Looking Forward to Sunday Morning According to Luther’s Catechisms: Third Sunday in Lent – Pr. Peter Bender, 3/5/26 (0641)

0:00This week on the Word of the Lord endures forever, we continue working our way through Proverbs, finishing up chapter 11, then all of 12, and just getting into chapter 13. Inherit the wind, thoughts of the righteous, better to be lowly, no ill befalls the righteous, and a wise son. Join me, Pastor Will Whedon, for the Word of the Lord endures forever your daily 15-minute verse-by-verse Bible study on demand. Listen at thewordendors.org, or your favorite podcast provider. Living according to a Christian sexual ethic today feels like an uphill battle, but this battle isn't new. Love, marriage, and family, learning from the early Christians is the issues that set or a book of the month for March. This book is published by Concordia Publishing House, their phone number 1-800-325-3040, or learn more about Love, Marriage, and Family at issuesetc.org. Find out how Christian sexual ethics still means light in the darkness, with love, marriage, and family,

1:01learning from the early Christians. The Martin Luther hymn may God bestow on us his grace. It's the hymn of the day for this coming

2:12Sunday, according to the three-year lecture where, in all three readings, Exodus Romans and the Gospel of John, we find water at work in God's work of saving sinners. Greetings and welcome to issuesetc.org, coming to you live from the studios of Lutheran Public Radio in Collinsville, Illinois. I'm Todd Wilkin. Thanks for tuning us in. We'll be looking forward to Sunday morning, according to Luther's catechisms and the three-year electionary with Pastor Peter Bender. The third Sunday in land, Joshua Wood will join us after that. We're going to talk about what's being called intent-based parenthood. He's executive director of them for us, and then Pastor Ted Geese joins us to talk about five more of the Academy Award nominations for Best Picture. Pastor Peter Bender is pastor of Peace, Lutheran Church, and Sussex, Wisconsin, and director of the Concordia Catechetical Academy. Peter, welcome back. Good to be with you, Todd. Give us an overview of the readings for this third Sunday in land. Right. The readings for each Sunday in land have been

3:16just wonderfully coherent in that Old Testament epistle and Gospel hang together very nicely, and to talk about the whole season of land in series A, we can see the same kind of thing, so it's not just within a Sunday, but across the weeks of this season of land. We've seen this, and throughout series A, there's the developing of the theme of salvation by faith in Christ. And last Sunday, the second Sunday in land, we heard Jesus' Catechese is to Nicodemus, and about being born again or born from above of water and of the spirit and that climactic verse that everyone knows so well. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And that verse from John's Gospel, there's so many Gospel readings in land that are taken from John's Gospel,

4:18becomes sort of paradigmatic of an overarching theme for land, whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. So even the first Sunday in land, the traditional Matthew text of the temptation of our Lord and the wilderness, Jesus is the man of faith, and He overcomes the evil one, and He holds fast to God's word. Lent too that we looked at last week, Jesus' Catechese is to Nicodemus in John 3. It speaks of that miracle of the new birth from above of water and of the spirit, and it gives us that key text for God so loved the world. I think also in John's Gospel, chapter 1, you have whoever receives Him to them, He gave the power, the authority to become the children of God, who were born not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So being born of God, born to faith, the Gospel not only proclaims the forgiveness of sins to us, it is also the means

5:23and the instrument whereby the Holy Spirit calls us to repentance and faith. So you have Jesus, the man of faith in Lent 1, you've got that Catechese from John 3, you must be born from above, God so loved the world in Lent 3. This Sunday, Jesus then, John 4, meets the Samaritan woman at the well, and offers her the living water, confessing to her, I am the living water, and she comes to faith in Him. And other people from the village, they come to faith through the word that Jesus has spoken. Next week, Lent 4, the healing of the man-born blind from John chapter 9, he is brought to faith, seeing who Jesus really is. Lent 5, John 11, is the raising of Lazarus, and that emphasis upon faith in connection with Jesus' great proclamation, I am the resurrection in the life, he who believes in me, though he may die yet shall he live, and whoever

