John 4: 3-15 (16-42)
Jesus in today’s passage encounters a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. Usually as the text tells us Jews and Samaritan steered a wide path away from each other. Years of troubled history had separated these distant relatives, these sons of Jacob. A little like the Hatfields and McCoys, the feud was lengthy and the prejudice pervasive. The disciples had gone into town to find food and a tired Jesus approaches the woman and asks her for a drink. Propriety yelled loudly no! Not only does a Jew not drink from the same cup as a Samaritan, but a man doesn’t ask of a strange woman. So she asks, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”
See the scene. Identify a similar current encounter if you can. Hear the tone of voice of the woman and Jesus. What do you imagine the woman is thinking?
Jesus responds but is it to the question asked? He says, “if you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” From the concrete and common human condition of thirst, Jesus talks of God and living water, a very different level of thirst and satiation.
Continue your visualizing either this scene or its modern equivalent. How do you feel about Jesus’ answer? What do you think of it?
As we continue to read the story we find that the woman persists in asking and Jesus reveals more of who he is. Perhaps the movement of the story seems to fast to be real. Perhaps the story is written more to make a point. But even if both of these are true, does it not suggest that in questioning Jesus we must be prepared to hear an answer which changes context, the level? Asking Jesus a question can open unexpected doors.
Dialogue with Jesus at your own place of getting water.
Jesus, we live in the here and now. Our bodies need food and water. Yours did too. But you remind us that we need more, that we are not just flesh and blood, but alive with your spirit. Let us know that thirst and drink of your water. Amen.
Blessings, Caroline
Jesus in today’s passage encounters a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. Usually as the text tells us Jews and Samaritan steered a wide path away from each other. Years of troubled history had separated these distant relatives, these sons of Jacob. A little like the Hatfields and McCoys, the feud was lengthy and the prejudice pervasive. The disciples had gone into town to find food and a tired Jesus approaches the woman and asks her for a drink. Propriety yelled loudly no! Not only does a Jew not drink from the same cup as a Samaritan, but a man doesn’t ask of a strange woman. So she asks, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”
See the scene. Identify a similar current encounter if you can. Hear the tone of voice of the woman and Jesus. What do you imagine the woman is thinking?
Jesus responds but is it to the question asked? He says, “if you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” From the concrete and common human condition of thirst, Jesus talks of God and living water, a very different level of thirst and satiation.
Continue your visualizing either this scene or its modern equivalent. How do you feel about Jesus’ answer? What do you think of it?
As we continue to read the story we find that the woman persists in asking and Jesus reveals more of who he is. Perhaps the movement of the story seems to fast to be real. Perhaps the story is written more to make a point. But even if both of these are true, does it not suggest that in questioning Jesus we must be prepared to hear an answer which changes context, the level? Asking Jesus a question can open unexpected doors.
Dialogue with Jesus at your own place of getting water.
Jesus, we live in the here and now. Our bodies need food and water. Yours did too. But you remind us that we need more, that we are not just flesh and blood, but alive with your spirit. Let us know that thirst and drink of your water. Amen.
Blessings, Caroline
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