Give me a drink
You, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?
John 4:7
Jesus is at it again. He’s in Samaria, a region that Jews avoided if at all possible. He’s talking to a Samaritan, people who Jews considered inferior because of inter-breeding with foreigners 700 years ago and because some of their religious practices were different than the Law of Moses. He’s talking with a woman, which “just isn’t done” by pious Jewish men.
And it’s noon (“the sixth hour), so the woman is at the well now and not in the morning when all the other women go to the well, which makes her presence questionable.
And just as in other encounters, Jesus answers a different question than the one the woman asked: 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, [4:10].
And, also as in other encounters, the woman responds from her point of view in this world: Sir, you have no bucket, then, Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty, or have to keep coming here to draw water, [4:11, 15].
Then it gets really interesting. Jesus tells her to go get her husband and come back. The woman says she has no husband. Jesus then says she is right, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband, [4:18].
This jolts the woman to start seeing with her spiritual sense: Sir, I see that you are a prophet. She then talks about the “correct” place to worship. Jesus tells her it is not about where we worship, it is about how we worship: God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth, [4:24].
The dialogue continues:
Woman: I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes he will proclaim all things to us.
Jesus: I am he, the one who is speaking to you. [4:25-26].
Just then the disciples return, so we do not get the woman’s response to Jesus’ declaration that he is the Messiah. We just know that she leaves her bucket and goes into the city to tell others about this unusual guy at the well, who told me everything that I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he? [4:29].
Jesus went where he wasn’t expected, and met a woman when she didn’t expect it, to tell her a truth she didn’t expect about herself and about himself, which led her to do something nobody would have expected. Even though the woman was probably an outcast and had avoided her neighbors, she tells people what she learned about Jesus. And they respond to her.
Jesus engages with us in the same way – no matter where we are, no matter what we are doing (or not doing), no matter how we feel, no matter what we expect – because he promised to be with us, always.
As we end this exploration of Lenten encounters, I pray that you are looking forward to your next encounter with the risen Jesus Christ.