6:25lives and believes in me will never die. So you can see faith running through all of those Sundays, and the seasonal gradual is from Hebrews 12, you know, O come, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the founder, the author, the finisher, the perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. So the creation of faith, and the promise of salvation through faith, is such a predominant theme throughout Lent in series A, but we must never forget that the object of the trust of the heart is always Christ. And so in some of our catechism focus, as we progress through these readings, it must proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, you know, under the second article of the creed, Jesus Christ, God's only son, our Lord, and in its explanation, he's redeemed me, a lost and condemned person. Jesus is my Lord by His holy precious blood, His innocence,

7:29suffering and death, and then the work of the Holy Spirit in the third article of the creed is to bring us to faith and to give us to drink of Him through the word and sacraments. And so that ties into this gospel reading for this then third Sunday in Lent. So our Old Testament reading takes us to a very, very important incident in the Old Testament in Exodus 17, where Moses by God's command brings water from the rock. That's right. I mean, this is occurring after the Passover. They have sojourned out of Egypt. It comes after the crossing of the Red Sea in that dramatic event, a picture of baptism, they are on the other side of the Red Sea in the land of Midian and their thirsty. So here we have Exodus 17. All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by

8:33stages according to the commandment of the Lord and camped at Refidim. But there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink. And Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? But the people thirsted there for water. And the people grumbled against Moses and said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? So Moses cried to the Lord, what shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said to Moses, pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel and taking your hand the staff with which you struck the nile and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horib and you shall strike the rock and water shall come out of it and the people will drink.

9:39And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Masah and Meribah because of the quarreling of the people of Israel and because they tested the Lord saying, is the Lord among us or not? This is the word of the Lord. You are quite right, Todd, in the outset by saying there's a very important text. St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, in his discussion in Corinthians 10 and 11 about the Lord's supper, he says they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And they all drank of the spiritual drink for they drank of the rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. So it's a stunning catechesis of St. Paul to connect this rock that was struck in the wilderness when they are putting God to the test and accusing him of doing them wrong and

10:39Moses are bringing them out into the wilderness to die there. That the rock that followed them was Christ. And St. Paul uses that as part of his discussion of the real presence of Christ in the sacrament according to his true body and blood. So what is behind the quarreling of the children of Israel? You know, why do they test the Lord? It's unbelief. So this theme about the Sundays in the land emphasizing faith, faith in Christ, here we see unbelief. And at the heart of this unbelief is this accusation they brought against God. I mean, it's an accusation that puppets the words of the serpent to Adam and Eve in the garden. You know, God doesn't love you. He doesn't care for you. So here, he doesn't love you. He doesn't love us. He doesn't care for us. He's brought us out here in the wilderness to die. And I think they had real thirst and water was in scarce supply. But what did they really thirst for? They thirsted for a life that we as sinners

11:44often think is found in satisfying our earthly appetites. But the truth is only Christ can satisfy our deepest need. And so think about how the Christian is at the same time simultaneously a believer in Christ, trusting in him, hungering and thirsting for him, and an unbeliever, the old Adam, the sinful flesh, hungers and thirsts for things that cannot ultimately satisfy us. So when we observe the children of Israel, the congregation of Israel in the Old Testament, we are observing actually that interplay and battle between faith and unbelief that also resides deeply within us. But now here's the gospel. Look at what the Lord did for them. He commands Moses. He said, Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horad, and you shall strike the rock,

12:44and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink. You know, I've often asked this rhetorical question, you know, all these times with the children of Israel grumble and complain against the Lord against Moses, his servant. Look at what God did not do. And all those occasions, he doesn't say, finally, I am done with you. I'm going to find somebody else to be my people. Even when he threatens to do that at Mount Sinai, which is yet to come from this reading as Exodus 17, they're yet to come to Mount Sinai. Even there when he tells Moses, I'm going to wipe them out and I'm going to make of you a great nation. Moses intercedes before the Lord on the basis of his promise, and says, you can't do this, which is precisely what the Lord wanted Moses to do. And that's what he's always doing for us. You know, when we go through the hard times of life, when we're bearing the difficult cross of suffering and we're attempted to accuse God of doing wrong as the children of Israel did, you know, did you bring us out here to die? Did we become a Christian simply to be forsaken by God?

