3 Lent, Yr A (2023) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
John 4:5-42 St. Andrew’s on-the-Hill
In the name of the one, holy, and living God:
Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifying Spirit. Amen.
We have all heard the expression . . .
"I wish I could be a fly on the wall in that conversation. . . ."
Well, this morning I want to invite us all on a journey to a long time ago . . .
where we listen to a conversation as a fly on the well!
This is the longest conversation Jesus has with anyone in the gospel accounts,
and it is well worth taking the time to listen.
It is a very hot day with the sun directly overhead – it is the noon hour.
The heat is beating down – the ground is hot enough to fry an egg.
There are no locals to be found.
All the women came early in the cool of the new dawn to draw their water for the day.
And all those who missed the morning cool
will just have to make do until evening time
when the sun begins to set
and loses its heat once again.
However, one woman – a Samaritan woman –
specifically chooses this time to come to the well.
She comes now because she knows she can draw water alone –
she doesn't have to endure the snide comments
and finger-pointing from the other women.
Today as she approaches Jacob's well,
she notices a man sitting nearby,
but she goes on about her business,
paying him no mind.
He is, after all, a Jewish man.
As a Samaritan and a woman, she has nothing to say to him.
Yet, as she nears the well with her water jar,
this man dares to speak to her.
"Give me a drink," he says.
He looks tired and worn-out,
but he has a kindly look about his eyes.
And although he makes a demand – "give me a drink" –
it comes across as an invitation,
as a plea from someone in need who cannot help himself.
The woman is taken aback and doesn't quite know what to do.
So, she responds by throwing up the barriers that are supposed to exist between them:
men and women don't talk to one another in public,
and even beyond that there has been racial hatred and bloodline and religious disputes between the Jews and Samaritans for well over a century.
"Why are you talking to me?" she asks.
Jesus then tells her that if she, in fact, knew who he really was,
that it would be her asking him for living water.
She doesn't understand because she thinks that he is talking about the water in the well,
and he has no bucket.
He then tells her that he offers a water such that those who drink it will never be thirsty again.
Well, that sounds mighty good to her.
She won't have to keep trudging her way to this well with her bucket
and hauling the water home in the heat of the day every day.
So she says, "Sir, give me this water."
She is asking for his gift,
but she doesn't quite yet understand what it is that he is offering.
She simply wants her life made easier so that she will never have to draw water again.
It is not until the next portion of their conversation that she begins to understand.
Jesus invites her to go and call her husband and bring him back to the well.
It is at this point that this woman has a choice.
She can decide that this man is crazy:
he has overstepped his bounds of propriety,
and she has the opportunity to go home and not come back to the well.
She could very well have said, "OK, I will go get my husband now" and disappeared forever.
But she doesn't.
Somehow, on some level, she has already entered into a relationship with this man.
Whether it was his kind eyes,
his gentle manner,
or his offer of living water,
she trusts this man.
So she responds in truth…
the truth that she came to the well at this hour to avoid…
the truth that she has been married five times and is now living with her lover.
You see, in her tradition, anyone who was married more than three times was considered immoral and deviant.
This is why she avoided the other women at the cool of the day;
she could no longer tolerate their judgment.
Somehow this man knows her history,
yet he places no blame.
He simply speaks things as they are.
"Sir, I see that you are a prophet."
It is here that she begins to see and to understand who Jesus is,
but again she hides behind the differences between them,
pointing out their religious disputes as to where people must worship:
Mt. Gerizim or Jerusalem.
Yet Jesus continues to break down the barriers
saying that the true worshippers of God will worship in spirit and truth –
place does not matter,
human-created barriers do not matter.
Jesus then reveals to this woman that he is the Messiah;
now, she has already had a glimpse of that truth through his acceptance of her.
She doesn't quite understand what has happened to her,
but she knows that something has just changed,
someone has just offered her living water.
Some stranger has just offered her a life of forgiveness and grace.
Her shame has melted away,
and she feels a little spring beginning to bubble up inside.
So she leaves her water jar right beside the well.
She no longer needs the jar to transport the water –
the water is now inside her.
She is the new vessel transporting living water.
This woman then returns to the city and tells the people there about this man who told her everything she had done – this man who had seen her in all her brokenness and had offered her new life.
The people came.
They listened.
And they entered into relationship with the one who offers living water.
They came to believe in the name of Jesus – the Savior and healer of the world.
My friends, as the fly on the well I hope that we can hear Jesus' invitation to us.
We have a choice.
We may depart from here and hide behind our brokenness.
Or, we can own our truth and accept Jesus' offer of living water –
ourselves becoming the water jar for others,
telling others who are yearning for living water where to find new springs of life
and inviting them to join us in worshipping God in spirit and truth.
What will be our choice?
The world is waiting.
AMEN.
