In this week’s gospel the Samaritan woman asks Jesus for water, an image of our thirst for God. Jesus offers her living water, a sign of God’s grace flowing from the waters of baptism. The early church used Lent as a time of preparation for baptism at Easter. As this water of life led the Samaritan woman to testify to her experience of Jesus, so are we called to witness to Christ. Jesus continually comes among us in water and word, wine and wheat, offering us the life-giving – though costly – gift of God’s grace.
Lent is a season of grace, but it is undoubtedly a Costly Grace. Lent calls us to take God’s grace seriously and reminds us of its full cost. Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined the phrases “costly grace” and “cheap grace,” encouraging Christians to a life of costly discipleship in response to the great cost of Christ’s death on Good Friday. Throughout the forty days of Lent, we are invited into Costly Grace: “Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ” (Bonhoeffer).
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