13:49Of course, by no means is that true, but that's the kind of thing that we are tempted to. And so when we go through those kinds of tests, the Lord wants to bring us to fan the flames of the very faith that he created in our hearts in the first place, so that we claim those promises of God's word as Moses did there at Mount Sinai. And as we see here, the grace of God on display, according to the gospel, he strikes the rock. He brings water out of that rock. And when we look to the apostle John, and his particular Catechesis, in the gospel of John, we should see their great continuity with the Old Testament reading for today. And with today's gospel from John 4, whereby Jesus declares himself to be the living water. And we should also connect it to Jesus' passion. You know, I mentioned the 1 Corinthians 10 passage, the rock that followed them was Christ.

14:52And so what does Moses do? He strikes the rock. What happened to Jesus? Jesus is declared in the Psalms and throughout the Scriptures as the rock of our salvation. And John, in his testimony there in the Passion, according to St. John, builds the climax up to the time in which Jesus says, I thirst. He thirsts for his father. He thirsts for our salvation. He thirsts to do the father's will. And then finally, he says, to tell us thy, it is finished. And he has accomplished everything necessary for salvation. And this climax in the Passion, the soldier takes the spear and pierces his side. And what does John proclaim? And he was there seeing it. He witnessed it. He said he was seeing these things, testifies to you that it is the truth. And he knows that he's telling the truth that you may believe. Believe what? Believe that Christ is the rock of our salvation. Believe

15:52what? But he is the second Adam who did what the first Adam failed to do. He was the man of faith for us. Believe what? Believe he is the great high priest himself who has gone into the holy of Holies with the blood and water of atonement and has offered it up upon the mercy seat. To believe what? That he is the sacrifice for sin. So these kinds of connections really must be made. And it's how when we make all of these connections with the Old Testament narratives and the types that are set forth in those narratives to the New Testament, what happened to Jesus in the Gospels. And then what Saint Paul catacizes us on in a passage like 1 Corinthians 10, the rock that followed them was Christ. This is how the Holy Spirit strengthens faith, reliance, confidence upon the Lord Jesus. So it's not just as if we have a passage here that says this and then that's supposed to bring us to faith, which of course is not to minimize the word of God. But the entire fabric of the Old

16:55and New Testament and the witness of the prophets and the testimony of the Apostles is to testify to the Lord Jesus so that we come to believe in Him. And I think when we think about this Old Testament reading, the thirsting, this is a spiritual thirst as sinners who are thirsting for something and what they thought they needed was not really what they needed, what they needed was Christ and His forgiving grace and mercy. We might ask ourselves the question, to where does the blood and water from Jesus side direct us? Where does this striking of the rock in the Old Testament and the water flowing out to quench their thirst? Where does it direct us? And this is where this emphasis upon faith that we have this Sunday has to be correspondingly and emphasis upon the Holy Spirit's work, through holy preaching, through holy absolution, through holy catechesis, through holy baptism, through holy supper, to create, sustain, fortify and nurture faith,

18:02and then to give to us who have been brought to faith every gift of salvation in Christ. And so all of these things come to play in the Old Testament reading and then continue on in the Epistle in Gospel for this Sunday. We will get to the Epistle for the third Sunday in Lent in Romans 5 with Pastor Peter Bender next. Living according to a Christian sexual ethic today feels like an uphill battle, but this battle isn't new. Love, marriage and family learning from the early Christians is the issues set or a book of the month for March. This book is published by Concordia Publishing House, their phone number 1-800-325-3040, or learn more about love, marriage and family at issuesetc.org.

