The Living Water of Jesus

Water is essential for life. Yet we can easily take a plentiful supply forgranted here in Canada, with one of the largest reserves of fresh water in the world, and many lakes and rivers and underground aquifers.

But in the desert Moses and the Hebrews wandered in, the story of Exodus, and in the land of Samaria, where Jesus encountered this unknown woman at the well, water was not taken forgranted. It was highly valued.

In our scriptures water is a symbol of life, both for the Hebrew people of Exodus and for the Samaritan woman.

Yet the Hebrews and the Samaritan woman had a thirst which couldn’t be quenched by the water the earth provided, but only by the grace and love of God.

When Jesus met the Samaritan woman, the furthest thing from her mind was that her life would be transformed by meeting this Jewish stranger.

Who knows what she was thinking as this man approached her and asked for water.

Up until that point she seems to have led a challenging life. That’s why she’s gathering water in the heat of the day, when no-one else is around.

What strikes us about this remarkable story, one of the longest dialogues in the Gospels, is that God reaches out to this woman through Jesus, offering her grace and healing she has never found before.

What makes this all the more remarkable is that Jesus, as a Jewish man, would never have been expected to have any contact or conversation with a Samaritan, let alone a Samaritan woman.

Samaritans and Jews were bitter enemies. They did not share things in common.

Samaritans built their own Temple at Mount Gerazim in competition with the Temple of Jerusalem. Jewish troops destroyed the Samaritan temple in 128 BC.

So this meeting broke all society’s unwritten laws, a man speaking to a woman, a Jew speaking to a Samaritan.

And the well was the domain of the Samaritan woman.

John tells this story at length to show the world the good news of Christ—the living water—is for all of us, men and women, of all racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Jesus breaks down the barriers which keep us apart to bring the living water of Salvation.

This is part of the signs and wonders Gospel we are now studying each Monday afternoon.

John was written about 90AD in the context of an early Jewish Christian community which had been expelled from synagogue and Temple worship.

The Gospel writer makes it clear Christ is the saviour, not just of the Jews, but of Gentiles as well, and even hated rivals, such as the Samaritans.

In fact, it is the Samaritans, represented by the woman at the well and her fellow villagers who are the first to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, the saviour, the Son of God.

Perhaps one of the most misunderstood parts of the story is the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman over her past. Jesus tells her she has had five husbands. Some commentators have used this to suggest she was of questionable moral chracter.

But we notice that Jesus doesn’t say anything to her about sin, and forgiveness, as he does in other stories, like the woman caught in adultery.

Perhaps the Samaritan woman had suffered enough from her bad choices in life.

Jesus gave her the peace and strength she needed to carry on. He gave her the living water of salvation by revealing himself to her as the Messiah after she had first called him a prophet.

Now I’d like to go back to the story from Exodus. We have those murmuring, grumbling, complaining people of Israel, whining about a lack of water. Rather than rejoice that they have escaped slavery in Egypt they are giving Moses a hard time, demanding action.

We’d be better off back in Egypt, they said. At least we’d have water.

The people of Israel are suffering from a crisis of faith. They knew God had brought them this far, saved them from Pharoah’s army.

But the desert was a scary place. They were thirsty. And they began to doubt whether God would provide the water they needed to stay alive. They were in a foreign land. Their fear turned to anger with Moses and with God.

Sure God had parted the Red Sea. But that was past. Now they were thirsty, and someone had better do something about it.

As they were to learn, with God all things are possible. In spite of their lack of trust in God, the rocks explode with living water when Moses strikes them.

God reached out to those grumbling Hebrews, and he reached out to the Samaritan woman.

As Christians we believe God reaches out to us through Jesus, providing us with the living water we need, our faith through the Holy spirit.

Each of us probably has a story about a thirst we can not quench through the water of the world. And we each probably have a story of the saving grace of God which we have finally accepted.

The reassuring thing about the story of the Samaritan woman is its offer of redemption to those who are rejected by the world.

The Samaritan woman begins the journey to faith by sharing her encounter with her friends and neighbours, who come to meet Jesus too.

This unnamed woman becomes a disciple of Christ, despite her faults.

So we can all be disciples, whatever our shortcomings. One interesting footnote to the story is that the disciples who were not with Jesus when he encountered the woman, are shocked that he would speak to her. But when they learn about this meeting, they are afraid to ask him about it.

Henri Nouwen, a well known Christian author, coined the term “wounded healer” to refer to the ministry we undertake in following Christ.

We admit that we are all wounded in some way, and try to offer what we can to love God and love our neighbour.

Let us give thanks during this Lenten pilgrimage that God’s grace is a gift, whatever wounds we bear.