It was noon on a hot day. Jesus, tired from traveling, stopped to rest at Jacob's well outside the town of Sychar. This was a bold move in and of itself, as Jews avoided Samaria at all costs. (They were often beaten and robbed for crossing over the border.)
When a woman appeared with a watering bucket in hand, Jesus made a simple request: "Will you give me a drink?"
It may seem like a small request, but back in the day, Jews weren't supposed to talk to Samaritans (they were enemies) and men weren't allowed to talk to women without their husbands present. Also, rabbis wouldn't be caught dead speaking to a shady lady, such as this woman (who had been married 5 times and was living with a man who wasn't her husband).
Jesus was willing to throw out the rules, but the woman at the well wasn't. "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman," she reminded him. "How can you ask me for a drink?" She focused on the law; Jesus focused on grace.
It was an incredibly scandalous and radical move. How would this relate to a story in our world today? Imagine the President of the United States traveling in his limo through the streets of Detroit. He stops in the seediest neighborhood and gets out to speak with a prostitute and asks her for a drink. How's that for radical?!?
Jesus had a remarkable conversation with this woman. She had been an outsider and not an upstanding citizen in the eyes of her community, and here, the Messiah was asking her for a drink of water. When she questioned his actions, Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.” The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’?
She didn't understand that he was speaking, not of earthly water, but of salvation. That happens a lot in scripture. Jesus is talking about things way up here (imagine my hand stretched up as high as I can reach), while we're all living down here... on earth.
This story is God doing a new thing. Jesus, the prophet of Samaritans and Jews alike, is telling her that it doesn't matter where they worship or what their differences are... they're all equal in the eyes of God. Jesus brings himself down to her level, to offer her salvation, and break the social barrier.
The woman recognizes his greatness and rushes back to town to tell everyone she knows what she has just seen. Before long, more Samaritans return to the well to meet the him. This woman, now his disciple, brings the people to Jesus. How's that for women in leadership?
What does this parable teach us?
For one, it teaches us to be inclusive and welcoming to ALL people... even our enemies, even people that are outsiders, and yes, even people of "ill repute." Maybe we should even be especially welcoming toward these people, as Jesus was. It's so easy to want to overlook them or push them to the edges of society and judge them for their mistakes. So, here's your reminder, don't judge someone just because they sin differently than you. God's kingdom is open to all.
And secondly, this is a call to action in our world today. It's a call to come to the well, and drink of it... and to offer it — the "living water" — to our brothers and sisters, here on earth. Let us be Jacob's Well.
Go. Be. Do.
Written by Kay Weiss, guest blogger
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