This story from the gospel of John is amazing. I think it
is one of the most important stories of the entire collection of stories we
have about Jesus. Just imagine the setting. Noon. In the desert. Absolutely the
hottest time of the day. The sun blazes, the ground is dry and baked solid, any
bodies outside are parched. Nobody would go out at that time, everyone would
stay in their cool stone homes and siesta until the day grew cooler. And yet,
here we are, at the center of the village, a lone women, and Jesus. Neither of
them belonged there. Neither of them should have been speaking to the other.
Jesus, a good Jew sits at the well, he is terribly
thirsty, his throat is dry and scratchy; he has just arrived at this well after
walking miles in the desert, in a foreign land, to get there. He sits at the
well, but does not have a bucket or dipper to get any water.
She arrives, bucket on her head, dipper in her hand, a
Samaritan woman. She may have spent her morning cooking over an outdoor fire,
and washing clothes in her bucket of water. This Jewish man asks this Samaritan
woman for a drink of water.
This is a scandalous encounter. Two circumstances make it
scandalous. First, it is scandalous because they are a man and a woman, at a
chance meeting at a well, and he speaks to her. She has a reputation, otherwise
she would not be at the well in the heat of the day. The women would go to the
well in the cool of the morning and evening. She was there in the heat of the
middle of the day so she did not have to encounter the jeers and catcalls of
the others in the village. The story says that she has had five husbands and
she is living with a man who is not a husband. This status does not necessarily
make her promiscuous, but what is true is that the only way for a woman to be
protected in this society was to be attached to a man. To be unattached is
certain abuse and maybe even death. And yet, a man could discard a woman by
just saying so. We just don't know and should not make assumptions. But what we
do know is that men and women just did not talk to one another in public. This
is in violation of the Law they both lived by.
Secondly, he is a Jew, and she, a Samaritan. The enmity
between Jews and Samaritans is notorious. They traced their lineage similarly
through Rachel and Jacob, Sarah and Abraham, and Miriam and Moses, but a split
had caused them to worship in two different places, the Jews in Jerusalem, the
Samaritans at Mt. Gerizim. Each tribe devoted to its own place of worship, and
completely intolerant of the other. Intolerance is an understatement here.
These tribes fought and killed each other over the proper place to
worship.
A Jewish man, a Samaritan woman, and he asks her for a
drink of water. She states the obvious. "Sir, you have no bucket, how did
you expect to get that living water?" He responds by describing the spring
of water that gushes up to eternal life, and that will quench the thirst
eternally. There is no turning back from this scandalous encounter. She places
her tentative trust in him, "Sir," she says, "give me this
water, so that I may never be thirsty again." She already has a glimpse of
that eternal life which is now, that new life that gives us glimpses of the
kingdom. And instead of judgment from Jesus, Jesus knows who she is and shows
her she has value, and she remembers the truth of whom she is, God's beloved,
marked and claimed by God. This living water and living word, transform her.
Jesus gives her freedom, and gives her community freedom to know who Jesus is,
to remember who she is, and to remember whom they are. She goes away with such
excitement she forgets her water jug. She says to the people who have been
deriding her “Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me
inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?” And they went out to
see for themselves.
Who does she think she is? The world has convinced her of
the lie that she is worthless, that she is a throw away, that she is unlovable.
In the living water of this well, Jesus reminds her who she really is. She is
God's beloved, marked and claimed as God's own forever. And that changes her
life. This encounter, Jesus' words and the life-giving water have literally
restored her to new life. She was dead, dead to her community, dead to her
family, dead to herself. Until in the water, Jesus reminded her and she
remembered she was God's beloved, marked and claimed as God's own forever.
It happens to us too, all the time. We begin to believe
the lies of the world, the lies about who we are. You are worthless, you can't
do anything right. Your happiness is dependent on how much money you make. You
will be successful when you have a good job, you will be successful when you
command a big staff. You will be happy when you feel good, so go ahead, take
the purple pill, change the way you look, drink the whole bottle.
We forget so quickly that we are God's beloved, marked and
claimed as God's own forever. But the living water is here to remind us that we
don't have to be perfect, because we are perfectly loved. And when we miss the
mark, we fall on our knees, ask for forgiveness, are reminded that we are
human, and do it differently the next time.
And that changes our lives, just as it changed the life of
the woman at the well. We are freed from the constant need to be perfect, or to
be something that we are not, we are freed to be loved completely and
absolutely. We are put back together, made whole, healed.
She leaves her bucket at the well, goes into the city and
tells everyone about the man she met at the well, and that this man who said
such amazing things, was the One sent from God.
Each time we come here, to this place, we encounter Jesus.
Each time we confess all that we have done, and all that we have left undone,
we encounter Jesus. Each time we come to this table to eat and to drink we
encounter Jesus. Each time we put our hand in that water, and splash it on our
face and hands, each time we baptize another child, we remember who we are,
God's beloved, marked and claimed.
The woman at this well encountered Jesus, she received
grace and love, and remembered that in her brokenness, she was perfectly loved.
She received grace and love, and living water, and went to tell all that would
listen that she met the One sent from God. May we be like the woman at the well
and go out and tell everyone of the Good News of Jesus, the One who is from
God. Amen.
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