19:04Find out how Christian sexual ethics still means light in the darkness with love, marriage and family, learning from the early Christians. Deaconesses are women trained to share the gospel of Jesus Christ through works of mercy, spiritual care, and teaching of the Christian faith. The word deaconess means servant. Find out more on how you can serve in the Lutheran Church, Missouri Senate through the vocation of deaconess at lcms.org slash deaconess. Working in faith, laboring in love, remaining steadfast in the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lcms deaconess ministry lcms.org slash deaconess for sinners only. You're listening to issues, etc. Saint Jacobi Lutheran Church in the north woods of Wisconsin, located in Chano, has a special guest each and every week. It isn't you, but it is Jesus Christ. He is guest, and yet he is also the one who comes to serve you with his preached word and broken body and shed

20:06blood. You are invited to be served by Jesus with us at Saint Jacobi on Saturday evenings at 6.30 and Sunday mornings at 9 a.m. Visit www.stjkobi.org for more information. Welcome back. I'm Todd. Welcome. This is Issues, etc. Pastor Peter Bender is our guest. We're walking through the proper for the third Sunday in Lent according to the three-year electionary and Luther's catechisms. Our epistle reading is Romans 5, 1 through 8. What do we find there, Peter? Yeah, we have this fantastic reference to being justified by faith. I use Romans 5 verse 1 quite often to troubled penitent Christians who come for private confession. After I speak the absolution, I may say, therefore having been justified by faith in Christ,

21:08you have peace with God through your Lord Jesus Christ. It is a great comfort, and I'll use Romans 8, you know, therefore there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But the epistle begins this way. Romans 5, 1 through 8. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

22:13For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is the word of the Lord. What a most wonderfully comforting epistle this happens to be. We are justified, declared, righteous, for Christ's sake, and by faith in Christ, and therefore we have peace with God, the peace of sins forgiven. There's a great armistice between us and God. The sin is a tone for in the blood of Christ. We are set free. And so you have, we are justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so Paul's Catechesis on faith here in Romans 5. Again, seeing the harmony between these

23:15Sundays, as we move from Lent 2 now to Lent 3, his Catechesis on faith here corresponds to Jesus Catechesis of Nicodemus from last Sunday's Gospel, as well as last Sunday's Old Testament concerning the call of Abraham in Genesis 12. And how Abraham was justified by faith, which was last Sunday's epistle from Romans 4. So we continue to see this harmony. And I think as a Catechetical device in preaching to make those connections with previous Sundays, it, you know, it does a number of other things too. If someone had missed last Sunday, and then you reference last Sunday, it gives the clear message that what goes on in Sunday morning is important. It gives the message that we expect all the baptized faithful to be at the Lord's table every week to hear his preaching and to receive his supper. And so by making these connections,

24:16you know, Catechesis repetition is part of how we learn the faith and how it sinks deeply within our bones. So anyway, by faith we have access, Saint Paul says in Romans 5, into the grace of Christ in which we as Christians stand from our baptism through the ongoing ministry of absolution and the Lord's supper until the day we die of blessed death in the faith. So I absolutely love this, you know, through him, through Christ we have also obtained access by faith. This is where I often say to our Catech humans that baptism gives us a powerfully unique status that the unbelieving unbaptized don't have. Our baptism gives us access by faith in Christ into the grace of God, and we stand in the grace of God, the very flood of Jesus' blood as the Apostle John would say in his first epistle. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God in the collect for this particular

25:23Sunday. It's going to talk about the glory of God in terms of him showing mercy as he's done to us, and as he did to the woman at the well. And then this particular pattern, I mean rhetorically, it is just beautiful, gorgeous prose. More than that, Saint Paul says, we rejoice in our sufferings. And let me pause it. We've got to rejoice in our sufferings because it's through the suffering of Christ that the full victory over sin, death, and hell came to us. And so we have to rejoice in our own sufferings because God has a purpose in those sufferings. Now, the sufferings by themselves cannot accomplish the purpose, as apart from the word, but the suffering becomes, in a certain sense, sort of, if I dare say it, sacramental, as the word of God comes to us in the midst of our suffering. And that's how these things are produced, that Saint Paul outlines here. So more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance.

