The Very
Rev. Anthony R. Pomp
John 4:3-42
Samaria. The gospel of John says that Jesus HAD to go
through Samaria. Samaria, of course, was a place of suspect. A place that
generations of purebred Jews were carefully taught to hate, mistrust, and
avoid. Samaritans were not only considered outcasts but they also claimed that
the true shrine, the true place of worship was there, not in Jerusalem. Samaritans
by the way were taught equally to mistrust their Jewish counterparts, who
actually were their cousins.
Samaria was the
strange place, you know, that part of town where “those people lived,” where
nothing good was going to come of it. It was that place where folks “spoke
sometimes with subtlety and sometimes outright boldly” of not going. Like all
of us had in the towns or cities we grew up in- the place the less worthy live.
In my town it was North Avenue or a hill that had a disparaging name attached
to it. In this town of Bethlehem I still hear my suburban neighbors speak of
the “southside” with hesitancy in their voice.
Two thousand years ago, Samaria was this place.
True to Gospel
form however, it is Jesus who goes there! Goes to the places we are “afraid” to
go. It is here where we find the setting for the quenching drink of truth that
is being offered.
Jesus comes to an ancient place, a place of his own ancestry- the well
of Jacob. We glimpse his humanity as we imagine him tired, so very tired. And
thirsty. There he encounters a woman, a Samaritan woman no less. So many
cultural boundaries hanging in this story. A Jew and Samaritan; a man and a
woman- Jesus’ thirst- or is it the woman’s thirst- or maybe the thirst that
they have in common that will propel them across those boundaries and into a
new possibility!
What boundaries
inside of ourselves keep us from being propelled into a new possibility? Who is
it we are conditioned to mistrust, to stay away from? Iranians? Russians anew?
Certain Africans perhaps? Democrats or
Republicans? Folks far down on 4th
street, South Bethlehem? Or even our neighbor across the street?
Jesus’ comes to
the well with thirst the story tells us. Jesus’ thirst in this story reminds us
that we all thirst- we share a commonality-it propels him to break the rules-
to not just share a drink with this Samaritan woman, but to LISTEN to her,
engage her- SEE HER as a person. Crossing the boundary of Jew to Samaritan, of
Man to Woman, their thirst brings them together.
Ever been with
someone who “SEES” you for who you are- “GETS- what you care about, what you
are made of- who helps you “relinquish” a bit of truth about who you are, even
the stuff that might seem edgy?
In Jesus’
SEEING this stranger- she “SEES” him as well- the truth of their intimacy will
change EVERYTHING.
10 Jesus says
to the woman who is taken aback at his engaging her and asking her for water;,
"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?"
What’s the
difference between living and dead water?
Some water is
dead water- the kind of water that stalls you out when you are on your way down
the river. Or deep and still with sediment or toxins, not to be consumed?
Yet sometimes
we stay floating in it, or even dare to continue to drink it. You know, the
water that never quenches or even makes you sick. The water that stalls you
out. Dead water may be same old habits that get in your way of feeling healthy,
of loving authentically, of trusting yourself, others and of course God more
fully.
But Jesus says
to this woman who has had her share of dead water……….
13 ,
"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!"
The “Seeing:
now comes to believing! Jesus and the woman see one another and the exchange is
deep and authentic. Truth be told, the woman knows enough to know she wants
this living water that Jesus speaks of!
She has had her share of the dead water in her life.
She has used up
husbands the way each of us uses up water that does not give life.. Though the
scripture does not tell us what happened to her husbands, it is clear that her
self and soul are not well and full. She may have spent a lifetime with either
bad luck or bad choice or both, the end result is the same- she is empty.
Sometimes perhaps
we feel the same in life, either with bad luck or bad choice and despite
whatever methods we may try to fill ourselves- the right class, the right book,
the right medication, the right relationship- it may not turn out the way we
had hoped- and we may find ourselves still thirsting- still needing redemption
actually.
19 The woman
said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet.
She has been “Seen”, understood, respected, and encountered, and she
“sees” Jesus as one who authentically sees and cares- He’s crossed a lot of
boundary for this encounter AND SO HAS SHE.
She is exposed,
vulnerable, and Jesus is about to show the rest of his cards as well.
The truth of
the interaction is the invitation for her to surrender herself to be “SEEN”.
The full truth of who she is, no masks, no shame, no pride, just courage to
acknowledge that WHO she is is worthy to be presented before the God who made
her- and to trust what is being given. In this encounter not only is her true
self exposed and revealed to Jesus, but, and to the point, in revealing
herself, she “SEES” Who Jesus is- and the great hope of her yearning, (“I
believe the Messiah is coming”) is greeted by the news that it is HE the one
who comes to propel all into new life.
She Sees Jesus
and her witness to the man who offers her water that will quench a thirsty soul
becomes the first witness to Jesus’ identity in John’s Gospel.
Are you willing
to worship God with the truth of who you are?
Are you willing
to trust anew, to sip a quenching water, to dare to be redeemed, propelled, to
be seen?
Are you willing
to tell what you have “Seen” of your Lord in your life? Of Water that brings
new life?
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