It is the heat of day – noon – and Jesus stops to rest.
He has sent his disciples on ahead of him to town to buy food.
They are traveling through Samaria – an area avoided by Jews who want to remain ‘undefiled’, and yet
Jesus has told them he must go through Samaria. Is it because it is a shorter route… or is there another reason.
He is next to a well. A deep well dug by the great Patriarch, Jacob.
There is a woman drawing water, a Samaritan woman. Considered by the Jews to be a half-breed people, the Samaritans are the descendants of Jew who intermarried with the pagan tribes of the area and their worship reflects this mixture…. They even have their own sacred temple.
Since she is here at mid-day she has come in the most oppressive part of the day, most likely to steer clear of the stares and whispers, perhaps even the audible condescending remarks of the other women.
She is an outcast among outcasts.
Jesus, breaking cultural taboos, asks her for a drink.
He is speaking to a woman and a Samaritan at that.
”Will you give me a drink?” Jesus asks
‘Here it comes,’ she must be thinking, ‘Another clever way to humiliate me, for someone to tell me how terrible I am’
"You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" she responds.
He next words drip with compassion and tenderness…” "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
His words are cryptic. They are meant to pique her curiosity and expand their conversation.
She takes the bait. “Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it…”
Jesus replies, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
Living water? Eternal life? The gift of God?
Clearly he is a spiritual man. Clearly he is a man of compassion to speak with her, indicating that she could experience something of lasting eternal significance.
Still not completely understanding his riddle, she asks him for this never-ending eternal life water. She longs for not only a temporary solution to the need for water, but she thirsts for the eternal.
And Jesus then turns the tables. Because He is God in the flesh, He knows all and sees all. Fully aware that she is not married, but is living with a man - outside God’s plan - He does not point a finger of judgment, or yell at her to repent. He graciously helps her to see that she is in need. A choice needs to be made between the fleeting ‘fix’ of the pleasures of sin and the abiding joy and soul fulfillment of right standing with God. The two cannot coexist.
“Go and call your husband.” says the omniscient Son of God.
“I have no husband,” she answers. It is the truth, but it sidesteps the reality of her daily life. She knows what she is doing is wrong, she does not try to justify it.
He reveals a slice of His divinity to her; His eyes must seem to be peering into her very soul: “ What you say is true – in fact you’ve been married five times, and the man you’re living with now is not your husband.”
'He knows' she must be thinking. 'This is clearly a man sent from God who knows the intimate details of my life - he knows the ugly details. Not just my current 'situation', but somehow he knows how many times I have been married before this.'
It must be a terrifying moment for her.
Nervous. Ashamed. Uncomfortable. Whatever her internal disposition, she tries to shift the conversation off of her sin, to less personal issues…
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