January 30, 2022
John 4: 1-42
Theologian David Lose once wrote that how you view the woman who comes to the well speaks more about you than it does about her.

For many readers, the woman has a less-than-stellar past. After all, she has five husbands. For some, this translates into a sinful past and the encounter with Jesus is an opportunity to have those sins forgiven.

But what if this story offers something different? What if the woman didn’t have a sordid past after all? What if this encounter calls us in a different direction?

Last week, Nicodemus … a Pharisee and a leader at the temple … came to Jesus under the cover of darkness. He asked Jesus to teach him, but Nicodemus doesn’t really understand what Jesus tells him. Although later, we see that he is coming around.

Now, with the Passover festival over, Jesus returns to Galilee.

To get there, Jesus must cross Samaria and come in contact with Samaritans. The Samaritans were descended from the people who had lived in the Northern Kingdom.

Their different perspective of worship … Samaritans had worshiped on a mountain before Jewish authorities had the worship location destroyed because they believed that such worship should be conducted at the temple in Jerusalem. 

This led to the Samaritans distrusting the Jews and to the Jewish people distrusting the Samaritans.

In today’s passage from John, Jesus stops by Jacob’s well for a noontime rest during his journey. The disciples are off getting some food. Jesus is left alone at the well. 

A Samaritan woman arrives with a jug to draw water from the well. Unlike Nicodemus, the woman comes at the time when the light of day is at its brightest and she is in full view of the scornful eyes of people in the community.

Women during Jesus’ time were among society’s most vulnerable. Without a husband or male family member, a woman could find herself living on the street … existing on the charity of others to survive.

The woman has no husband … but she has had five in the past and lives with a man now. We’re not told the nature of the relationship.

What if each marriage … each relationship … was borne out of  necessity … out of a need for protection and a sense of security? 

What if each husband had died or had divorced her and … each time … she found herself facing a life alone on the streets? 

Still, these marriages and her present situation probably had the tongues wagging.

Her presence at the well at mid-day also speaks to her lower standing in the community since the usual practice was for the women of the community to get their water earlier in the morning and then, as they filled their jars, share news or gossip.

The woman apparently was excluded from such normal life of the community. She arrives alone.

As one scholar puts it, the woman isn’t a serial sinner, but she is a person who has faced serial abandonment.

But instead of keeping his distance, Jesus steps forward … acknowledges her reality … and continues the conversation. Jesus listens and knows her story and … still wants her to give him a drink and … during their conversation … she asks for the water that he offers … something to quench a deep thirst she is experiencing in her place of exclusion and uncertainty.

In John’s gospel, Jesus spends more time with the woman at the well than he does with anyone else.

AND … she is the first person to whom Jesus affirms his true nature. She says that the Messiah will come and proclaim all things. His response is “I am he.” 

In offering this affirmation, Jesus also affirms the woman’s true identity and elevates her from her place on the margins of the community.

She becomes a disciple.

So, this story is not about forgiveness as some would take it … after all, John does not use the language of sin and forgiveness. 

The crux of this passage is the effect of the life-giving water … the Holy Spirit … and what actions should mark a life of discipleship.

Such affirmation and love are experienced as Jesus and the woman each cross a number of cultural boundaries and ignore society’s expectations.

When the woman leaves Jesus to go back to her community, she leaves her jug at the well.

The Samaritan woman carries a water of a different sort … one that flows from a never-ending wellspring.

She carries this water … the Holy Spirit … within her heart. And she carries this water … this love to others. She returns to the city and proclaims … testifies … to what she had heard and experienced … sharing the living water … the unconditional love … that she has felt. 

By doing so, she quenches the thirst experienced by others … brings hope to others … and in turn … they begin to carry the water as well. 

Maybe we don’t know the story as well as we thought we did.

Yesterday, I took part in a Reconciling in Christ workshop. 

The workshop is part of a process that aims to make congregations more welcoming to all regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity … to those who … like the woman in today’s story … come to the well with a thirst … with a need to belong and feel loved. 

And at the well, that’s where we are called to share the water … and to carry it out to others by proclaiming the grace … the love … that is present for all to experience.  

To invite … to welcome … and to hear the stories of those who are thirsty … to make them feel known and cared for.

AMEN