The woman left her water jar, ran, and told the people of her city, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”
This is amazing to
me. She was excited that this man that
she encountered, Jesus, knew everything that she had ever done. Now I am pretty sure that I would not be
excited if a stranger walked up to me on the street and said, “I know
everything you have done.” Number one,
do I need to have my home searched for hidden cameras? Number two, I am pretty certain that I do not
want anyone to know “everything” that I have done.
When my grandma died, I was sad, of course, but I was also scared to death because now Grandma Helen could look down from heaven and see everything that I was doing. And, there is no way that anyone would want Grandma Helen to see everything that they were doing.
But, this woman was excited! She said, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”
Not only did Jesus know everything about her life, but we can see right here that she was letting other people in on her story too, so that they might come and see this guy Jesus, the Messiah. And, that is amazing to me. She opens up her own personal story like a book so that others can see Jesus. That is so good. I will tell you more about that in a moment, but that was not the first thing that struck me as amazing in this story.
The first thing that struck me as I studied this story of the “woman at the well” in preparation for this sermon was its very opening lines.
This is how it reads: “[Jesus] came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.”
This well is still there by the way. You can go and visit it this day. You can sit down right next to this well, just like Jesus. And, if you sit down in enough places around the well, you are then allowed to tell the world that your back end sat in the very spot that Jesus’ back end sat. Granted, you will look weird sitting down and getting up again 16 times all around this well, but the bragging rights will make it all worth it!
And, as you sit where Jesus sat, and lean your shoulder and head against the cold sides of the well, and feel the coolness on your forehead during a hot and humid Middle Eastern day, it will suddenly strike you that Jesus was hot and exhausted, and that he needed to cool down. And, then it will sink in that Jesus needed to cool off and rest, just like us. And, then it will sink in that Jesus actually took the time to sit, cool off, and rest. The savior of the world, the eternal Word of God that spoke the world into being, God, walking around in the flesh on this earth, felt the heat, felt exhausted from his journey, and then took the time to rest. And, as you rest, as the coolness of the well calms your tired body and tired soul, a deep truth finally sinks in: rest is a part of who God is. It is OK for you to need rest. Actually, resting is a part of being holy. And, that freedom to rest, given by God, feels amazing.
But, there is more amazement to be had in this story. We are just getting started. A Samaritan woman, an enemy of the Jews (and Jews an enemy of Samaritans) happens to show up with her large, ceramic jars to draw water from the well. It is noon. It is hot. It is not the time that women typically come to draw water. Usually they come in the morning or in the evening, when it is cool. I wonder if there is a hidden, shameful reason why she chooses to draw water when no one else is around. But, today there is someone around: Jesus, a Jew. And, this sworn enemy talks to her. He asks if she can give him a drink.
This is amazing to me. It is amazing to the woman too because she responds, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” To drive the point home, the writer comments, “(Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)” What is amazing is that Jesus is engaging this Samaritan woman in deep conversation. Jesus is conversing deeply with a woman. Jesus is conversing deeply with a cultural enemy. The men here are thinking, “So what, I just did that five minutes ago.” But, this was a big deal back then.
To understand, go ahead and imagine the most despised category of person of whom you can think. What kind of person, when you see or hear of them, causes you say to yourself, “Surely God has a problem with them”? Now picture that kind of person, and imagine that Jesus has gone out of his way, like intentionally walked in the wrong direction of where he said he was going, in order to spend a significant amount of time talking with that despised kind of person.
That is shocking. It is shocking for the disciples. When they show up and see Jesus having this conversation they think to themselves, “What is he doing? Why is he doing this?” I imagine the writer of the gospel had to delete a couple of internal, but still inappropriate, choice words. Not only that, the disciples walk into to this conversation late. Imagine what would have come out of their mouths if they had heard the most shocking thing of all: Jesus asking the woman for help. Recall that Jesus asks the woman for some water. Jesus asks her for some help. Jesus asks a well known, hated enemy for help.
Have you ever considered that even the worst person you can think of might still have some goodness to offer? Are we so black and white in our thinking that we cannot even consider the possibility that our enemy might be at the same time evil, and capable of something good. (Maybe, our enemies are 100% saint and 100% sinner as well…the same as us?)
Maybe it is we who, for some reason, need to see our enemies as either good or bad.
Maybe we focus so much on our enemies because we do not want to look inside and decide which one we are, good or bad? Maybe, we cannot look inside because we are afraid of what we will find? So, we become blind to our own lives, we close the door to our own souls, and we point a finger at our enemies.
What would happen if we asked something good from our enemies? What if we asked for help? What if we allowed ourselves to be vulnerable, realizing that we might be losing something if we refuse their contribution to the world? Jesus asks the woman for water. It is so simple, but at the same time, it is truly amazing.
Life is so messy. People are so messy. People with white hats and people with black hats do not exist. Good people and bad people do not exist. Only messy people exist. Only lots and lots of messy people like you and me exist. All of us are messy people who need some living water to wash through us and refresh us once again. Jesus said to the woman:
“Everyone who drinks of this water [the water from the well] will be thirsty again, 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.”
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.”
And, it is at this point in the story where things get real. This is where that first amazing thing that I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon starts to happen. This is where the story of her life starts to open up. Just understand that before clean water can be put in a glass, the old, murky, dirty water needs to be seen for what it is, and poured out.
Here is the story is it comes to us right from the Bible. Here is the part where the woman’s murky water is exposed.
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!”
Honestly, I do not know what to make of her murky past with all of these husbands, nor do I know why she is living with a man who is not her husband. The Bible does not tell us. I do not know exactly where sin slithers its way through her story. I do not know how sin stains the woman, nor do I understand how other people’s sin has created chaos and pain in her life.
What I do understand is that Jesus knows. He sees it all. He understands it all. When she is with Jesus, she is an open book. With Jesus, she cannot hide. With Jesus, she does not need to hide. When Jesus looks at her murky life, rather than choosing to condemn her, he chooses to reveal himself to her. He reveals to her a secret. He is the great “I am.” He is God. And, the great “I am” is choosing her.
Allowing God to see you naked, to see you as you truly are, does something amazing. When stripped of all of the clothes and makeup and masks and facades that you wear to cover up your true self; when stripped of all of that, Jesus finally gets to wash you clean with “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” Like a muddy kid stripping for the garden hose, Jesus finally gets to wash you clean, putting new clothes on you, and fashioning you into the eternally God fearing and God loving person that you were created to be.
The woman left her water jar, ran, and told the people of her city, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”
This is amazing. The woman was excited because Jesus did know everything that she had ever done, and despite it all, Jesus still chose her to be his evangelist in Samaria. In fact, her past, those things that she kept secret for so long, became an important part of her story with Jesus. She told of how Jesus knew them all, and chose her anyway.
Jesus is not fearful of scarred pasts. When Jesus is resurrected, he still has scars in his hands and feet and side. New life in Jesus does not deny that we have scars and sordid pasts full of sin. New life in Jesus is not a denial of your story; it is Jesus claiming your story. It is allowing Jesus to take over that story, so that the waters of new life can flow through you. This is what Lent is all about. It is the time of year that we intentionally allow Jesus to see our whole life so that he can take over the story.
Allow Jesus to see your whole life. Allow Jesus to wash it clean. And, allow Jesus to refresh you so that you can get up and be his child once again.
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