Today we come to another wonderfully long account from the life of Jesus in John’s Gospel – Jesus conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. It doesn’t matter if you believe this is a word by word account of the conversation, or a summary and interpretation of the conversation, today’s passage is the longest conversation that Jesus has with anyone in all of the Gospels, not to mention with a woman, who was a Samaritan ( a people who were openly rejected by Jews ). For that reason alone, it is significant. So let’s hear this passage with open ears.
5 In Samaria Jesus came to the town called Sychar, which is near the field Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there. Jesus was tired from his long trip, so he sat down beside the well. It was about twelve o’clock noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to the well to get some water, Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” 8 (This happened while Jesus’ followers were in town buying some food.)
9 The woman said, “I am surprised that you ask me for a drink, since you are a Jewish man and I am a Samaritan woman.” (Jewish people are not friends with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus said, “If you only knew the free gift of God and who it is that is asking you for water, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
11 The woman said, “Sir, where will you get this living water? The well is very deep, and you have nothing to get water with. 12 Are you greater than Jacob, our father, who gave us this well and drank from it himself along with his sons and flocks?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty. The water I give will become a spring of water gushing up inside that person, giving eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so I will never be thirsty again and will not have to come back here to get more water.”
16 Jesus told her, “Go get your husband and come back here.”
17 The woman answered, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “You are right to say you have no husband. 18 Really you have had five husbands, and the man you live with now is not your husband. You told the truth.”
19 The woman said, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where people must worship.”
21 Jesus said, “Believe me, woman. The time is coming when neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain will you actually worship the Father. 22 You Samaritans worship something you don’t understand. We understand what we worship, because salvation comes from the Jews. 23 The time is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, and that time is here already. You see, the Father too is actively seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that the Messiah is coming.” (Messiah is the One called Christ.) “When the Messiah comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus said, “I am he-I, the one talking to you.”
27 Just then his followers came back from town and were surprised to see him talking with a woman. But none of them asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to town. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Do you think he might be the Christ?” 30 So the people left the town and went to see Jesus.
31 Meanwhile, his followers were begging him, “Teacher, eat something.”
32 But Jesus answered, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 So the followers asked themselves, “Did somebody already bring him food?”
34 Jesus said, “My food is to do what the One who sent me wants me to do and to finish his work. 35 You have a saying, ‘Four more months till harvest.’ But I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields ready for harvest now. 36 Already, the one who harvests is being paid and is gathering crops for eternal life. So the one who plants and the one who harvests celebrate at the same time. 37 Here the saying is true, ‘One person plants, and another harvests.’ 38 I sent you to harvest a crop that you did not work on. Others did the work, and you get to finish up their work.”
39 Many of the Samaritans in that town believed in Jesus because of what the woman said: “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 When the Samaritans came to Jesus, they begged him to stay with them, so he stayed there two more days. 41 And many more believed because of the things he said.
42 They said to the woman, “First we believed in Jesus because of your speech, but now we believe because we heard him ourselves. We know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”John 4: 5-42 (NRSV)
Twenty years ago or so, Peta-Gai and I were in Egypt during the first gulf war, and needless to say, there were hardly any other tourists. I think when we visited the great pyramids in Cairo we were the only people in the second and third pyramids. So the day we were at the other end of the Nile, ready to hire a donkey each and someone to lead us and take us over the desert escarpment to the Valley of the Kings, we knew that as we got off the boat, there would be at least 100 poor, out of work boys looking for tourists to take. Again, we were the only two people to cross the Nile and arrive to hire donkeys. So we had decided that we would choose the boy whose donkey’s seemed to be the best treated, well looked after and fed; which we did.
And off we went, at first through the village, then into the open, and up alone secluded and dangerous tracks, close to cliff edges, then through the sands towards the valley. It all went well, but after you arrive, there is a little walk to make, while the donkey boy stays behind with the donkeys for the day until you get back. We arrived, looked around, then returned to where we had left the boy… and our donkeys. Instead there were only two or three boys we didn’t recognise, who said, the donkey boy had gone home and left us. My first reaction was panic, a moment that I still remember to this day, overwhelmed at the prospect of being in this barren place abandoned, but in an instant it turned into a joke and the boy with the donkeys came out from behind some rocks. Very funny.
So when I hear this passage from John’s gospel I see in my mind this woman coming out from her distant village to the well, surrounded by the desert, rock, and abandonment as I found in Egypt. Of course this connects me with the question I am asking each of us, throughout Lent, as I did last week; “Where do we see ourselves, where do you see yourself, in the passage”.
Do you see yourself in the person of Jesus, tired out by the journey, with all the leadership responsibilities, the expectations, and you have to send others on ahead of you, to get the food, and bring it back to you. And so you go and sit by the well… Is it hard to be tired? Is it hard to let other people do something for you? Is it hard to be at a well, and yet have nothing to draw the water up with?
Do you see yourself in the disciples, focused so often on food, or basic things, and even when you are in the presence of Jesus, after everything you have learned about him, you are shocked at the type of people he talks with, and who is acceptable, and all you want to do is eat?
Do you see yourself in the woman, who has to come to draw water alone in the heat of the day, because the other women who come out to the well don’t accept you; she has been married five times… Do you feel abandoned? Lonely? Unsure of who you really are?
Do you see yourself in the woman, who has a grief in her life?
Do you see yourself in the woman, and not realise when God is present, or shocked when God asks something of you? Do you think God asks to much of you, or too little of you?
Do you see yourself in the woman, a believer, and yet a person who finds it hard to understand the ways of God, the Spiritual life, when so much you are surrounded by is the ordinary struggle of daily life? Is faith confusing? Daunting?
Do you see yourself in the woman who has a moment when she is amazed, awoken, touched, by the reality of God in her life? So much so that she leaves behind her water jar as she goes back into the village; she leaves behind the jar she lugged for ordinary water, when she has discovered living water; “springs of water gushing up inside … giving eternal life.”? Do you remember a time of amazement of God in your life?
Do you see yourself in the woman, who simply shares her story with others, shares her faith, even amongst the people who had scorned her, forgotten her, rejected her? Who needs you to share your faith with them?
Do you see yourself in the crowd, the people from the village, who invited Jesus to stay; welcoming him, needing him, listening to him?
Do you see yourself in the crowd, the people, who come out to see Jesus, and who come to faith, and own their faith… and who say to the woman; “First we believed in Jesus because of your speech, but now we believe because we heard him ourselves. We know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
Where do we see ourselves, where do you see yourself, in the passage?
So wherever you see yourself today in this passage it may be important for you to hear another word too.
To hear Jesus say… “I am he-I, the one talking to you.”
To hear Jesus say… “whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty. The water I give will become a spring of water gushing up inside that person, giving eternal life.”
To hear Jesus say… “Here the saying is true, ‘One person plants, and another harvests.’ 38 I sent you to harvest a crop that you did not work on. Others did the work, and you get to finish up their work.”
To say to Jesus… “come and stay…”
To say…. “I believe because I heard him myself. I know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
Let the living Christ speak to us today through his word.
Let’s pray.
Like the woman of old, the disciples, the townsfolk, we come Lord.
And you speak to our lives.
You are the living water, the saviour of the world.
Come and stay with us, we pray.
Amen.