26:25Again, not apart from the word. Endurance produces character, the character of a Christian, the character of Christ. Again, not apart from the word, but we are fashioned at the image of Christ through the things that we suffer by the word of the gospel. Character produces hope. Again, not apart from the word of the gospel. And this hope is not wishful thinking. It is the sure and certain confidence of salvation. And hope does not put us to shame. We will stand before the judgment seat of Christ on the last day, cloned with his righteousness and rejoicing in his salvation. Why? The Saint Paul says here, because God's love has been poured into our hearts. Now, notice the image of water there, the water in the rock from the Old Testament here in the epistle. God's love has been poured into our hearts. How? Through the Holy Spirit, Paul says, who has been given to us. And where? How? Has the Holy Spirit been given to us? Is it through

27:27baptism? Water in the Word? Is it through the Holy Absolution? For he breathed on them in the upper room and said, receive the Holy Spirit? Is it through the Holy preaching of the gospel? Is it through Holy Catechises? Is it through the Holy Supper of our Lord? The answer is yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, a resounding yes. So this Sunday is not when we talk about living water. I think we can tend to go just to baptism and not understand that this image of living water, while it absolutely connects to baptism, is even more than that every way in which the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul says in the epistle, is poured into our hearts. God's love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. It's the love of God in Christ, through the Holy Spirit, who has been poured into our hearts through Word and sacrament. And that comforting assertion at the end, you know, while we were at sinners, Christ died for us. And that's why we love Him, and that's why

28:33we have come to believe in Him. And the call to repentance not only involves the law and the judgment of the law. And we'll see that in the gospel for today with the Samaritan woman at the well. But she heard not only the judgment of the law, man, this guy has told me everything that I've done, but she hears in Jesus' preaching, God's desire to be merciful to her and to give her the living water. That's why she comes to Jesus. We will get into that gospel reading in John for Jesus with the woman of Samaria next. This week on the Word of the Lord endures forever, we continue working our way through Proverbs, finishing up chapter 11, then all of 12, and just getting into chapter 13, inherit the wind,

29:38thoughts of the righteous, better to be lowly, no ill befalls the righteous, and a wise son. Join me, Pastor Will Whedon, for the Word of the Lord endures forever your daily 15-minute verse-by-verse Bible study on demand. Listen at thewordendors.org or your favorite podcast provider. For nearly 140 years, the Lutheran witness has taught the faith, defended it against error, and shown forth the great treasures of the Lutheran Church and biblical doctrine.

30:40We're continuing this legacy by publishing issues and articles that help you see the world from a Lutheran perspective and that teach biblical doctrine and show forth the treasures of God's Word. Visit our website to learn more and how to subscribe witness.lcms.org. The Lutheran Witness helping you interpret the world from a Lutheran perspective. Learning Latin can help your student think more clearly, understand English grammar, and prepare to study science and theology, and teaching Latin doesn't have to be intimidating. Memoria Press publishes Latin curriculum that is easy to use, even if you don't know Latin yourself. Learn more at memoriapress.com. Save $5 when you enter the coupon code LPR26MP. Memoria Press, saving Western civilization student at a time. Sacramental, historical, liturgical, you're listening to issues etc. Whoever desires to be a preacher desires a good thing. Dr. Cameron McKenzie, professor of

31:45historical theology at Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne, Indiana. It's a very good thing. It's a very wonderful thing to be called to apply God's Word to the lives of God's people. There's nothing more important and really more rewarding than to bring a child into the kingdom of God through infant baptism and then at the other end of life to see a child of God pass from this life and into heaven and to be an instrument that God uses to do those things and others like them. It's just an amazing and wonderful privilege. For information about studying for the vocation of pastor, visit ctsfw.edu Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne, Indiana. Welcome back. Pastor Peter Bender of the Concordia

32:50Academy is our guest. He's walking us through the proper for the third Sunday in Lent. Pastor Bender, take us into our gospel reading. It's selected versus of this account of Jesus with the woman of Samaria in John chapter four. Yeah, there are selected verses, Todd, you're right. And verses 27 through 30 and verses 39 through 42 are listed as optional readings. I'm going to read the full text of John four, including those optional readings. Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Psycar. Near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph, Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, weiried as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. Let me pause here because the reading is long to make a couple of quick points. The sixth hour, we're talking about 12 noon. So it's at the heat of the day. The Samaritans as half breed, you could say Jews claim their descendants from Jacob

