Howdy When I was younger my mom my sister and
I were driving down a road in the neighborhood
near the school We're heading along normally
when suddenly my sister says stop we need to
turn around My mom and I were We look at her
and we asked well why she points back and she
says the sign it says dead end And we were so
confused We had driven that road before and there
wasn't a dead end there, but she was convinced,
no, the sign says dead end. We can't go this
way. So we turned around and we drive back to
look at the sign that she saw. And when we got
close enough, we finally saw that dead end sign
clearly for ourselves in big bold letters saying,
road humps. And that was the day we discovered
my sister needed glasses. What she thought was
the end of the road wasn't the end of the road
at all. It was just something in the road. Sometimes
the very thing that looks like the obstacle isn't
the end. Sometimes the thing that we think is
blocking the way is actually part of the road
itself. And that happens in life too. Sometimes
we look at a difficult and devastating situation
and we think, this must be a dead end. This must
mean God isn't providing. This must mean there's
no way forward. But the scriptures show us something
amazing. What looks like an obstacle may be the
very place where God is about to give life. And
we see that happen three times in today's message.
In the wilderness? At a well? and at the cross.
The people of Israel once faced a moment where
everything in front of them looked like a dead
end. In the book of Exodus chapter 17 the people
of Israel are traveling through the wilderness.
This wilderness actually sits between Egypt and
the promised land. In many ways it serves as
a kind of barrier between Israel and the power
that once enslaved them. But traveling through
that wilderness to get to that promised land,
it's not easy. There's dust, there's heat, and
most importantly, there's no water. So the people
begin to argue with Moses. They complain, they
accuse him, they even question God. Why did you
bring us up out of Egypt? Was it just so that
we could die out here? From their perspective,
The situation looks obvious. There's no water.
There's only rock, dry ground, wilderness. In
their minds, they have reached a dead end. But
God tells Moses to do something strange. He says,
pass on before the people, taking with you some
of the elders of Israel, and strike the rock.
Notice something important. God tells Moses to
bring the elders with him. Not everyone, but
enough witnesses. Because what God is about to
do is something they must see. So Moses walks
up to the rock with his staff in his hand. The
same staff God used to part the Red Sea. The
same staff God used to strike Egypt. The elders
are watching. The people through them are watching,
and nothing about that rock looks promising.
It's just stone. It's hard, it's dry, it's lifeless.
Then Moses raises the staff, and he strikes the
rock. The sound echoes across the wilderness,
wood against stone. Maybe for a moment, nothing
happens. And then suddenly, the rock cracks and
water begins to pour out. Water spilling down
the rock and running across the ground so the
people can drink. The very thing that looked
like an obstacle became the place where life
appeared. And maybe in that moment, something
else cracked open too. Not just the rock, but
the hearts of the people. Hearts that had been
hard with fear, with anger, with distrust. Because
now the elders have seen it with their own eyes,
God had not abandoned them. The rock that looked
lifeless was exactly where God had hidden the
water. What looked like the obstacle was the
place where God gave life. Centuries later, Another
person stood at another place where water was
being drawn. In the Gospel of John chapter 4,
a Samaritan woman comes to a well in the middle
of the day. Now, that detail about the time matters.
Because people usually came to the well in the
cool of the morning or later in the evening.
Coming at noon suggests she wants to avoid others.
She has a past. She has a reputation. She has
reasons to keep her distance. And when she arrives,
she finds something unexpected. A man sitting
at the well. A Jewish rabbi in Samaria. And immediately
she feels the obstacles. Jews and Samaritans
did not get along. And a man, let alone a rabbi,
normally wouldn't speak to a woman like her.
So when Jesus asks her for a drink, she's surprised,
maybe suspicious, maybe even a little sarcastic.
How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink from me,
a woman of Samaria? In her mind, Jesus is probably
just another obstacle. Another reminder of the
divide between their people. Another voice representing
a religious system she hasn't lived up to. But
Jesus says something unexpected. Whoever drinks
of the water that I will give him will never
be thirsty again. And slowly, the conversation
begins to change. Jesus reveals he knows her
life. and every man in it. Not to shame her,
not to condemn her, but to show that he sees
her completely. He knows that bad relationships
are not only about making bad choices. Every
relationship has been another trip to the same
unsatisfying well. Another hope that this time
she would finally find security, love, worth.
Jesus still speaks with her, still offers her
life, and suddenly, as he reveals his true identity
as the Messiah, she realizes something. The man
she thought was the obstacle is actually the
source of the living water she's been searching
for. Her heart breaks open, and the hardened
woman who came to the well alone, now... runs
back into town. She says to the people, come
see a man who told me everything I ever did.
Could this be the Christ? The isolated woman
becomes a witness, just like the elders in the
wilderness, because once again, what looked like
the obstacle was the place where God gave life.
And her story is not as unique as we might think.
People today still go searching for life in wells
that cannot satisfy. Some people believe success
will finally satisfy them. Another promotion,
another milestone, another accomplishment. And
for a moment, it feels like water. But the thirst
always returns. But Jesus doesn't look at your
achievements to determine your worth. Your worth
is what you are given because of His grace. Others
believe the right relationship will finally fill
the emptiness. If someone truly loves me, everything
will be okay. But even the best relationship
cannot carry the weight of being someone's ultimate
source of meaning. Eventually the well runs dry
again. Jesus, though, offers something different.
