Summary
Our present world is full of battlegrounds right now, and I think it is primarily because of greed and fear. Those are the two things that usually cause battle between humans aren’t they?
Greed and fear. It has always been this way, it’s just that there are times when they both seem to rise together and make things to seem especially dire, like in our present time.
Jesus’ time was very much the same as our own. Each group did not trust the other. Jew and Roman. Pharisee and Sadducee. Judea and Galilean. Zealot and Priest. Samaritan and Jew. And of course, man and woman.
It was into that milieu, in those tense times that Jesus began to preach, to teach, and to encounter the individuals whose lives were lived in those days. It was across those boundaries that Jesus continually reached out to, “the other.”
In today’s scripture we get to see how Jesus not only reaches across those boundaries, but shares the love of God with those whom his society tells him he should not. Yet, that’s Jesus for you!
When we come across Jesus he is waiting at Jacob’s Well for his disciples to go and buy food in the local Samaritan city. When a solitary woman comes to draw her water for the day from the well, he begins conversation with her, by asking her for water. She’s a solitary, Samaritan woman and so, doubly off-limits for conversation to a Jewish male. And yet he starts to chat her up, which we see surprises her as much as it does his disciples later, upon their return.
Why is this such a big deal?
Well, for a number of reasons. Most basically Jesus is a male, and she is a female. She is a Samaritan and he is a Jew, even more it can be presumed that she is a woman with a poor reputation and he, is a Rabbi.
The woman’s presumed bad reputation comes from two points. First, she has come to fetch water at noon, when none of the other women would be at the well. The other women would have come immediately in the morning when it was coolest, and they would have come together so as to socialize and help one another. This woman arrives at the hottest part of the day, alone, to carry out this exhausting work. Why?
Perhaps, so she does not need to deal with the other women’s stares and comments, or their ostracizing manners. For we also learn through her conversation with Jesus that the issue might have to do with her line of five husbands, which he reveals that she has had, and now a sixth man she is living with outside of marriage. These are only hints which we use to presume certain possibilities, but they do open up our understanding of the situation.
So, why is all of this important? It is important for it helps us to deepen our understanding of Jesus, and how he relates to people, and so, how he relates to me and you.
What we see of him, is that he does not let human interpersonal boundaries, human prejudices, or cultural fences inhibit his interaction, or his relationships with other humans.
We see this reality again and again in the gospels. Jesus wants to create connections with other people. Jesus wants to communicate with others that they are important to him, and in his interactions with others he is not only preaching to them of eternity, like he does today, but Jesus goes about changing their present reality.
Look at what he does for the Samaritan woman whom he meets at the well. She had left the city walls that day to go and get water for her household. I am sure that she had hoped to not meet anyone, not be bullied, or have rude comments thrown her way and simply accomplish her task in peace. Yet instead, she meets a man, a Jewish man whom mystifies her, by engaging in conversation, spiritual conversation. His talk of living water and ever flowing springs brings to her hope. Then he reveals to her his Godly power through the naming of her shame, but does so without shaming her. And then, perhaps most inspiring of all for her, he breaks down the wall that stands between the Samaritans and the Jews. This possible prophet, in her mind, reveals that worship is not tied to place, but rather to spirit and God’s truth. This resounds with her, for she proclaims her hope in the coming Messiah. And then wonder of wonders this mysterious man proclaims himself the Messiah!
This revelation resounds in her life and soul and she knows that she needs to share it and so she races back into her city a changed woman. She had left its walls that morning in shame, but she returns an evangelist. She goes home to her people bearing good news, inviting anyone who will listen and believe to follow her back out to the well to hear what this man, whom calls himself Messiah has to say. She doesn’t even realize it, but Jesus has given her new life, not only for eternity, but in the, “here and now!”
Isn’t that just like Jesus? Human boundaries, cultural fences, prejudicial walls, and human greed and fear do not, and cannot stop Jesus from being who he is, and doing what he came to do, namely to love the people of the world, and offer salvation to all.
If that was Jesus’ mission, it then is also ours, and so we need to strive and do the same, namely, to try and love the world, and proclaim to them the salvation that Jesus offers to everyone through his death, and resurrection. The key concept for us today is that word, “everyone.”
According to the world’s standards, greed, and fears, Jesus should never have talked to the Samaritan woman of ill-repute, there were too many walls, fences and boundaries that stood between them, but that did not matter to him. Jesus’ strong love broke down each of those barriers. And so, not only the woman, but many Samaritans of that city came to believe that Jesus was Messiah, and the Savior of the world.
What human boundaries, cultural fences, prejudicial walls, and human greed and fear do we need to start ignoring, so that we can reach out and start relationships that open up space for the Holy Spirit to enter into and move? How do we learn to look beyond our prejudices? How do we find ways to act beyond our greed? How do we live past our fears?
We can only do this by giving our prejudices, our greed, and our fears to God, and ask for the strength to stand and live out our faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Did Jesus not come to die as Savior only for me, and anyone with whom I feel comfortable interacting and sharing life. No, of course not! And he didn’t come saying that about you either! No, Jesus came as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. He is the Savior of the world.
And so, we have been called to proclaim to everyone that Jesus has come as their Savior, because God loves the entire world, and the world needs to hear, and experience this Godly reality today, in these times, as much as the woman needed to hear it 2,000 years ago standing in the noon time heat at Jacob’s Well.
Let’s share this good news, and let’s live out God’s love in the lives of our neighbors, whomever they may be.
Amen.
Bible References
- Romans 5:1 - 11
- John 4:4 - 42
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