5[Jesus] came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
7A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9The 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.) 10Jesus 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.” 11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but 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.” 15The 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.”
16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But 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. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
27Just 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?” 28Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29“Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30They left the city and were on their way to him.
31Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35Do 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. 36The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed because of his word. 42They 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.”
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May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.
Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God the Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Quite often, ago-old bible passages are readily understandable by modern readers; perhaps the story deals with situations that are universal and there is no need to reference them in a particular time or setting. For instance, Jesus tells his disciples to ‘love one another’; we don’t really have to add anything else to this passage, it’s pretty much stand-alone. On the other hand, many times we find that there are stories in Scripture that reveal much greater meaning when they are viewed with respect to the historical, cultural, and religious norms of the time they were written. This morning’s reading from John is undoubtedly one of those which requires a good deal of deeper investigation. “Jesus and the Woman at the Well”; let’s take a moment to examine a bit of the backstory to this encounter and why these traditions are so important to our understanding of this passage.
Jesus is travelling from the Judean countryside toward Galilee. He might have taken a route that would have avoided entering Samaria but he chose to travel the road that would bring him through the Samaritan city of Sychar. This in itself is the first rather unusual aspect of this passage. You will recall that a Samaritan was the protagonist of another bible story, one that addressed the kindness of an enemy while his countrymen avoided coming to the aid of an injured man. Thus, the “Good” Samaritan served as a teaching moment for the people in Jesus’ time. This is because there was no love lost between Samaritans and the people of Israel. This animosity was long-standing and was due to differences in religious practice and views on marriage; either within or outside of one’s faith.
Samaritans and Judeans were geographic neighbors, their lands shared a border; but there had been hostility between the two groups since the time of the twelve tribes. Both faith communities were Torah-based, both were Messianic, but the Samaritans worshiped God on Mount Gerizim, while the Jews maintained that the temple in Jerusalem was where God was to be venerated. The Jewish people strictly believed that they should marry only other Judeans, while Samaritans had no such edict against inter-marriage with those of other faiths. Thus, there was really no association between these two groups of people and it had been that way for generations. So the fact that Jesus chose to travel through a Samaritan city in the first place was remarkable; that he stopped to converse with a Samaritan person was unthinkable.
But wait, there’s more! This Samaritan was a woman, and again this type of thing just wasn’t done in ancient Judean society! A male rabbi would not normally have engaged in conversation with a woman to whom he was not related; the fact that she was a Samaritan is quite secondary. You will note that the disciples were “astonished” that Jesus was speaking with a woman; no mention was made regarding her ethnicity. And why did John find it necessary to note the time of the encounter, that it happened at noonday? The job of drawing water from the community well was reserved for the women of the village and this task was usually accomplished in the early morning, as to avoid the intense heat of the midday sun. The woman with whom Jesus is conversing is at the well at noon; likely because she was avoiding being ostracized by the other village women as they gathered in the morning to draw the day’s water.
“You have had five husbands”, Jesus tells her. Perhaps the villagers shunned her because they felt she was a serial divorcee or was unfaithful. And the truth is that many a preacher has taken this route when giving a sermon on this passage. In fact, only husbands could divorce their wives in Jesus’ time, and for little to no reason. Perhaps the woman at the well had been widowed five times; or her husbands may have cast her away because she was unable to bear children. No matter the reason, Jesus knows of her status and does not condemn her for her position in life.
So, we have examined the cultural, religious, ethnic, and social factors impacting how we ought to consider the significance of this “water-cooler” discussion between Jesus and this unnamed, often-married Samaritan woman. Jesus chooses to ignore all the accepted reasons why he should not be interacting with this woman at the well and instead informs her that he is the Messiah, and that the salvation he brings is for all people, Samaritans included. After a discussion about living water and the need to worship God in the Spirit she rushes back to share the revelation that Jesus is the Messiah with the people in her village; seems to me that this Samaritan women was, in fact Jesus’ first female evangelist. For she did tell others about the Good News, that she has encountered the Savior of the world. Let’s recap; this first apostolic female is a detested Samaritan, she has been married five times, she lives with a man to whom she is not married, and contrary to everything we’ve ever been taught regarding the male-only membership in Jesus’ ministry, she is, in fact a woman. Jesus Christ, the Son of God truly has come to free all people from sin and death, Samaritan women included.
Consider the extreme differences between this morning’s encounter at the well with last Sunday’s meeting with Nicodemus. In both cases an individual spoke with Jesus and he imparted truth to each. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, well-versed in Jewish Law; the woman, a Samaritan. Nicodemus sought out Jesus in the dark of night: the Samaritan woman, in the light of the noonday sun. The obvious difference in their genders. Nicodemus’ response to Jesus’ teaching is “how can these things be?”; the Samaritan woman accepts what Jesus has told her and she rushes back to tell others about what Jesus has imparted to her.
These two people couldn’t be more different, yet the message that Jesus conveys to them is the same; it was intended for both them and it is meant for each of us. Jesus told Nicodemus, “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit”. And he assured the Samaritan woman that, “God is Spirit” and Jesus provides “living water”. The gospel truth of Jesus, the Good News is that he brings a new way of living that includes all people; all are called to new life, one of Spirit and life-giving water. Let me repeat that; ALL people; women and men, Samaritans and Jews, professing Christians and as-of-yet non-believers, those of us inside these walls and those who remain beyond them.
Jesus speaks these words to ALL people; “those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty”. And all people, including us are offered the opportunity to say to Jesus, “Sir, give me this water so that I may never be thirsty”. And Jesus will reply, “The water that I will give will become in (you) a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” This he promises to all people, including us. In this season of Lent, let us reflect on this assurance, remembering that the “living water” that flows from Christ Jesus washes us in the truth, mercy, and grace of God.
Will you pray with me? Good, and gracious, and holy God, you have called your people to worship you in spirit and truth. Help us to recognize that you are not confined to a mountaintop in Samaria or a temple in Jerusalem, but that you are present with your people wherever they gather. And we pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the One who provides the living water that carries us to you.
God is Good, all the time. All the time, God is Good. Amen.