry to spoil the surprise for anyone that did not
want to discover how your life turns out.
It all starts when Jesus demands a drink of water from her.3 She then tells Him
the basic facts of life that Samaritans and Jews do not get alone.4 Next, she points
2
Moloney cites the following examples: 6:51; 6:58; 8:35; 8:51-52; 10:28; 11:26; 12:34; 13:8;
14:16 S.D.B. Francis J. Moloney; Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., editor, The Gospel of John, Volume 4,
Sacra Pagina, (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1998), p. 123.
3
The word give is a command (δός second Aorist, active, imperative, second person from
δίδωμι).
4
Most Jews of the day viewed the Samaritans as “mixed blood” and because of this attitude

2
out the blatantly obvious fact. Jesus has no way at all to get water out of a well.
Jesus replies there are two types of water in this world. One comes from sources
like a well. When you drink this water, you still need and want more. Then there
is the water Jesus gives. If you do not reject His gift, you never need another drink
because one is all it takes to give you eternal life that begins right now.
This all-important detail about your story seems to be like the unexpected
lightening bolt out of a clear blue sky for many Christians.
They grew up in a different world. It was one of certainties. You, your neigh-
bor, in fact everyone you knew, followed Jesus. There were of course some differ-
ences if you looked hard enough but one constant remained unchanged. The vast
majority of the population was a Christian.
Everyone was expected to be in church on Sunday and to make it to the mid-
week worship service too. Between work and play, you took the time to memorize
the Bible along with all the important details of your faith. For Lutheran children,
this included the Small Catechism.
The experience of the realities of this life, with its pain and the finality of
death, along with your knowledge of the Bible, taught you an important lesson
that you will never forget. Today, in fact yesterday and tomorrow, is not what it
should be. You cannot keep the promises that you make. You and your loved ones
hurt. You know this is not right.
So, what you do next is completely natural. You create a different reality where
all the problems go away. Now, there are two worlds: the one you currently live in
relations between two were very “hostile.” Francis J. Moloney, The Gospel of John, p. 120.

3
and the one to come. The one here will one day pass away and in its place, there
will be something better than before.
What then happens makes sense too. You begin to ignore the end of your story
found in today’s lesson about the Samaritan woman at the well. The gift of living
water that Jesus promises, the one sip that satisfies forever, no longer happens in
this life. Anyone who tries to find it, why they are on the search for the mythical
“fountain of youth.” You know they will never find it no matter how hard they try.
Today is not all that different from yesterday. Things still do not go, as they
should: no big surprise there. The poets on the radio know this too:

Well everybody hurts

What has changed is the certainty that used to exist in the past. Now, not
everyone you know is a Christian. And if truth be told you have your doubts too.
Your grandchildren find time for sports and things like that but they never seem
to have the time to “go to church” much less study the Bible. And memorization,
why that is old fashioned and no one does that any more. Then there are your
own children. The ones you raised in the faith. Today, they cannot be bothered to
spend any time with the Word any more. It is like they have forgotten everything
you taught them.

4
 Also missing from the scene today is the idea of the two worlds. For if Jesus
is gone, then there is no need for Heaven or for that matter hell. All you have left
is the here and now. After that, you are gone.
This worldview, the one most people share today, just like the one that came
before, leaves out Good News that Jesus wants to tell at the end of your story.
You cannot hear that everlasting life starts now for you believe another existence
beyond today is nothing more than a myth.
Both the way we looked at the world yesterday and our current outlook today,
seem to completely silence the message Jesus proclaims in today’s lesson that the
living water He gives us brings us eternal life that begins right now.
One way out of this problem is to simply ignore Jesus. Be warned though.
This approach leads to madness. Taken to its extreme, you will never be able to
tell when Jesus is speaking the truth and when He is just pulling your leg. Another
possible idea is to say that Jesus speaks in the abstract. This is not any better than
before. You still cannot make any decision when Jesus is telling it like it is or
when He is only giving you His well informed opinion. There is another way and
it goes something like this. What Jesus says is totally true and your experience of
the world, both yesterday and today, is real but not completely accurate.
This means that Jesus does give living water and it changes lives, so much so
that you will live forever. All that is left is one small but very important adjustment
to the way we look at the world. What we regularly forget is this. We live in the
time between Lent and Easter.
In this season of our lives, you never know everything. You cannot answer

5
with certainty any of the big questions like, “Why do the good suffer and the evil
do not?” All you can do is trust in the God who loves the world so much that He
sent His Only Son.
Here in Lent, there is pain. No sane person would deny that fact. Your friends
have aches that never go away. Your family has troubles that you cannot fix. There
is nothing in the world that will remove the scars you carry. You hurt. It takes every
bit of faith that you have to believe Jesus is here with you just like He was for the
woman at the well.
Before Easter, death is our constant companion. You have buried far too many
people that you love. You miss them dearly and want to tell them things you just
could not like, “Your great-granddaughter is quickly growing up and I want to
invite you to her wedding this summer.” Or, “Your great-grandson inherited your
love of music. You should hear him play.” You dearly want to have faith in what
will come but it is so difficult.
You and I, we, are a Lenten people slowly moving toward Easter. Do not be-
lieve for a single moment that your progress is anything that you do. Far from it,
it is Jesus who is the One who brings you along. You heard in today’s lesson that
Jesus brought faith to the woman and Jesus does the same for you. At any time,
do not think that the journey will be easy. It will not be that way. The world must
extract all that it can from you and that hurts. Add in your own missteps, you know
what they are, and it becomes difficult to take a single step in public. Jesus knows
this. He is waiting for you and will lift the burden that this life brings just like He
did for the Samaritan.

6
 The path you take between Lent and Easter requires that you drink and eat.
Jesus has given you both water and food. In baptism, He gave you living water. In
the meal we share, Jesus provides you His Body. Take and eat. You will need your
strength to make it through to another day.
The end of the journey will come for you one day. You have nothing to fear.
You have already heard the end of the story and there is nothing frightening in it
at all. Jesus told you that you will live and that is exactly what you will do.
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.”5

References

Francis J. Moloney, S.D.B.; Harrington, S.J., Daniel J., editor, The Gospel of John,
Volume 4, Sacra Pagina, (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press,
1998).

5
Philippians 4:7.