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February 24, 2008 The
Woman at the Well Will you use your imagination with me today?
Will you place yourself in our Gospel lesson as the woman at the well? You are a bitter enemy of the Jews You are a despised person. You were considered ritually unclean like a leper or a corpse, or a menstruating woman. You worship on the wrong hill… Mount Gerizim. The correct place to worship was on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. You were considered competition to the one true religion. Not to mention you sided with the Assyrians in wars against the Jews. You intermarried with Babylonians making you racially impure. You are a Samaritan woman. You have a checkered past. Been married 5 times and are now living with number six. You have no friends to speak of... you are alone at the well. Other normal women get water in the morning or evening. You go at noon… in the heat of the day. Something is amiss. Jews and Samaritans aren’t supposed to talk to each… especially in a public place. Men and women were not supposed to consort in public. Under Jewish purity law, you certainly shouldn’t share your drinking vessel with a Jew, for it would make them unclean. You are a Samaritan Woman. And a man named Jesus comes up to you and asks for a drink of water. It is a simple request, but with future ramifications. You feel uncomfortable, like people are watching you. He shouldn’t have talked to you and he has no bucket. Jesus’ disciples are giving you and Jesus dirty looks. They flee and go into town to get food. And yet you have a conversation with this stranger. You don’t know who he is. He seems different. “Why would he be talking to me?” You ask yourself. You have a conversation about water. Something about never being thirsty again. The stanger offers you living water… which is flowing water, bubbling water, like a stream or spring that continuously flows… something much better than well water in the ancient world. You think to yourself… That would be great. A lot easier than dipping into this well. The water this man promises gushes up to eternal life. It always flows and in will quench your thirst. You think of earthly thirst. This man speaks of spiritual thirst, but you don’t get it. You hope for a messiah. This man says, I am he. In this lesson Jesus sees and knows all things. He knew the woman had 5 husbands. And was living with another. He knew of the deep divisions with Samaritans. He knew about the role of women. And still he initiates the conversation. He is willing to become ritually unclean by drinking out of her cup. Jesus is tearing down the walls built up between people over long periods of time. He is breaking down barriers caused by deep wounds and divisions. He offers eternal life as a gift to the Samaritan woman, nothing earned, out of pure grace… if she only knew who it was who was offering it. Jesus grants full acceptance despite full knowledge. What good news this is for us. We put up barriers and walls with people who are different than us. We cut people off when they don’t believe like us. We still cast stones at people whom we consider more sinful than us. We pass judgment without sharing water and conversation. And yet Jesus tears down one wall after another. He opens up God’s grace to the Samaritans. His mission is expanding from the lost sheep of the house of Israel to the despised. That day he called the woman into a new existence. To believe in Jesus is to give testimony about “life” completely new. This woman became a true disciple… going and telling her friends about this man who knew everything about me, and still talked to me. He restored her to community again. She had purpose in life again. Today you have heard that Jesus fully knows you and he still fully accepts you. On he cross he takes our sin, the walls we build and shatters them. He promises that when you drink the living water he offers in the Word and Sacrament, you will never thirst again. In fact it gushes up to eternal life. How far have we come in 2000 years? In the Holy Land today, a wall is being erected by the Israeli government to separate Jews and Palestinians, The wall is ugly, cold, and daunting. The wall has destroyed countless olive trees. It is built out of fear. The state of Israel sees Palestinians as the enemy. I wonder what Jesus would say about that wall. Perhaps he would ask a Palestinian for a drink of water.
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