The Third Sunday in Lent, Year A 2008

The Reverend Nora Smith

John 4:5-42

Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, `Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, `I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?" Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" They left the city and were on their way to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, `Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, `One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done." So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."

You may already have figured this out for yourselves, but, in case not, I need to point out that this passage is the longest recorded conversation between Jesus and another individual in all of the Gospels- longer than he talks to any of his disciples, longer than he talks to any of his accusers, longer than he talks to any of his own family. So, it’s likely that the very length of this dialog is an indication of how important it is. And it is important. It’s a marvelous drama; an almost the perfect example of coming to believe. This is, at it’s core, a story about the often very circuitous way in which we may come to our faith in God through a questioning (even at times reluctant and suspicious), process of coming to recognize Jesus. I believe the story of the Samaritan Woman at the Well not only illustrates how so many human-made obstacles can stand in the way of a relationship with Jesus Christ, it also reveals Jesus’ steadfast desire for us to know him.

As I said, this is a drama- to ancient hearers, there likely was a kind of shocking impropriety in this tale that we may not immediately recognize without knowing a little about the culture:

First of all, Jesus is alone with this woman; something that most religious Jews of that time would scrupulously avoid. Furthermore, she is a Samaritan and, despite the kind associations that we now have with the idea of a Samaritan, back then this was someone with whom most Jews would not associate because they were thought of as “unclean” in the worst sense. Anyone wanting to remain ritually pure would not interact with a Samaritan much less a Samaritan woman. And one more thing: In the ancient world, a woman alone at a well in the heat of the day might be suspected of prostitution. The woman herself is likely conscious of all these prejudices and it makes her defensive and wary. In this circumstance, she believes, that before the conversation even begins, she is likely to be judged by virtue of her gender, her race, her location, and her reputation. But who judges? Who condemns her? The related facts of the story actually do not. It’s possible that we do, it’s very likely the earliest hearers of this story did, and it’s very likely that her lowly social status has caused her to judge herself poorly. And so, this woman is very surprised that Jesus would even speak with her. She is surprised, wary, and perhaps even a little combative. But, if you listen closely, the story does not judge her…and most importantly, Jesus does not judge her.

Let me tell you how I see this story as relating to you and to me in our day and time:

I find meaning here when I imagine the woman has really come to the well for something more than water; perhaps she thinks it’s physical thirst because she does not know how to describe the longing that compels her to carry an empty jar in the heat of the day to a place where she might not even be safe. She’s an outcast in so many ways; there is no doubt she feels the loneliness of it. And it’s this reality that Jesus understands when he meets her. Yes, he knows about the 5 husbands, perhaps she is even a barren woman- that would surely explain why she might have been divorced so many times Jesus sees and understands her through and through, and he does not judge. But she is suspicious of what he is offering; she thinks he is trying to compare himself favorably with the great prophets. How arrogant! Jesus patiently pursues the dialog, not willing to be deterred by the obstacles of her less-than-perfect life or her less-than-complete understanding. I imagine her thinking, “OK, great, an endless fountain of running water, how convenient!” No, Jesus tells her, not living water like an endless fountain, but water that gives life. No, he tells her, water for the empty jar that is you. Not for this earthen jar you have carried here.

In my imagination (and this scene beckons us to visualize it, to imagine ourselves in it, does it not?), she’s standing there, dug in, with a giant jar on her shoulder, not ready to concede to his truth. She knows enough about religion to even try to argue a little theology with Jesus! But, when she finally attempts to dismiss the man by saying, I’ll believe when the Messiah comes, Jesus flat out tells her, “I am He.” Confronted with that truth she….well, she’s still not sure. She’s pretty sure; she’s excited enough to want to get affirmation from her community about her fledgling faith. So she runs home to say, “Come see! This man knows everything I have ever done. He can’t be he Messiah, can he?”

There is such richness in this story. For so many of us, we come to Jesus with no clear idea of who he is, with a lot of suspicion, sometimes with a bad attitude, often with some bad opinions of ourselves but- if we do come- there he is, in the broad daylight, patiently waiting and willing to puzzle it all through with us until we understand that he wants to enter into a relationship with us. God’s spirit wants to reside in our very being, filling all the spaces that sadness and struggle and maybe even meanness have tried to empty out on us or that we have poured out in anger and frustration and harsh self-judgment.

And God doesn’t care if we don’t get it all right. The Samaritan woman’s faith is imperfect and new, yet even this much recognition of Jesus spills out in joy and exuberance. Full of the Spirit and quenched with living water, she can’t wait to share her story. And, even the most reluctant feel they must come and meet Jesus to try out this spirit/water/life. Maybe they don’t understand it perfectly; maybe they’re a little suspicious. That’s OK. It does not detract from Jesus’ willingness to give.

My favorite image from this story is the little throw away line, “she left the jar…” I have heard that interpreted as something she did in her haste to share her news. I like to think she left the jar because she didn’t need that jar in the first place. She was the empty vessel. She was the jar.

For me, this story is about opening up to Jesus regardless of what you think of yourself, or what others think of you, or you of them. No one is without longing and need for this life-giving water; no one is not broken in some way that makes them an unlikely evangelist. We may be thirsty, or hungry in all the ways those words can be understood, but God knows that a relationship with him is the very thing that will fill in all the empty spaces. So, bring your broken and less then perfect self with your perhaps not fully fledged faith to Jesus; in prayer, at the communion rail, in broad daylight. It doesn’t matter if you don’t totally get it, the longing is enough. Drink of the living water that a relationship with God pours into you. Drink…and in drinking, see.

And then run and tell.