“Give me a drink”

You’ve probably seen Disney’s animation film Frozen, which is based on a Dutch fairy tale. There are two sisters, Elsa, and Anna who were born princesses. The older sister, Elsa has a spell that turns everything she touches into ice. She tries her best to keep it a secret, but when she is eventually discovered, she runs away from her kingdom and goes into the mountains, where she builds a palace of ice. In the meantime, her kingdom has also fallen into winter, and the more those around her try to remove her magic with force, the deeper she flees into the world of ice. The princess in this film and the Samaritan woman in today’s text are similar in that both lived alone, lonely and isolated from their neighbours and society.

After his dialogue with Nicodemus, Jesus heads to Samaria. Samaria is a place in the middle of Israel. Although they were one nation, there was hostility and hatred between Jews and Samarians due to the long-standing barriers of division. Due to this historical background, the land of Samaria was forbidden for Jews. It’s midday and tired from the journey, Jesus sits down at Jacob’s well to rest. Water drawing was traditionally women’s work, and to avoid the burning heat, the women came in the early morning or late afternoon. There, as Jesus sits by the well at noon, one Samaritan woman comes to draw water, and Jesus asks her for a drink, “Give me a drink.”Let’s imagine: she is female; no religious man would let himself be caught alone with this strange woman in a patriarchal society and he certainly wouldn’t be chatting with her. Besides, she is a Samaritan. He knows that Jews and Samaritans don’t mix; and they certainly don’t eat or drink together. And her reputation is shot and she has a shady past. She couldn’t mingle with other women who go to the well at dawn or at dusk. She couldn’t share the news of the day with them. She was always alone and an outsider.

Yet, we see Jesus as a Jewish man breaking the rules – the ethnic, gender and social divides of his day – and we notice that Jesus starts to talk to her.Most people want to avoid the pain of being nothing. They want to be recognised and valued as important people. Look at this! Jesus does not reject this woman, does not turn away from this woman; rather he engages her in conversation, takes her seriously, and spends several days in her village. Regardless of whether or not she is nobody, this woman is important to Jesus. That’s the gospel; good news. We often try to exclude people, or we ignore those who are nobodies by our standards, but Jesus doesn’t do that. The nobodies in Jesus’ eyes are somebodies and he welcomes outsiders as disciples. He also welcomes people who are just beginning their journey of faith. That is the Samaritan woman. She is a newcomer to faith and during the conversation with Jesus, she takes baby steps.

“Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 

At her first step, she understood the ‘living water’ that Jesus spoke of as fresh spring water. She didn’t realise that only Jesus could give her living water. However, Jesus doesn’t chastise her for not understanding; like a parent teaching a young child, he gently explains the metaphors to her.Jesus is good at reading other people’s minds: without asking the woman, he tells her some details about her life, and she is shocked and becomes very nervous, but faces it honestly and she is not ashamed of this conversation and her confession.

 The Samaritan woman who experienced living water

The neighbours’ judgement of her was always a long list of sins, ‘all the things that the woman had ever done’. Yet, Jesus, knowing her past, still loves and forgives her. That is incredibly new and refreshing, unlike anything she has ever heard before. It saves her life. In that very moment, the woman sees God. She accepts him as Christ and runs to share the news. She started her story as an outcast, but now she leaves the water jar and goes into the town, and she leads others to the water.  And her invitation and sharing of her experience lead many to believe in Jesus.

We all have a thirst in every period of our lives. There are times when life feels empty, and there are times when healing is desperately needed. At such times, we eagerly hunt and seek for something outside the well. And yet Jesus the stranger, who supplies us with the cool, living water from the bucket, is ignored in our lives. The well is the place where Jesus and the woman met. And the well is a place where it is not difficult for a thirsty person to drink. Like the woman, we have buckets. For those in need, not just for ourselves. The simple act of offering them a cup of cool water can be the beginning of a journey to salvation.

“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.”

Lent is a time of dryness, but the water Christ gives becomes in us a pouring spring that will never run out. So let us be ready to hear the testimony of those who recognise him, whoever they are; let us be ready to follow them, wherever they lead; and while we wait, let us continue to worship God in spirit and in truth. Amen.