33:54and they were, they accepted Jacob. And so here he is at Jacob's well for seven continues. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. So they weren't there. To give him a drink. Give me a drink. Verse nine, the Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritan's. Now, let me give you a pause here again in the reading and just make a comment about Jesus' catechesis. He meets people where they are. He uses this as an opportunity. He's dog tired. He's thirsty. He sits down there. The heat of the day, he needs a physical drink of water. It's a further evidence of his state of humiliation where he experiences all the things that we

34:58experience. But he uses this as an occasion to engage this woman for her life and for her salvation for her well-being. And he asks a question, which is so often how he engages people and catechizes them? Give me a drink. And then she is puzzled by this. I mean, you're a Jew. You're not a Samaritan and you're asking a drink from me and a woman no less of Samaria. Verse 10, Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Now I pause again in the reading. A careful reading of the gospel of John indicates that the gift of God is faith in Christ. The gift of God is faith in Christ that the Holy Spirit works. So Jesus is making reference to that here. Verse 11,

36:03The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself as did his sons and his livestock? I pause again. Notice how, like Nicodemus in last Sunday's gospel, this woman is thinking strictly in earthly terms, the water that's down in that well of Jacob. Jesus uses this again to take her to a new level and to speak of the miracle of faith that is created by the gospel. Verse 13, Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water.

37:09So that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. I pause again. She's attracted by Jesus' words. She would like living water, but she's still bound to earthly paradigms as if to think that the things of this earth, the ordinary water of this earth, is our greatest need to satisfy our greatest thirst. But she's attracted to him and she wants what he has to offer, even though she totally misunderstands it. So you see, I often say that catechesis is more than anything else about faith in Christ. That's what Jesus cares about. He doesn't care about the, this is going to sound wrong. He doesn't care about all these articles of faith. Make sure you can master them in passive dogmatic exam. There's nothing he doesn't care about doctrine. But his mode of catechesis is that he is always concerned about faith in Christ. And in our catechesis and in our preaching, this is the ultimate goal. Repentance and faith in

38:13Christ. And so it is clear since she's still bound to earthly things that he needs now to draw her to see the reality of her sin. It is as if he wants her to understand what her real thirst is. So verse 16, Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here pausing in the reading. That's an innocent enough question. I mean, I can think of times in my life where I've asked an innocent question. But unfortunately, it brought to remembrance in someone a terrible tragic event event in their life or someone I haven't seen for a long time. You know, how's your husband and only to find out that her husband had died a year earlier, something like that? But of course, Jesus knows precisely what he's doing when he asks this question, even though it sounds innocent enough and would have sounded that way also to her.

39:19So Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you are right in saying I have no husband. For you have had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true. The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Now I pause here again in the reading. When I hear this exchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, I can't help but think of the brothers of Joseph when they journeyed to Egypt to buy food and that whole lengthy narrative in Genesis. Before Joseph is revealed to them for who he really is, their long lost brother whom they had so grievously sinned against, they are frankly creeped out by the fact that what he's doing and what he's saying to them and the circumstances that they're going through, it is as if he knows everything about them and that the truth of their life and

40:26of their sin is being exposed. That's exactly what's happening here for this woman. But think about this. She is coming to realize that though he knows things about her and about her sin, he is not repulsed by them. Here he is there at high noon talking to a Samaritan woman. I mean, this is absolutely unheard of. What is with this guy? And now he's telling me things that only God should know, things that perhaps I don't even want to admit to myself. So, the woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you were a prophet. Verse 20, Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people locked to worship. Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship

41:32what we know for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. I pause here again. When Jesus says to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. He is talking about the hour, his hour, the hour of his death. And in his death, this is where Jesus outside the gates of Jerusalem worships his Father, where he lives by faith in every word that proceeds out of the mouth of his Father and of his God, how he lays down his life in death for us. In the Augsburg confession,

42:36it says in the isopology that the highest worship of God in the gospel is the desire to receive the forgiveness of sins. We see that worship in Jesus who fears and who loves and who trusts in his Father above all things. And he is calling this woman to that faith to worship in spirit and in truth is to worship as a repentant sinner for worship is faith. Faith in Christ is worship. And in the divine service Christ comes to us by his preaching and by his supper to feed our faith for we fall down and worship him crying out, Lord, have mercy. So God is spirit. Those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. Now look at the woman's response. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. He who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things.

