3rd Sunday in Lent
John 4:5-14
So [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.” The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” 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.”
Life Giving Water
It’s interesting how when you look at a familiar Bible story, there are all of these little details that you can miss, because you already know the story, and you think you don’t need to look any further than what you already know. I couldn’t begin to tell you how many sermons I’ve heard in my life about this story, and I’m glad that I did, because some of those little details started coming back to me as I was reading it. One detail is the specific time of day that’s mentioned. It’s noon, the hottest part of the day, not the typical time of day that you would go to a well to collect and carry back a heavy jug of water. It immediately brings to mind the question, “Why is this woman is coming to the well in the middle of the day?” The reason why she has come to the well during this time of day is not stated in this story, but the fact that the author mentioned it is significant. We find out later that she has been married five times, and it’s not a stretch to wonder if she’s maybe been the subject of gossip and ridicule amongst the women who would gather at the well. It’s possible that she may have been avoiding these other women from the town, who would come to the well earlier in the day, when it was cooler. The fact that this Samaritan woman might be an outcast sets up what is about to happen in this story.
Jesus is thirsty, and asks for a drink. The woman is surprised because Jews don’t typically interact with Samaritans, let alone a man and a woman when there was no one else around. She asks him why he, as a Jewish man, is asking her, a Samaritan woman, for water. Jesus replies that if she knew who she was talking to, she would ask for living water. She scoffs at this, pointing out that he has no bucket, and asks if he is greater than their ancestor Jacob, who gave them the well. By asking this, she is lifting up the shared ancestry between Samaritans and Jews, that despite the animosity they have for each other, they still come from the same people. Jesus would have known that the Samaritans had very similar religious practices to the Jews, and were also anticipating the arrival of the Messiah. The gospel writer reminds us of the tension between the Samaritans and the Jews, while suggesting at the same time that this tension should not exist.
It’s not unlike the culture wars that are happening in our country right now: Republican vs Democrat, Mainline Christianity vs the Religious Right, bigotry vs wokeness. There are three bills making their way through the Montana legislature, right now, that specifically target the queer community. These culture wars are so strange to me when I think about all of the other things that we should be worrying about. As the human population explodes, there are increasing concerns about how we’re going to feed ourselves. There exists on this planet a finite amount of land on which we can grow food. What do we do when the human population exceeds the capacity of our Earth? There is the ever-looming threat of climate change and nuclear war. And for years, we’ve heard that the next world war will likely be over water.
We don’t have time for these culture wars, but those at the highest echelons of power are more than happy to keep the fight going, because divided, we are no threat to their bottom line. When you dig deep enough, most of the issues we have as a species boil down to a conflict between power and community.
As a Jewish male, Jesus was in a higher social position than the Samaritan woman. One could say that he held all of the power in this interaction at the well. But, as a tired traveler with no bucket, Jesus was not able to draw water for himself, and so in a way, the Samaritan woman was in a position of power over him. As we continue with the story past today’s gospel reading, Jesus asks her to bring her husband, and she says that she has no husband. Jesus agrees, stating that she has been married five times, and that the man she is with now is not her husband. Because there was no way he could have known this about her, she decides Jesus must be a prophet, and after a brief exchange about God and the proper way to worship, she states that she, and presumably the Samaritan people, know that the Messiah is coming.
And to this, Jesus responds, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” This is the first “I am” statement that Jesus makes in the gospel of John. He reveals who he is, as the Messiah, and says “I am” which is the name of God. This is the only time in the gospel that Jesus fully and directly reveals who he is to another person, this person who is a Samaritan, a woman, an outcast who has been married five times over.
We cannot overstate the importance of this story in the gospel narrative. If we look just two verses earlier before our gospel reading, John 4, verses 3 and 4, it says, “[Jesus] left Judea and started back to Galilee. But, he had to go through Samaria.” He had to go through Samaria. Geographically and politically, going through Samaria was not the fastest or easiest way to make this trip. But, the gospel says, “he had to go through Samaria.” This route was not a geographical necessity, it was a theological one. Jesus needed to go through Samaria so that he could have this conversation with this woman.
The Samaritan woman is a full conversation partner here in a way that most other people who speak to Jesus are not. This is a theological model of a back-and-forth dialogue with God. It shows what a relationship with God can be like. The Samaritan woman first reveals her truth to Jesus, “I have no husband.” And then, Jesus reveals his truth to her, “I am.” This is a story that aims to tear down preconceived notions of power and hierarchy, and show how relationship and reciprocity are the tools through which we build community and find salvation.
One of the central themes in the Gospel of John is that salvation is found in belonging. We started Lent with the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, when humankind became separated from God. And since that time, God has been working to bring us back together. That is the work of Jesus’ life. Salvation is more than a single terrible moment on the cross. It’s everything that Jesus did: all of the stories that he told, all of the lessons that he taught. It’s the impossible wondrous miracles that he performed, and the simple everyday miracle of bringing people together and building community. That is the invitation that Jesus extends to us, salvation through belonging, belonging to God, and belonging to a community.
When the Samaritan woman realizes this, she leaves her water jug behind, to share the good news with the other people in the village. She leaves her earthly worries behind and becomes one of the first and one of the most effective evangelists, telling people that the Messiah has come. It’s time for us to leave our water jugs behind, the old ways of power and hierarchy, the old ways of division and strife, the old ways of bigotry and hate, so that we can embrace the salvation that Jesus offers us. In which all are people are equal and we are all part of a community that cares for and supports each other, women and men, Samaritans and Jews, no longer outsiders and insiders. If we can leave our water jugs behind, we can be like the Samaritan woman, fully engaged in dialogue with Christ, a full member of the family of God. Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
