Scripture: John 4:4–29
John 4.4-27
Jesus had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
7 A 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.) 9 The 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.) 10 Jesus 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.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but 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.” 15 The 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.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But 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. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
27 Just 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?” 28 Then 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?”
She was done,
She was done with the whispers and gossip of her peers,
She was done with the judgemental glances and side-eyes of neighbors.
She was done with having to do everything on her own;
She was done with men using her, abusing her, and letting her down.
She was done with everyone who thought they knew her
when in fact no one had tried to know her in years.
She was done with taboo customs, religious rules, and culture wars,
that left her no place to belong.
She was done being around people, yet feeling so alone.
She was done feeling like a failure, yet trying so hard.
She was done trying to be faithful, yet being outcast.
She was done.
So she created her own liturgy of survival.
She went to the well when she could be alone,
in the heat of the day,
at noon,
There, she wouldn’t have to deal with the whispers and gossip,
the judgemental glances and side-eyes;
There she could just be.
So she befriended the mid-day sun, and
she took the sweat trickling down her face as an invitation to cry over her sorrows
The well, without the whispers and glances of other women,
was actually a peaceful place,
Once she got there, after sweating and crying on the walk from town, she would sit.
Sit and be for just a few minutes, praying to God for some relief from her hurt-filled life.
The well at midday was her little oasis.
But today, someone was there.
A Jewish man, she realized as she got closer.
Great.
The only thing worse than gossipy townswomen were self-righteous Jews who thought they were better than Samaritans.
Maybe if this man was wise, he would keep his mouth shut and she could quickly get the water she needed and leave. She took a breath, determined to get out of this situation as quickly and painlessly as possible and went to the well to fill her jars with water.
“Give me a drink.”
Excuse her? Did this man really just ask for a drink? The hopes of this man being wise and quiet were dashed.
Everyone knows people go to the well in the middle of the day to AVOID others.
And everyone knows that good people don’t want to talk to those who chose to go to the well in the middle of the day to avoid others
Everyone knows men and women do not speak when they are alone.
Everyone knows Jews and Samaritans are enemies and do not share drinks with one another or they will become unclean.
Or she thought everyone knew these things.
This man must be a fool.
And she was done, she was especially done with foolish people. She had enough of those in her life. This was supposed to be her mid-day escape–her survival liturgy–sweat, cry, sit at the well, pray, get water, and return home with slightly more sanity than she left with. Maybe, if this man wasn’t an idiot, he would let her pretend she didn’t hear him and just leave her alone.
But again she hears, “Give me a drink.”
And so, she lets him have it. that mouth that had gotten her into trouble since she could talk.
“Excuse me?” she said, “How are you, a Jewish man, asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink? Do you know what the consequences of this could be? I’m already an unpopular outcast, do you want to make my life worse? You should have planned ahead and brought your own bucket for water.”
But this man appears unphased at this outburst.
He begins a conversation,
speaking in riddles, yet making perfect sense.
seeming to know nothing about manners or custom, yet knowing everything about her.
or maybe, just maybe,
he cares nothing about manners or customs because he cares so deeply for her
Living water?
Eternal life?
Spirt and truth?
Yes please!
This man has a new way of seeing the world and she wants more of it.
She is done.
She is done with her old life,
She is done with the shame she’s been carrying around.
She is done with the guilt of failed marriages.
She is done with believing the gossip about her that is really all lies.
She is done with the weighty burdens pushing her to the brink.
She is done with the rules and customs that only hurt.
She is done with the isolation of being outcast.
She is done with the hurt of never being truly known.
This man—the Messiah—replaced
shame and judgement with compassion
guilt and failure with forgiveness
rules and customs with spirit and truth
isolation with belonging
despair with hope
and all of this done in a way of love she has never known.
For the first time since childhood she felt light,
she could dance and leap for joy
a conversation of grace
being seen by the savior
being known and still being loved and chosen.
She was done,
done with her old way of being,
and open to following the new ways of the Messiah.
What are you done with?
If you could sit and have a conversation with Jesus, where would it be and what would you want to talk about?
Can you imagine the grace and the love that you would feel?
And if you can’t imagine that, let’s work on that because Jesus wants you to feel grace and love.
Too often in life we have experiences that tell us that grace, love, and forgiveness are limited.
Too often in life we have experiences that make shame, hurt, and suffering feel much bigger than grace and love.
But Jesus tells us a story of abundance, of living water that I believe tastes like grace and love that never goes dry.
I have tasted that water but I’m still thirsty for more of it.
But in order to taste that water, we have to sit at the well.
I know life is busy and as soon as the service is over it’s challenging to find time to sit and reflect, so I’m going to give you all some time to do it now.
For 2 minutes, we are going to have a time of silent reflection,
where you can talk with Jesus, and I’ll pray when it’s over.
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