43:38I pause here. Now Jesus has her at the right moment. She fully confesses, I'm looking forward to Messiah. The Christ, he will tell us all things. What did Jesus just do for her? He told her all things. So he answers her expectation by doing the very thing that she knows Messiah will do, telling her everything she had done. Continuing, verse 26, Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, what do you seek? Or why are you talking with her? So the woman left her water jar and went away into the town and said to the people, come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? They went out of the town and were coming to him. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did.

44:41So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves. And we know that this is indeed the savior of the world. So what a fantastic gospel reading. Last week we heard Jesus say to Nicodemus, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. He didn't just love the Jews. He didn't just love Israel. He even loved the Samaritans. And he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So we see that. So beautifully on display here how Jesus catecheses for this single Samaritan woman who's lived a sinful life is nonetheless the object of his mercy. And by his engagement with her, he calls her to

45:43repentance and to faith in him. So the central concept, okay, in this as we now stand back and look at the whole gospel, Jesus is the source of living water. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. Exactly what is this living water. And I'd like to simply say it is Jesus who comes to us with all his gifts through the ministry of the spirit. It would be wrong to simply speak of the living water as a reference to baptism. Now obviously it is a reference to baptism because who is the content of the water of baptism? Christ Jesus by water and the word the spirit brings Jesus to us in baptism. So obviously it's a reference to baptism. Let us go to the atonement of Christ himself and how the Holy Spirit is poured upon us from God the Father through Christ in the preaching of the gospel in Holy baptism,

46:45Holy Absolution and the Holy Supper. And going to the atonement of Christ, remember Jesus' catechesis on the Holy Spirit in John's gospel, how the Holy Spirit will take of what is mine and declare it to you, how in John's gospel his testimony of the blood and water that flows forth from Jesus' side. So how does faith created by the Spirit come to receive him? Jesus, I am the living water. I am the light of the world. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way the truth and the life. How does faith created by the Spirit come to receive him through word and sacrament? Now that's a dogmatic expression and it doesn't have the beautiful sound to it that we may be like to see, but the Holy Gospel,

47:47the Holy Absolution of Water in the Spirit, the Holy Absolution of the Lord Jesus, whereby he breathes his Spirit into us, the Holy Supper of our Lord, Holy Catechesis, Holy Preaching. This is how the Spirit brings Christ to us. And notice how Jesus' catechesis of this woman meeting her where she is, not only calls her to repentance and faith, but then as Luther says in that citation from the formula of Concord, faith is a busy and active thing. It doesn't need to be told what to do because before it is even told it goes out and does it. So she runs back into the town. Could this be the Christ? He told me everything that I ever did. This is what Messiah does. And notice how others believed, not only by her testimony, but because of the word that Jesus spoke. So we can think about faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. We will get into some connections to Luther's catechisms in the propers for the third Sunday in Lent, Pastor Peter Bender next.

49:03Be strong and courageous. Those are the words that the Lord spoke to Joshua as he was sending him across the Jordan to take possession of the Promised Land. Pastor Brian Wolf Miller, talking about his presentation at the 2026 issues, et cetera, making the case conference. The Lord keeps us through all the troubles of life into the joy and hope of the life to come. You can meet and hear Pastor Brian Wolf Miller making the case for Christian courage at this year's Making the Case Conference June 12th and 13th at Concordia University, Chicago. Learn more at issuesetc.org.

