Bring Your Own Bucket
Originally scheduled for April 25, 2010
Let’s begin with a stereotype: “the old oaken
bucket.” Can you see a picture in your mind of a well, probably with
brick walls? There’s a frame over the top, and a bucket hanging from
a windlass. Can you picture that in your mind?
Sometimes our stereotypes get in the way of the
truth. In John chapter 4 Jesus meets a woman at the well of Jacob.
Our picture shows the bucket. But if you read the account carefully
at verse 11, you will discover something: this well had no bucket.
You had to bring your own. Our stereotype is wrong for this one.
We have a similar stereotype in our thinking
about life. Americans are particularly fond of the metaphor of
pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. If we may translate that
to this picture, we believe that the well is there – but you have to
bring your own bucket to life. Sometimes we approach Communion like
that. Oh, we’re grateful, of course. We are thankful for the
occasion; that’s the proper attitude. But we go from gratitude to
laying out before God just what we’re going to do. If we feel guilty
about something, we promise to fix it. If we feel that someone else
should feel guilty, we pray for them too. We believe in the “do it
yourself” method.
The reality is different:
You must
begin with self-examination. This is a time between
you and your Lord, and he commands you to examine
yourself – no one else.
Having
examined, you must then practice repentance. Sadly,
for most of us, repentance is not done once, but
practiced all too frequently.
When the
sin is confessed, then ask for help. You cannot fix
yourself.
The well of grace is deep indeed, but you have no bucket.
Mercifully, the living water of grace overflows to all who will
follow Christ.
