John 4:5-42
He came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, which was near the land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there. Jesus was tired from his journey, so he sat down at the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water to drink.” 8 His disciples had gone into the city to buy him some food.
Let the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart
be pleasing to you,
Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
“Give me some water to drink,” may come across as one of Jesus’s more rude moments. It depends on how you read this. Maybe John is editing Jesus’s politeness out. Maybe it’s not a demand, but a suggestion. Maybe it’s a clever line.
I don’t know. But there’s the setup. It’s getting into the hottest part of the day. Jesus and the crew have apparently been traveling throughout the morning. The disciples, who have been traveling as far as Jesus has, have left him to rest while they go barter in the market for some grub.
Why is Jesus apparently more tired than the disciples, by the way? Does that strike you as a little strange? Does Jesus have a body that tires out easily? Has he expended a lot of effort healing people on the way? Did he not sleep well the previous night?
Again, I don’t know. But here he is, alone by the well in the hot part of the day, when everybody who was going to come to draw water, according to people who’ve done the anthropological study and know the culture much better than I do, has already come.
Then along comes this woman who seems to be intentionally avoiding the crowds. She didn’t bargain on meeting anyone. She is coming at a time when she could come alone, but here’s this evidently Jewish guy, and now he wants to engage in… conversation.
9 The Samaritan woman asked, “Why do you, a Jewish man, ask for something to drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each other.)
In fact, the association between Jews and Samaritans is so sparse that this woman doesn’t get a name.
Now, you could argue that it’s the first century Near East; it would be a wonder if any woman got a name. John doesn’t bother naming Mary when he introduces her at the wedding feast at Cana. The Jewish opposition name Joseph as his father but don’t name his mother when Jesus hints at who is supernatural father is. When Jesus tells a Jerusalem crowd to go ahead and be the first to pitch a stone if they’re so righteous, John can’t be bothered to name the woman caught in sin. The first time a woman is mentioned by name is when Jesus arrives late at Bethany to find Martha and Mary grieving over Lazarus’s death. Then at the cross are Mary the wife of Clopas, whoever that is, and Mary from Magdala, who has the extraordinary honor of being the first preacher of the resurrection of Christ.
Four women mentioned by name, three of whom happen to be named Mary. For an author so concerned with storytelling and vivid detail, John sure does leave out some important stuff.
It’s no wonder this foreign woman doesn’t get a name.
10 Jesus responded, “If you recognized God’s gift and who is saying to you, ‘Give me some water to drink,’ you would be asking him and he would give you living water.”
I need to pause again here for another aside. Jesus is offering something that can mean a couple things to us.
- Living water can be water that gives life to people. We know that the body needs water to do its basic functions, to survive and thrive. Being dehydrated can make your body start to malfunction pretty quickly. But
- water is also living in the sense that things live in it. We have gotten so physically accustomed to purified water with chlorine and flouride in it that our immune systems are unequipped to handle the typical microorganisms that reside in water all around the world. Thus if you travel to places where the water is treated differently than it is here, you don’t drink it. You don’t even drink stuff cooled with ice made from tap water. You could end up with e-coli or giardia, which won’t kill you, but could make you so sick you feel like you’re going to die.
So people in this culture don’t depend on water so much for hydration. The table drink is wine.
Then what is the water for?
I think that’s a question that makes this conversation even more meaningful, actually. Water isn’t primarily for nourishment. Think about the amount of water you use for drinking compared to the amount of water you use for cleaning and bathing and all sorts of other things. Now think about how that might change if you’re in a culture in which water isn’t your primary source of hydration.
For Jesus to suggest that he has water that’s good for drinking all the time and that won’t ever dry up is pretty profound.
11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket and the well is deep. Where would you get this living water? 12 You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave this well to us, and he drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks from the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles up into eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will never be thirsty and will never need to come here to draw water!”
