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| Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well by Angelica Kauffmann (1796) |
Pastor Tom Johnson, March 12, 2023
Everyone loves a love story. We want to know how happy couples first met. There is suspense in the story even though we know it ends in a happy relationship. One of the most infamous love stories in the Bible is about Jacob. Jacob runs away for his life because of his betrayal of his brother. He eventually comes to a large well and meets a beautiful shepherdess named Rachel. Rachel brought her sheep to be watered there. Jacob rolls the large stone away to give Rachel and her flock water to drink. That’s how they met. And fell in love. Jacob’s father Isaac has a very similar love story. Isaac’s family sends a servant to extended family to find a suitable wife for Isaac. The Holy Spirit leads him to a spring of living water. He meets a kind and beautiful young woman named Rebekah. She offers to bring water for him and his camels. Both matches were made around a water well.
It is not unusual today for couples to meet each other over a drink—even over a cup of hot herbal tea at Starbucks. If you have met your true love, think about how you met that special person. Was it love at first sight? Did you feel the well of love and passion springing up within you for this person you just met? Or was it more gradual—love that was consistent, pure as spring water flowing between the two of you?
And so Jesus meets a woman for a drink in today’s Scritpure. Would it surprise you to know that what Jesus does is scandalous in his day…as scandalous as if he went to a singles bar today and used a few prophetic pick-up lines on a woman? The Samaritan woman herself even asks why Jesus is speaking to her. They had multiple reasons for not speaking, not being near each other, and certainly not drinking out of the same well. Jesus is a Jew; the woman a Samaritan. Jesus is a unmarried; she is likely widowed or divorced multiple times and currently in an adulterous relationship. Jesus is ritually clean; the woman is unclean by Jewish law just for being Samaritan. Even the disciples are scandalized that Jesus is talking to a woman.
“Give me to drink.” This is invitation toward intimacy—sharing the same vessel, of conversation, and of serving one another. Remember, this is how Jesus’ great-grandparents met. Jesus already intimately knows her. She does not know him yet. He tells her everything she has done. He knows her love stories. All six of them. Jesus knows the stories of loss and betrayal. He knows how burned she is by love or how badly she burned others—looking for love in all the wrong places. But Jesus does not point out her troubled past to bring shame and guilt. Instead he offers her a spring of Living Water—water that will never dry up like her past loves—Living Water that will gush out of her own heart that will last—not just until death do them part—but to all eternity.
Jesus promises to awaken love in us—like Jacob who dug for water and finds it deep within the heart of the earth—so he awakens Christ the Living Water in us. The water from Jacob’s well made their camp habitable. The water gave life to Jacob, his family, and his flocks. It had been giving water for generations. More than 70 feet deep within the earth, there is now a Greek Orthodox Church built on the site of the well. It is still a source of cold, refreshing water today. You are encouraged to take some with you when you visit.
There has to be deep heartache buried deep within the heart of this Samaritan woman. Jesus is able to see into the eyes of her soul. He speaks to her pain and her yearning for a source of water and love that would never let her down. Jesus reads her like a book. He knows her since before she was born. That is her story and the story she tells. Certainly her hometown knows about all the men in her life—all six of them. Sadly, she may have been shunned or marginalized. She says, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!” This is now the seventh—five husbands, one lover, and now, her first True Love. Seventh is the day God rested from creation—this true Messiah, beautifully Human, and a perfect Husband—not only to her but to all God’s people, the Bride of Christ.
She can finally rest with this Man’s love. She keeps telling everyone, “He told me everything I have ever done!” Jesus knew her history, her pain, her sin, her demons, the skeletons in her closet—and he still talked to her—he still asked her for a drink—he still offered her himself as Living Water. The Samaritan woman invites her whole town to meet her, and their, Perfect Match—come and see a man—this Jesus from Nazareth, this divine Knower of our souls. When have you sat down to have a drink with Jesus?
He asks us to share a drink of cool water. He knows our history, our pain, our losses, the betrayals we have suffered, the heartache we have caused, our demons, and the skeletons hiding in our closets deep within our hearts. But he also knows how to awaken the spring and river of Living Water that gushes out forgiveness, life, and joy. As we dig deep within the archives of our souls, we find our One and only Love—our True Love, Jesus Christ. “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” Jesus will never betray us or abandon us. He takes us in for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, til death and through death—will never part. Everyone loves a love story. This one is about us.
I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Behold, I freely give
the living water, thirsty one; stoop down and drink and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank of that life-giving stream;
my thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in him.
(“I heard the Voice of Jesus Say”)
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