The outcast woman at the well....
The 3rd Sunday in Lent Year A
John 4:5-42
The conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the
well is an unusual conversation.
Jesus is, first of all, not on his home turf. Traveling from Judea in the South to Galilee
in the North he could easily have skirted Samaria - as pious travelers
frequently did if they were concerned about coming into contact with something
or someone which would render them unclean.
Jesus takes the short route and ends up in a Samaritan town called
Sychar at high noon.
He is out of place - a solitary Jew in a Samaritan village with
his disciples gone off on an errand. A
woman shows up at noon to draw water at the local well. The woman in the story is also out of place.
This is an unusual time for her to be doing this sort of thing. Her contemporaries had all been by the well
the cool of the morning. It might
indicate someone who was disorganized in her household habits or, as is mostly
likely the case, somebody who was sincerely hoping not to bump into anyone she
knew. Women talked when they were
together at the well. The woman in our
story has a chaotic life story. Other
women at the well might have talked
about her.
Jesus doesn't care that she is a Samaritan. He doesn't even seem completely perplexed by
her complicated personal history. He
asks her for a drink of water. She
rambles on - nervous and bemused at being spoken to by a stranger. She's even prepared to enter into an
ecumenical discussion about the differing practices and holy places of the Jews
and the Samaritans. Jesus dismisses
these bluffs and platitudes as religious nonsense. He proceeds to tell her exactly who she is
and who he is and what might ensue should she ever come to her right mind and
ask him for the gift of life - summed up in his words about Living Water.
So many of the transforming moments in both the Old and New
Testaments occur when the comfortable safety of stable and respectable life is
either lost or set aside. The character
in a biblical story about transformation is more than likely to be a wanderer,
a prisoner, an expatriate, a social outcast or a solitary seeker.
You might not seek such a life for yourself. If it is thrust upon you, however, take
heart. Unaccustomed times and places are
putty in God's hands.
