Cut Through the Noise

The Woman at the Well

That reading was just a few verses out of a longer series of events, which I guess is something that could be said about any set of verses in the Bible.

In any case, the whole of this story starts at night in Jerusalem. It’s a quite night and in the midst of the town a man quietly makes his way through the streets to the house Jesus is staying in, doing his best to make sure that no one sees him going there. His name is Nicodemus and when he reaches Jesus, he acknowledges that Jesus must have been sent from God because that’s the only way Jesus could do the miracles that Jesus was doing. Jesus responds by saying “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” At this point, Nicodemus is completely confused and asks for some clarification - because people are only born once, that’s how it works. Jesus explains that He means that people must be born of water and the Spirit - and Nicodemus still is completely confused. Nicodemus is a Pharisee, he is a teacher, he’s supposed to have the answers, but he’s completely clueless - something that Jesus points out.

After this conversation, Jesus decides it is time to leave Jerusalem and He starts making His way to Galilee. From Jerusalem, He starts walking north. This direct route from Jerusalem to Galilee takes Him right through the territory of Samaria. On the way, He comes across the town of Sychar and decides to stop for some water at Jacob’s well while the disciples go into town to buy food. While He was resting there, a woman comes up to the well to get water for herself. Jesus asks her to give Him some water and she turns to Him with a confused and suspicious look on her face. She was so used to Jews dismissing and looking down on her for being from Samaria that this request from the mysterious man at the well leads her to ask a little confrontationally “how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me?” Jesus, in typical Jesus fashion, replies that He could give her living water. She’s confused because He has nothing to get water out of the well and the well is deep. Jesus clarifies that the water He has will make sure that a person is never thirsty again. Hearing this, the woman asks for some of that water. Jesus asks her to get her husband first, only for her to reveal that she is not married. Jesus knew that, of course because He’s Jesus, and replies “yeah, you’ve had five husbands and the man you’re with now isn’t your husband.” The woman’s eyes widen because there was no way this total stranger could’ve known all that. She says in a whisper, “you must be a prophet.” And in a little bit of a turn, she mentions that her people worship on this mountain even though the Jews say people have to worship in Jerusalem. Jesus responds by telling her that a time is coming where the location will not matter, because God’s faithful people will worship in Spirit and in truth. The woman finally puts the pieces together that Jesus is the Messiah, the holy one of God, which leads us to our reading for this morning.

It’s an event that many of us are familiar with, a lot of us have probably heard the story before. And it seems like a fairly normal story, I mean Jesus is doing Jesus things like knowing everything about the woman and talking about eternal life, but it’s a typical Bible story. Right?

A Normal Story

Well, hold on, because I want to tell that story again. This time though, I want to tell the story as someone watching at the time might’ve expected things to go.

The story starts during the day, when Nicodemus meets with Jesus in the temple. After all, he was a respectable man. He talked with Jesus and compliments Him on the teaching that He has been doing. Jesus talks about being born again and Nicodemus immediately connects the dots - Jesus is so obviously talking about the work of the Holy Spirit and baptism. Nicodemus nods and even helps some of the others in the temple who are listening to better understand what Jesus is talking about. He’s a Pharisee, of course he understands what Jesus is talking about. He’s a teach, of course he stops to help other people understand what Jesus is talking about.

After this conversation, Jesus decides it is time to leave Jerusalem and He starts making His way to Galilee. The fastest way to get there would be to go through Samaria, but the Samaritans were corrupt and had fallen away from what they were supposed to be as God’s chosen people - so He and the disciples decided to go the long way around and avoid that part of the country entirely.

Hold on, that actually ends the story a little too early to make my point, so let’s pretend the traffic to go the long way around was unacceptably bad. So Jesus and the disciples go through Samaria and they stop in Sychar for food and water. While Jesus is resting at the well, a woman approaches the well. Out of respect for how men and women are supposed to interact, Jesus moves away from the well so that the woman can draw water and leave.

Hold on, that actually ends the story a little too early to make my point, so let’s pretend that Jesus gets caught in a conversation with this woman for some reason. He mentions living water and she clearly has no idea what He’s talking about, so He asks her to go get her husband before continuing the conversation. At this point, the revelation that she has had five husbands and is living with a guy she’s not married to. Jesus decries her for such sinful behavior and gathers the townspeople to stone her.

Hold on, that simultaneously ends the story a little to early and doesn’t sound like Jesus at all. So let’s say the conversation continues and the woman talks about worshipping somewhere other than the temple in Jerusalem and Jesus tells her, “no, you really should be worshiping in Jerusalem.”

That version is pretty dramatically different from the real sequence of events isn’t it, pretty dramatically departs from the story that so many of us know. But for a lot of those hypothetical events, they were probably more likely than what actually happened.

Analyzing the Disparity

You see, it would make more sense for Nicodemus to know what’s going on. It wouldn’t be out of the question for Jesus and the disciples to avoid Samaria altogether. Men and women who were strangers didn’t just casually engage in conversation. People with reputations like Jesus didn’t spend time with people with reputations like the woman. And as far as the Jews were concerned, the only appropriate place to worship God was the temple.

By the standards of the world, it very much matters where you’re from, who you are, and what you’ve done.

But Jesus doesn’t care where the woman is from, He shows her His power. Jesus doesn’t care who she is, He shows her His love. Jesus doesn’t care what she’s done, He shows her His grace. And Jesus doesn’t care where you are from, He doesn’t care who you are, He doesn’t care what you’ve done - He shows you His power and love and grace regardless. All of these things that we think are important, all the things that give us anxiety, all of the things that we worry about so much, all of the ways we know we aren’t good enough - Jesus cuts through all of them with the power of His sacrifice and the overwhelming love He has for you and for me.

By the standards of Jesus, it doesn’t matter where you’re form, it doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done - you are loved and forgiven and given the promise of eternity in Christ. Amen.