12 March 2023 Lent 3

How often have we ‘dismissed’ this Samaritan woman as a ‘scandalous’ woman, after all, she has had 5 husbands and she appears to now be ‘living’ with a man to whom she is not married.  Scandalous!!  But it is possible that we have judged her unfairly.  We are not told what happened to her 5 husbands.  Did they die?  Did they divorce or abandon her (effectively the same thing), leaving her unsupported and destitute?  Is she currently in a ‘Levirate marriage’ where she is living with a brother of one of her deceased husbands in order to produce an heir, yet such women are not always technically considered the brother’s wife?  And importantly, at no point does Jesus indicate he disapproves of her lifestyle, and he does not indicate there is any need for repentance or forgiveness.

The fact that she has come to draw water in the middle of the day, on her own, gives us a hint that the other women in the village have abandoned her, they are not ‘sharing’ the communal duties with her, and she is ‘on her own’, isolated.  But when Jesus speaks to her, many boundaries are crossed and ‘accepted practices’ dismissed.  She is a woman, and men do not initiate conversation with unknown women.  She is a Samaritan, and Jesus is a Jew, and Jews do not associate or interact with Samaritans.  Jews and Samaritans do not share eating or drinking vessels, so by asking her for a drink Jesus is asking to use her drinking vessel because he clearly does not have one with him.  But Jesus not only speaks to her, he shows her he ‘sees’ her.  Not just visually, but emotionally.  He ‘sees’ her isolation, he ‘sees’ her rejection by her community.  He ‘sees’ her struggles to just ‘live’.  And when she comments on Jesus’ request for a drink, and he offers her ‘living water’, she is not only confused, she is intrigued and expresses a desire to have this living water.

Now, the beginning of this text seem relatively unremarkable, on the surface, just a curious interlude between two individuals who would not, under normal circumstances, be conversing.  But all that changes when Jesus reveals to her that he is aware of her marital status and the fact that the man she is currently with is not her husband.  That is the point when our ‘judgement’ of her kicks in and we stop seeing her as ‘just a woman’ and we start seeing her as a ’brazen hussy’.  But there is no indication from Jesus of any wrongdoing or bad behaviour on her part.  He is simply stating the fact that she has had 5 husbands, and she currently does not have a husband.  But because Jesus speaks to her as a ‘person’; because he ‘sees’ her and treats her with worth, value and significance, she realises she is in the presence of a prophet and she makes that ‘statement of faith’, ‘I see you are a prophet’.  And for this reason she dares to ask the question that has divided Samaritans and Jews for centuries, where is the right place for worship.   But this is not necessarily an attempt by her to ‘distract’ the conversation from her marital status, this is a heartfelt question which gets to the very root of what separates her from Jesus.  And when his answer gives her a more hopeful and penetrating answer than she was expecting, she abandons her water jar and runs to tell her community about this man.  Last week Nicodemus could not comprehend who or what Jesus was.  Today, this outsider recognises not just who Jesus is but what he offers – dignity.  Jesus looks beyond her circumstances and offers her an identity that lifts her above her tragedy.  This woman plays a very important role in Jesus’ ministry, she is the first person, and the first religious outsider, to whom Jesus reveals his identity in John’s Gospel; and the first person, in John’s gospel, to seek out others and tell them about Jesus.  She is the first believer in any of the gospels to straightaway become an evangelist, and bring her entire city to a saving knowledge of Jesus.  We are told that Jesus stayed in the city for two days, so that all who heard this woman’s testimony could meet him and see the woman as a reliable witness.  John tells us, many Samaritans that day believed in him because of this woman’s testimony.

Jesus’ willingness to break social rules means that we, his followers, need to disregard the stereotypes we hold onto; the prejudices we feed; the social and cultural lines we draw.  Jesus invites us to look at the Samaritan woman and see a sister and apostle, not a foreigner, or threat, or heretic.  I wonder, what is it that holds us back from living into the future God has prepared for us.  What stops us from sharing the news of how God has worked in our lives.  What jars do we need to leave behind; how can we trade our past tragedies and present challenges for the living water that Jesus offers.  This woman had everything stacked against her, yet she was able to leave them behind and share the story of what God did in her life.   She may have started out tentatively “he can’t be the Messiah, can he?”, expecting a negative answer; but those tentative steps take her away from her past and step her into a future she could not have imagined.  What about me.  What about you.  Within our lives, we will find the Word of God speaking and the Living Water flowing in the most unlikely places; through very unexpected voices; and from disempowered and overlooked minds and bodies.  During this Lenten season, may we have the ears to hear it, the hearts to drink it in, and the humility to honour and bless its proclamation.