John 4:5-42 (click on the scripture to read it)
The Woman at the Well
The Gospel story about Jesus and the woman at the well has always been a story that paints a vivid picture in my mind. As I hear the Words, I can see beads of sweat clinging on the forehead of Jesus as he sits on the sandy ground next to an ancient spring fed well, given to the region by his ancestor Jacob. I can envision the hot rays of the Noonday sun beating down on his dark skin as he rubs the souls of his feet, sore from a long journey. I can almost imagine the dryness of his mouth being lost in his mind as he gazed at the view of a nearby mountaintop and became overwhelmed by the enjoyment in solitude of the moment.
My mental image of the woman in this story comes to me from a drawing made of charcoal and pastels that I once saw in a vender's booth at a street festival. She was sitting one leg up on a small pillar of stone and clay that surrounded the life-giving well of Jacob. Her long black hair, partially pulled back with a colorful cloth, glistened in the sunshine. Her dark eyes leapt from the page and her skin seemed smooth and flawless. The dress she wore was simple, pure white, with only a thin colorful waste band that matched the cloth in her hair. In her hands she held a clay vessel and her feet were bare.
This bright, pure, and alluring image of the Samaritan Woman at the well, is not the image that is portrayed by St. John, nor would she be the image revealed through history. I think a thousand years of political and cultural circumstances created boundaries between Samaritans, and other descendants of Abraham, that only the Divine could tear down. And as we well know, Jesus is pretty good at being counter cultural in his approach to teaching about the Kingdom of God and this case is no different.
Jesus spoke to the woman. This does not sound like much to our culture, but Jewish men and especially a Rabbi, would never speak to a woman in public. Men didn't do this for two reasons: First, speaking to a woman in public carried with it sexual undertones, and Second if the woman was married this meant you were trying to steal another man's female property, which constituted adultery. No wonder the disciples were so upset when they came back to find their teacher talking to an unknown woman.
I wonder what the disciples would have thought if they had heard Jesus say to her, "give me a drink." Jews did not share things with Samaritans because they were stereotyped as being mixed blooded half-breeds and all Samaritan women were labeled as unclean from birth and were forbidden to be touched. And if this weren't enough, Jesus would have known that she was an outcast because she coming to draw water at Noon, instead of the Morning or Evening like other women.
With all these preconceived notions that must have been flowing through the woman's head, it is beginning to become somewhat clearer why she reacted to Jesus' demand for a drink in such a snippy way, when she said, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" I can also imagine her saying something like, “You righteous Jews are something else. All my life you have been comparing me and my people to something less than the swine that scavenge the depths of this world. And now! Now, you are willing to forget about the centuries of ridicule and unworthiness because you need something,.. you need me. You need me and now it is okay to ask me for a drink… You Hypocrite.
All her life she had been labeled and stereotyped simply because of her ethnicity.
When this woman asks Jesus, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" she has just done the same thing to Jesus; she let her preconceived notions, and her learned stereotypes be projected onto Jesus. Here sits a Jew and he must be like all the rest of them.
Jesus didn’t react the way she would have expected. He reacted in a way that opened the doors to a healing she could not have ever imagined.
The theological conversation that ensued painted a picture between the worldly and the spiritual, the difference between water that sustains earthly life and living water that sustains life eternally. The woman hears the words Jesus has to share, but is unable to sift through the overwhelming stress in her everyday life and grasp the healing nature of this Spiritual Truth. Jesus cuts to the chase and speaks prophetically revealing her worldly past, which leads to Jesus having her undivided attention.
It is through Jesus grasping the full attention of the Samaritan woman, which enabled her to begin to grasp an understanding of eternal life, life beyond the well… a life that not only clings to the hope of the coming Christ, but a life of transformation which has healed her spirit in such a way that has allowed her to see the Christ sitting right in front of her. After her eyes were opened she went into action. The Samaritan women left her water jar, went back to the city, and invited others to meet their messiah, their savior.
The women in this story needed saving, but even more so the culture in which she lived needed saving.
In the story Jesus says she had been married 5 times. Our first reaction is that this is a bad thing. This is not necessarily the case. Within the culture, when a husband died it was the responsibility of his oldest brother to take his brother’s widow as a wife. They would then have multiple wives. If that brother died, the next brother in line took his brother’s widow as his wife…and so on and so on. Yes, she was married 5 times, but this was not a bad… her first husband just had a large family and she out lived them all.
But now there were no more brothers to protect her or her honor and she was out of options. It is very likely that this woman was held in bondage to the man she was living with. She did what she had to do in order to survive, yet a life of bondage is not really living. The culture needed saved…it need healed of its blindness in order to see the sanctity of every human life.
Today in the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada we have been asked to have our eyes opened too. Today each parish in the diocese has been encouraged to be a Witness to Human Trafficking. For the last 10 years there has been a collaboration of countries around the world that track human trafficking. For the first time in those 10 years the United States is ranked on this report documenting the human trafficking and modern slavery of our men, women, and children in “forced labor, debt bondage, and forced prostitution.”
Nevada is at the top of the list and not a list that we should celebrate about.
What we must celebrate is our relationship with Christ and how we must live into the Gospel… we must be a voice for those who have none.
I return back to my image of the Samaritan woman at the well,.. the image taken from a drawing at a street festival. She was sitting relaxed, one leg up on a small pillar of stone and clay that surrounded the life-giving well. Her long black hair, partially pulled back with a colorful cloth, glistened in the sunshine. Her dark eyes leapt from the page and her skin seemed smooth and flawless. The dress she wore was simple, pure white, with only a thin colorful waste band that matched the cloth in her hair. In her hands she held a clay vessel and her feet were bare.
Is this bright, pure, and alluring image at the well, a portrayal of the Samaritan woman before she met Jesus, or is it an image of her after she and her culture had been healed and transformed by the Grace Jesus had to offer?
Let us pray,
Almighty God, we give thanks and praise to you for your Son and the healing encounter he had with the Samaritan woman at the well. We seek your ever presence to be known to those who are involved in human trafficking. We pray for healing in the lives of those who place people in bondage and for those in bondage. Open our eyes to see their tears; open our ears to hear their cries for help; open our mouths to say no more slave trade of those less fortunate than ourselves. All this we pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.
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