the water

The story.  John 4

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 worshipped 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 worshippers 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 labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered 
into their labour.’

 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 for 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 Saviour of the world.’

Thoughts

On the surface this gospel is about water.  Since March 22 was world water day, it ought to be about water.  1.2. billion people do not have access to clean water. The amount of water you use to take a five minute shower is more water than half the people in the world have for the whole day.   It is hard for us to imagine what it is like in the developing world for women and girls who spend hours of their day fetching water from a well miles from their village.  African households spend 26% of their time fetching water.  5000 children die every day from water-borne disease.  Often girls cannot go to school because they must fetch water for their households.  Our access to clean water in the U.S. is a gift that we can so easily take for granted.  Waiting at a well for a drink of water is not something with which we can easily identify.   The average American uses 400 litres of water daily; the average European uses 200 litres; in the developing world 10 litres.  We can reduce our use and waste of water, remembering how so many suffer for lack of the most important substance on earth.  No water, no life. Its as simple as that. 
   

But we can connect to this story in another way,too. There are things you have done, things we do, things we say, that we regret.   There are relationships and the way we have treated others that we would like to change.  Things we are ashamed of.  Things we do not brag about or discuss publically with anyone. There are things about each of us that we want to forget.   There are secrets, skeletons in the closet, stories from the past we keep to ourselves.  Whether you have experienced divorce or estrangement from someone, the pain of abuse(emotional or physical) or the betrayal of an affair men and women hurt each other.  We hurt our spouses or we have been hurt.  We have felt dry, dirty, exhausted, alone, ashamed of ourselves, our lives.  We know people who have said or done things they regret.  We have experienced, at least once, a desire to escape, to hide, to retreat, to get out.  We know people who need an oasis, a bit of refreshment in the weary desert of life in which they live.  Going to the well alone to fetch the water.   Is it also an escape?  A time of solace within the daily chore, a break from reality?  And a desire to find something deep inside that will restore your soul.  

Last week, we heard another story of an encounter in the gospel of John.  Chapter three is the story of a Jewish elder, a high profile political and religious leader , a man named Nicodemus.  Both Nicodemus and the woman at the well manage to encounter Jesus privately.  Nicodemus comes at night, secretly seeks him out with questions, and leaves Jesus without answers.  His encounter has purpose; to find out the truth about Jesus and prevent Jesus from opposing the proper authorities.  He remains silent after their encounter.  He is a visible figure who comes to Jesus in the stealth of night. 

The woman at the well is actually trying to avoid others.  According to her gender, ethnicity, and social circumstances she is invisible, inconsequential, a social problem.   She accidentally runs into a thirsty traveler at midday.  She is alone and does not need to fraternize with a Jewish man.  It is unsafe for her to do so and she is liable to be mistreated.  She is fetching water, like so many people must do to survive.  But she is also a seeker and a worshiper of God.  She is looking for something too.   

The woman is ashamed of her life, her relationships.  Likely, she has been a victim of her culture’s traditions—passed on from man to man in arranged marriages, like a possession.  Her role is to make food, fetch water, bear children.  If she has been barren, her value would have been diminished.  She may have been divorced by a man for infertility.  The Mishnah said that if a couple is infertile for 10 years, the man must divorce her to remarry, in order to be fruitful and multiply.  Or she experienced leverite marriage, in cases where a woman is widowed her deceased husband’s brother is required to marry her to bear children for his brother.  In either case, this woman has experienced the indignity of being a Samaritan woman.  Samaritans were ethnically despised by Jews, considered impure for mingling, marrying, breeding with non-Jews.  They were considered dirty, unwelcome, unclean.  Although they came from the same ancestors, worshiped the same God—they ha d found ways to demonize each other.  So when this woman encounters a thirsty Jewish man we should expect that she would be a little defensive.  She finds herself staring at the enemy---a Jewish man demanding that she give him water.   

But the tables are turned and Jesus offers the woman something that she cannot give. Living water.  What is this?  Does Jesus offer her the simple knowledge that he knows her truth and that he cares about her? Yes.  Does he offer an actual stream of water to quench her physical thirst for the rest of her life?  What she seeks at the well and what Jesus offers her are NOT two different things, are they?  Her thirst is real; both physically and spiritually.  What if you met someone who could give you exactly what you wanted, exactly what you needed?  What if you met someone who could save you from your guilt of having been so fortunate, so blessed, while others died for lack of clean water?  Or save you from your ambivalence and lack of compassion for those same people?  What if someone you met could make your life more significant, more alive, fresh?  What if someone could give you hope?  Someone does.  Some who knows everything you have ever done and loves you anyways.  Someone who knows your selfish thoughts and actions, your lack of compassion for others, your distrust and negative attitude toward strangers.  This one knows your faults and loves you.  He knows your appetites, thirsts, physical and spiritual poverties.  This one suffers and dies for you, as you are.  Sees you not as a broken mess, but as a beloved child.  And like the woman at the well, if we believe in him, we must tell others about the love he gives.  Ultimately, the difference between her and Nicodemus?  She immediately tells others about Jesus and invites them to come and see--language of discipleship in John's gospel.  She becomes a follower, seeking after Jesus.  What if today is your moment at the well?  What if Jesus is offering you the water of life right now, right here.  Will you receive it?  Will you invite others to receive it too?  Amen.