The hour was about
noon. When a Samaritan woman came to
draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give me water to drink.” The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a
Jew. How can you ask me, a Samaritan
woman, for a drink?”
Jesus replied: “If only you recognized
God’s gift, and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would have asked
him instead, and he would have given you living water.” …
“Everyone who drinks this water will
be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the
water I give him will never be thirsty; no, the water I give shall become a
fountain within him, leaping up to provide eternal life.”
This brief excerpt comes from the
longest conversation Jesus held with an individual that we have recorded in
scripture; the Samaritan woman at the well.
John 4:4-42.
She walks to the well at noon, the least
likely time others will be there. She
can avoid others. Others can avoid her. She lives anonymously with a poor
reputation. She is the village benchmark
for “failure.”
Standing at the well in the mid-day
sun, Jesus takes the first step. He
ignores the custom never to speak to such a woman in public. In the center of town in broad daylight, he
initiates conversation. She is the wrong
gender, the wrong culture, has a scandalous reputation. Jesus offers living water. She doesn’t ask. Jesus has no “failure” category.
Jesus knows her past and offers her
a future of new life! He makes the
offering visible to her and to us in so many ways!
Water is quite unique in that in
its solid form, ice; it floats on its liquid form. Would it not be for this unusual property,
life as we know it would not exist on earth.
Most solid forms are denser than their liquid forms and sink in their
liquids (i.e. Frozen solid alcohol sinks in liquid alcohol. It does not float.) Plankton, the most prolific food source on
earth, depends upon ice floating and insulating the waters below it so that
organisms may grow and multiply. If this
was not the case, lakes and oceans would freeze from the bottom up and life
would eventually cease. New life springs
from these waters! Our lives spring from
the waters Jesus offers!
The human body is over 65%
water. We are basically bodies of
running water. We take it in. It runs through us. We’re physically integrated into the
universe, into creation.
Water can …
Introduce the Holy Spirit, baptize
Wash away sin
Drown, overwhelm
Quench thirst
Extinguish fire
Carry us
Wash away disease, heal
Form tears
Bless
Dissolve flavor
Sooth, comfort, refresh
Storms, flood
Green our deserts
Trickle, fall, splash
Be converted to wine
Water is so pervasive, its rarity like its sacredness escapes us.
Water connects us to the Divine!
When the wine ran
short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your
concern affect me? My hour has not yet
come.” His mother said to the servers,
“Do whatever he tells you.” ….
Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs
at Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him. John 2:1-11.
The disciples only began to believe in Him. Though Jesus converted the water to wine
during the intimate ceremony of the wedding feast, this act was not
enough! I, too, am like the disciples,
only beginning this process of coming
to build a relationship with Jesus. I,
like the Samaritan woman, like the guests at the wedding feast; I need the
waters Jesus offers. AND I need it in
its many forms and actions; to savor it, see it, feel it, hear it. I need to accept it, relish it often.
“Do whatever he tells
you!”