50:15It's as near as your congregation in school, your neighborhood, your family and friends, even as near as your home. Wherever you are, God's mission is in that place. Through His mission, Christ is bringing forgiveness, life and salvation to people everywhere, even here, right where you are. God's mission here. Learn more at lcmess.org slash national mission. Are you looking for a confirmation gift for the confirmed in your life? Adcrucum has a huge selection of lovely gifts to suit any budget. See our jewelry or browse our prayer aids with stunning icons, plaques, crucifixes and certificates. Our personalized ornaments and boxes are other great ideas. And of course, our theologically sound greeting cards complement the gift perfectly. Visit adcrucum.com. That's adcrucum.com We first observe it in the old and new testimonies where we meet people who struggle to follow God's

51:23desire for love, marriage and family, swimming against the current of the culture. Today, Christians do the same, living as a minority in a world of extramarital sex, exploitation of orsian, frivolous divorce and other behavior that is significantly short of God's glory. From the issues, et cetera, a book of the month for March, love, marriage and family, learning from the early Christians, you can find this book at our website, issuesetc.org, or call Concordia Publishing House and order Love, Marriage and Family, 1-800-325-3040. We're working toward the third Sunday in Lent, looking at the readings and the proppers with Pastor Peter Bender. Pastor Bender, let's wrap this up if we could making some connections to the catechisms in these proppers. Right, just so rich again. If Jesus is the living water, then we got to look at the second article. Don't we? In terms of Christ is the object of

52:25justifying faith. And as the content of the living water of baptism, you know, baptism now saves you. Why? Because Christ is its content, his death and resurrection. So in the second article of the Creed, I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord, who's redeemed me with his holy precious blood, with his innocent suffering and death that I may be his own. That's where the Samaritans faith was brought to rest. So then we have to talk about the third article. I can't believe, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, the catechism says, and enlighten me with his gifts. You can't talk about the third article in the ministry of the Spirit without talking as I've repeated several times in our talk here about holy baptism, holy absolution, holy gospel preaching, holy catechisms, holy supper. These are the means by which the Holy Spirit brings Christ to us. And so we who receive the living water through word and sacrament, that's what nurture strengthens creates faith then out of our

53:29innermost being flows forth the living water, namely Christ himself. So you see that in the Samaritan woman. And so if you look at a few citations from the large catechism that highlight of this particular theme, faith was entirely shoved under the bench and no one recognized Christ as the Lord or the Holy Spirit as the sanctifier. That is no one believed that Christ is our Lord in the same sense that he won for us this treasure without our works and merits and made us acceptable to the Father. There was no Holy Spirit present to reveal this truth and have it preached. Men and evil spirits there were teaching us to obtain grace and be saved by our works. Therefore there was no Christian church. For where Christ is not preached there is no Holy Spirit to create, call and gather the Christian church and outside it no one can come to the Lord

54:32Christ. And then this word I believe that there is a little flock or community on earth. It possesses a variety of gifts. In this Christian church we have the forgiveness of sins which is granted through the Holy sacraments and absolution as well as through all the comforting words of the entire gospel. That's the living water language. Toward forgiveness is directed everything that is to be preached concerning the sacraments and in short the entire gospel and all the duties of Christianity. Forgiveness is needed constantly. For although God's grace has been won for us by Christ and holiness has been wrought by the Holy Spirit through God's word in the unity of the Christian church. Yet because we are encumbered with our flesh we are never without sin. Therefore everything in the Christian church is so ordered that we may daily obtain full forgiveness of sins through word and the sacraments. So he who comes to me shall never hunger,

55:36he who believes in me shall never thirst. He who drinks of the water of this life will thirst again but he who drinks of Christ by his word and spirit will never thirst. Did you want to close with the collect for the third Sunday? Absolutely. Notice the gospel promise God's glory is his desire to have mercy that we saw him give to the Samaritan woman and the praying for repentance for all who have gone astray that brought to penitent and steadfast faith they'd hold fast to the unchangeable truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So the collect reads, oh God whose glory it is always to have mercy. Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your word. Through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

56:39Pastor Peter Bender is pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Sussex, Wisconsin and Director of the Concordia Catechetical Academy. Peter thanks. Thank you Todd. In our two of issues Saturday we're going to discuss something called intent-based parenthood with Joshua Wood of them before us then Pastor Ted Geese walk us through the rest of the best picture nominations of the Academy Awards. Listen weekday afternoons to Pastor Todd Wilkin and guests on Issues etc. Issues etc. is a listener supported program. Your financial support is vital for the continuation and expansion of this worldwide outreach. Our mailing address Issues etc. Heo Box 83 Collinsville Illinois 62234 Box 83 Collinsville Illinois 62234.

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