A Samaritan Woman: The Beloved Disciple
We are not told her name. She comes to draw water from her
ancestor Jacob’s well. She is a Samaritan. It’s noon, the hottest time of the
day. The other women of Sychar draw water early in the morning, or near dusk,
when it is cooler. It’s embarrassing when they are there. They know her story.
She has lost five husbands. She now relies on a man who is not her husband.
Most days they just avoid her altogether. She is perhaps the most broken individual
in all of the four Gospels: hers is a life of loss, loneliness and emptiness. She
comes when no one is there. [i]
But now there is a man is sitting there. This is a problem.
Unrelated men and women are not seen together in public. Yet, this man is
different. He senses her loneliness and emptiness. He says, “Give me a drink.” His accent betrays that he is from Galilee. He
speaks Aramaic. He is a Jew. For centuries Jews and Samaritans do not share
things in common; worship on separate mountains; and have little or nothing to
do with one another. But now he asks that there is something she can do for him.
He recognizes her as a person. He treats her with dignity. She is astonished at this. Later, we learn
that his friends who return from fetching lunch are equally astonished that
their master was speaking to a woman – in public. And a Samaritan at that!
Their people have been divided for centuries.
We who have heard this story told throughout the years might
understand just how charged with tension this encounter must be. We know such
division all too well. We see the divide between White Supremacists and Black
Lives Matter. Between Pro and Anti-abortion activists. Between some Evangelical
Christian and LGBTQ communities. Between School Boards and Parent Groups.
Between immigrants seeking asylum and vigilante border protection groups. We’ve
seen the tension caused by a Black woman sitting in the “Whites Only” section
of a bus. Between Drag Queens and the State of Tennessee. Asians are attacked
and blamed for the Pandemic. Poor people blamed for being poor. Red States vs
Blue States. America today knows all too well the tensions that seek to divide
us as a people.
A woman comes to draw water. A tired man of another tribe
needs water. Centuries old disputes have erected a not-so-imaginary wall
between their two peoples. Who will be the first to tear down the wall? Surprise.
It is the Samaritan woman: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a
woman of Samaria?” She has the courage to call attention to the strangeness of
this encounter. She knows the history of the divide between Jews and Samaritans
all too well.
Jesus answers her, “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.” She does not back down. “Sir, you have no
bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you
greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and
his flocks drank from it?” This Samaritan Woman has chutzpa! Jesus says to her,
“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink
of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will
give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” It is
evident even to this Samaritan that they are no longer talking about water. There’s
something he can do for her. She says, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may
never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” The wall of
division starts to crack.
He asks her to bring her husband back. She says that she has
no husband. Jesus says, “You have spoken correctly. You have had five husbands
and the man you are living with is not your husband.” She’s astonished that he
knows all this. And it seems not to be a problem for him. “Sir, I see that you
are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the
place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Which was true. Then comes
the most surprising answer of all from the man sitting by the well of Jacob,
their common ancestor: “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will
worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what
you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But
the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The
primary dispute is set aside. We can all worship wherever we are in spirit and
truth. Suddenly, she says, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called
Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus says to her,
“I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” Silence... The walls come tumbling
down. It is like Joshua at Jericho all over again. Two people from two opposing
tribes have transcended centuries of division. It’s a new world. A new day.
Divisions can be overcome.
His friends return. She sees their concern, drops her bucket
and hurries back to the village to tell people about the Jewish man at the
well. “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be
the Messiah, can he?” She is energized. She has purpose. The living water
gushes up within her. She has been made new! The Samaritans rush to see him
themselves. In his presence they come to believe. It is just as the woman who
had lost five husbands had said. She becomes the first evangelist. She brings a
crowd of historic enemies to Jesus. They believe because of her testimony, her
witness, her telling them her story. Then suddenly, the townspeople are
dismissive of her once again. “It is no longer because of what you said that we
believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the
Savior of the world.” No good deed goes unpunished for this Beloved Disciple!
How many of us would have the courage and confidence this
Samaritan woman displays as she goes toe-to-toe, head-to-head with Jesus – the
Savior of the world? She speaks truth to power, and power listens. Power sets
aside whatever leverage he might have. But this is God’s Beloved Son. His life
is one of radical inclusion. No one is left out. We cannot let the evils of the
past persist in the present. We cannot let the evils of the present persist
into the future. All people are made in the image of God. All are God’s
Beloved. He who is God’s Beloved knows this, practices this, and gathers all
people to become a Community of the Beloved. A community that grows that day
because one broken woman, a Samaritan, was courageous enough to engage the
strange man sitting at the well. She did not back down. She did not run away.
Until it was time to tell the others – all others – the Good News!
We know her. She is not unlike ourselves. May we all be like
her. We can and we must bring others together, to a place of radical inclusion
of one another, no matter what the background, no matter what the history. For
it is such radical acceptance and inclusion of one another that is the living
water that springs up within us. The water of reconciliation. The water of
Eternal Life and Love. We pray to be defended “from all evil thoughts which may
assault and hurt the soul.” May we be inspired by this Samaritan Woman to be a
people of Love, Spirit and Truth. Amen.
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