He gives a love that does not collapse under
pressure. Others... don't chase success or romance
necessarily, they chase escape. Endless scrolling,
constant entertainment, never allowing silence.
But distraction is like drinking salt water.
The more you consume, the thirstier you become.
But Christ offers something else entirely. A
spring of water, welling up to eternal life.
That is why Jesus' promise is so powerful. He
doesn't offer another flawed well. He offers
living water. But when Jesus began preaching
and teaching, he was not always recognized as
bringing life. Many people saw him as a problem.
He challenged their authority. He exposed their
hypocrisy. He didn't fit their expectations.
So they treated him like the obstacle to what
they thought they wanted. And what do people
do with obstacles? They remove them. They silence
them. They get rid of them. And that is exactly
what they did to Jesus. They arrested him. They
condemned him. They nailed him to a cross. To
them, it looked like the end of the obstacle,
the end of the troublemaker, the end of the disruption.
But God had something else in mind. Because the
scriptures had already spoken about this moment.
In the book of Psalms 118 verse 22, we hear these
words, the stone the builders rejected has become
the cornerstone. The very stone they rejected,
the one they thought was useless, the one they
tried to remove, the one they broke on the tree.
That stone becomes the cornerstone, the place
upon which everything would be built. And at
the cross, something astonishing happens. The
one they thought was the obstacle becomes the
source of salvation. Whatever they thought they
were doing, Jesus was giving himself. He was
laying down his own life. And through his death
comes forgiveness. Through his suffering comes
mercy. Through his cross comes life for the world.
The cross looked like defeat, but it became the
fountain of salvation. The water mingled with
the blood became the living water for us all.
And once again, What looked like the obstacle
was the place where God gave life. The rock that
looked lifeless gave water. The rabbi at the
well offered living water. The cross that looked
like defeat became salvation. Jesus looked like
a stumbling block, but He was the cornerstone.
But we still misread the signs in our lives.
Just like my sister mistook road humps for a
dead end, we sometimes look at our lives and
assume we know what is happening. We see hardship
and we think this must mean God has abandoned
me. We see a challenge and we think this must
be the end of the road. We encounter something
difficult and assume there's no way forward.
And when that happens, something even deeper.
takes place. We begin to misread Jesus himself.
Instead of seeing him as the source of life,
we start to see him as the obstacle. When Jesus
calls us to forgive someone who hurt us, when
Jesus calls us to humility instead of pride,
when Jesus calls us to trust God instead of controlling
everything ourselves, when Jesus calls us to
faith instead of fear. Sometimes we look at those
things and we think this is what's getting in
the way of the life that I want. Some people
look at Jesus and think I'm doing fine on my
own, a stable career, financial security, a respected
reputation, but Jesus says something unsettling.
Apart from me, you can do nothing. Admitting
that means admitting we are not the foundation
of our own lives. Christ is not coming to tear
down your life, though. He is coming to be the
foundation that can actually hold it up. Others
like the idea of spirituality, meaning, meditation,
personal truth, but Jesus does not simply offer
inspiration. He says, I am the way. People, they
want inspiration. They don't want a cornerstone
that defines the whole structure. Yet the gospel
says the structure collapses without him. And
sometimes a stumbling block is grace itself.
We would rather fix ourselves, climb that ladder,
improve enough, earn our way. But the cross declares
something different. Life does not come from
what we achieve. It comes from what Christ has
done for us. The rock struck in the wilderness,
the Savior struck on the cross, both say the
same thing. Life comes from what God provides,
not from what we achieve. The thing we think
is the obstacle is actually the place where God
is giving life. Israel saw a rock and assumed
death. but the rock released water. The Samaritan
woman saw a rabbi and assumed rejection, but
he offered living water. The world saw a cross
and assumed defeat, but the cross became salvation.
And sometimes the things that we're pushing against,
the things that we think are in the way, That's
actually the place where God is calling us to
receive His grace. Because the truth is simple.
Jesus is not the obstacle. Jesus is the way.
He is the one who gives living the water, the
one who opens our sins, the one who forgives
our sins, the one who opens heart and hearts,
the one who leads us into life. So when life
feels like a dead end, when the road looks blocked,
when the situation feels dry and lifeless, remember
the rock in the wilderness. Israel saw nothing
but stone. But when the rock was struck, water
flowed. Remember the woman at the well. She came
searching for ordinary water. But the man she
met there offered living water. And remember
the cross. The world looked at that cross and
thought it was the end. The end of the troublemaker.
The end of the road. But the cross was not the
end. It was where new life began. It was the
place where forgiveness began to flow. Where
mercy began to flow. Where living water began
to flow for the world. And that living water
is for you. forgiveness, life, salvation, given
through Jesus Christ. Because we spend our lives
walking from well to well hoping the next one
will finally satisfy, but every well runs dry
until we meet the one who does not just draw
water, he is the living water. Thanks be to God.