Did you hear when I pointed out how this woman had come by herself? How she seemed to be specifically avoiding the crowd? Can you imagine what a relief it would be if she never had to encounter whatever judgmental stares and snickers and low-voiced comments she was avoiding?
Here’s where we get into the meat of her struggles.
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, get your husband, and come back here.”
17 The woman replied, “I don’t have a husband.”
“You are right to say, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus answered. 18 “You’ve had five husbands, and the man you are with now isn’t your husband. You’ve spoken the truth.”
I’m going to point out what neither of them says, because it’s so prevalent in so much commentary about this passage.
Jesus doesn’t call her an adulterer. He doesn’t accuse her of that.
Remember when Matthew shares Jesus’s parable about the woman whose husbands keep dying, and she gets passed from brother to brother?
This one doesn’t have to be a story about infidelity. It’s pretty ugly of us to assume that. I’d rather assume she’s been widowed five times, and she is broken and assumed cursed within the community. She’s lucky this last guy would bring her into his house at all, because with a reputation like that, she would probably be tossed out into the street to fend for herself.
I don’t know that; it’s just a back story I prefer. Either way, this is a profound moment of healing and being seen for this woman.
I just wish John could let her be both seen and named.
19 The woman said, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you and your people say that it is necessary to worship in Jerusalem.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you and your people will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You and your people worship what you don’t know; we worship what we know because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the time is coming—and is here!—when true worshippers will worship in spirit and truth. The Father looks for those who worship him this way. 24 God is spirit, and it is necessary to worship God in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one who is called the Christ. When he comes, he will teach everything to us.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I Am—the one who speaks with you.”
27 Just then, Jesus’ disciples arrived
…and the conversation between Jesus and the woman comes to a screeching halt. But the words Jesus has just said are hanging in the air, spinning around in her mind.
Ἐγώ εἰμι
I Am.
The one who speaks with you.
The One who speaks with you is the I Am.
That phrase doesn’t cease spinning through the minds of the worshipers of YHWH from the time it is spoken to Moses to this day. In every time and in every place where the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is worshiped, the first person singular existential verb is the fundamental identity of the Creator of the Universe.
I know that Messiah is coming…
Dear one, it’s better than that. Messiah is more than you ever dreamed.
I Am.
27 Just then, Jesus’ disciples arrived and were shocked that he was talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 The woman put down her water jar and went into the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who has told me everything I’ve done! Could this man be the Christ?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to see Jesus.
A magical moment disrupted just as the conversation reaches its explosive point. Maybe if the conversation had continued, it wouldn’t have been as powerful. Maybe the woman needed to be brought to that moment of suspense and revelation and left to digest it.
Maybe it’s just a clever narrative tool. We probably shouldn’t leave John the Evangelist and his creativity out of the equation.
But for John, this seems to be where the good news of Jesus Christ begins to stretch out to the community outside of Judea: through this unnamed, lonely woman. In much the same way, the good news of the empty tomb is first told by a woman whose loneliness and brokenness is healed by Jesus.
I can get on board with that.
But I also think there’s good news for all of us in this particular moment in this story. Jesus puts himself in this woman’s way in the middle of a dark and lonely personal time. He finds her there and offers her company and conversation and play — yeah, this is play, and probably on a couple different levels — and he breaks through the loneliness and lets her know that she is beloved.
Now, when the people are complaining to Moses in the wilderness about being thirsty and hungry, God does this great big thing and shows off by busting open a rock and making drinking water flow out. God works in big ways like that, but God also finds us in our dry and lonely personal times and offers us clean, living water.
Y’all, we are embarking on a very lonely time right now. We are about to be surrounded by some folks who get very isolated. I not only want to invite you to hear this story as a promise to you, but also as a challenge to be the hands and voice of Jesus to others who are lonely.
What can you do to reach them?
Do you have a phone in your pocket? Gas in your car? Feeling well this week?
Reach out. Find someone. Meet them at their well. Be hope and embrace to them. Be smart about it and cautious, but find them there.
With the love of Jesus, none of us ever need be lonely again.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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