I'm up this morning with “bohemian” thoughts on John 4: 4--26:. The story of Jesus and the woman at the well.

[Enter]

Jesus, having just left Judea, is headed to Galilee with plans to cut through Samaria because due to recent events—and per usual, the Pharisees are out to get Him. The Savior of the World is thirsty. He approaches a well where he sits and waits for an opportunity to quench his thirst.

Hold please, and imagine this scenario.

Jesus, both God and man, is thirsty and waiting by a well for someone 100% human to retrieve water so he can drink? Is it just me, or am I the only one who reads this and thinks, Jesus, do you know who you are in Christ? YOU make miracles happen. I recall the scene from the 1982 movie E.T., where Elliott (with E.T. perched on the handle bars of his bicycle), flees to the forest with the fervent aid of his brother’s friends in an attempt to outrun government authorities. When they arrive, Elliott explains.

Elliott: [out of breath] He's a man from outer space, and we're taking him to his spaceship.

Greg: Well, can't he just beam up?

Elliott: This is reality, Greg!

Do you see where I'm going with this? He's Jesus. He has super powers. Can’t he beam the water up from the well? I'm convinced there are two answers to this question. 1) Yes, and 2) This is reality, Greg. Reality is, a woman in need of living water—destined to arrive, trumps the physical thirst of God incarnate. Why? Because this is how the Divine rolls . . . sacrificially.

About the woman. Five times married and divorced, merely living with man number six, our girl thirsts; still. Water pot in hand, she returns to the only source of water she's ever known and bumps into the Jewish Messiah who's not only willing to converse with a woman, but a Samaritan woman, at that! “For Jews had no dealings with Samaritans" (John 4: 9).

Jesus not only acknowledges her existence, he invites her to embrace the bigger picture and give him a drink. The chances of this happening on any given day are zero, and she knows it. Seriously, if they'd been indoors when Jesus looked her way she would have turned to see if there was a clock hanging over her head.

"Give me a drink," He says. But she doesn't retrieve water from the well. Instead, she offers up a question. And a mighty good one at that. “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan?"

Jesus goes on to say that if she knew the "gift of God" and who it is who said to her, "Give me a drink," she would have asked him for one, and he would have given her living water.

"Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get this living water. Are You greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well . . . ?"

I imagine this conversation.

Samaritan Woman: Dude, you don't even have a cup! Are you a greater source than the man who gave us this well and drank from it to sustain his own life?

Jesus: Whoever drinks from a man-made source will thirst again. Whoever drinks of the water I provide draws from an everlasting source of life and will never thirst.

Samaritan Woman: In that case, give me a drink. And super-size it—I'm parched.

Jesus: Okay. Go get your husband.

Samaritan Woman: He’s on vacation. I don’t have one.

This story is not unlike the story of Hagar in Genesis 16, who encountered an Angel of the Lord when she fled into the desert due to Sarai's mistreatment. The Divine knew the details of Hagar's life then, and He has the 411 on the woman at the well, now. He speaks of her failed marriages and current living arrangements. She marvels at his knowledge of her life and calls him a prophet.

Jesus tells the woman of things to come. She agrees the Messiah is coming. Jesus takes out his wallet and breaks out his I.D. About that time the disciples arrive on the scene, dumbfounded to see him conversing with a woman, though not prudent enough to ask why.

"The woman then left her water pot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, 'Come and see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?' Then they went out of the city and came to Him."

She goes.

She tells.

A weary women is transformed that day into a mighty warrior. Her testimony inspires many Samaritans to believe in Christ. Others went to him and urged him to hang out a few days. And so he did. And after having spent time with Jesus, they believed all the more. 

A Point to Ponder

People in third world countries do not drink contaminated water because they are unintelligent. They drink because they are that thirsty, hoping that the choices they make in their desperate attempts to live, will not end in death. 

The validation and comfort Jesus offered the woman sprang a hope so eternal that she left her water pot and went on her way. This is a big deal. It's not like she could procure a case of bottled water on the way home. Love peered inside a broken heart and spoke without judgment. He understood why she'd given up on marriage, but not men. Up until their chance meeting this was the well she drew from as she, too, hoped to encounter a life more livable.

I've often wondered why we're not told the name of the woman at the well. The longer I follow Jesus, the more inclined I am to believe she remained nameless because she represents you and me. All our hope; for His glory.

Artful Activity

Spend some time alone with God every day. Bring an empty cup with. Talk. Don't talk. Cry. Throw a fit. Do what you need to do. And then receive. Allow Unconditional Love to pour into you like our sister friend at the well. Enlist the aid of a counselor if you need help sorting through your emotions. And while you're at it, stop wasting your time with people who are too afraid to love you just as you are. Thirsty. Imperfect. Beautiful. You.

When I leave this world one day, I want folks to say:

She was unafraid to love with her whole heart. She was brave enough to see value in herself and in others as she embraced her awful, wonderful self in the light of God’s love.

(From the the heart of Wendy Redroad.)