Today, in a continuing series, we hear from the Samaritan woman at the well about her encounter with Jesus:

I don't think I'll ever forget the day that I met Jesus. It was just like finding an oasis in the middle of a desert wasteland. He amazed me to no end when he actually spoke to me as if I mattered. Now, you might not think that's such a big thing, but believe you me - it had been a long time since anybody had spoken to me with any respect whatsoever! In fact, my heart sank when I saw him sitting there at the well in the first place. I was expecting insults and tongue wagging, just like I got from everybody else - that is, if he would even speak to me at all! But no - Jesus was totally different. In fact, I almost burst out laughing when he asked me for a drink of water.

Was he trying to be funny? - Making some kind of joke? I could tell that he was a Jew. He must have known as well as I do that Jews won't even drink out of the same cup as Samaritans. What was he trying to pull? So I asked him right out. I said, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jn. 4:9). Surely he must be out of his tree! Yet, he responded quite sanely and with a twinkle in his eye. He said that if I knew the gift of God and knew who he was, then I would have been asking him for a drink of "living water."

Of course I had no idea what he was trying to say! He had no bucket, even though he was sitting at the well. Where was he going to get this "living water" from? Was he claiming to be greater than our ancestor Jacob, who had given us this well in the first place? Seeing as the conversation was so strange already, I asked him these things straight out. But instead of getting offended, he answered me quite seriously. He told me that the water that he had to offer would quench my thirst for all eternity. I would never be thirsty again. He said that the water that he would give would be like a spring of water inside me, "gushing up to eternal life" (Jn. 4:14).

It sounded so good, and he had such a good spirit in him! I asked him to give me this water. I didn't want to be thirsty again, and I didn't want to have to keep coming back to the well to draw water every day. Well, that's when he managed to go straight to the heart of the matter. It was like he could just look into my life and see the most vulnerable point, just sitting right there. You see, he told me to go get my husband and come back. Could he have known that this was the reason that I was at the well when nobody else was there? Could he have known how many husbands I had been through, and how the man who was living with me hadn't even married me? The people in the town had stopped speaking to me with anything other than judgment and taunts a long time ago. Was he going to start, too?

Yet, his attitude of caring made me want to tell the truth - well - half of it, anyway! I simply told him that I had no husband, which was true to a point. Well, this was when I found out that he knew far more than he had let on. He told me right out that I had five previous husbands, and that the man I was with at the time was not my husband. He seemed to know me through and through, and yet he was still taking the time to talk to me! This was amazing - almost like I was having a dream. He seemed to be a prophet. Maybe he could answer some of my other questions. And so I asked him about one of the controversies between the Jews and the Samaritans. Did people need to worship in Jerusalem, or could they worship God right there in Samaria? I had always wondered about this, but of course had never been able to ask anybody.

Well, imagine my surprise when he actually answered me! Yet, once again, his answer was far from what I would have expected. Instead of arguing for one place or the other as a place of worship, he talked about worshiping God in spirit and in truth. That just made so much sense! Yes - worshiping God with the right spirit. That's what really matters! But then he also made this little statement about the Jews really knowing God and about salvation coming from the Jews (Jn. 4:22). Could he be talking about the coming of the Messiah? And so I threw it out there, to see what he would say. I told him that I knew the Messiah would be coming and would teach us all things when he came.

Well, that's when he finally told me who he was. He told me that he was, in fact, the Messiah who was to come. Now, I'm normally pretty skeptical, but with him it just made sense. His whole attitude was so different, and his knowledge, and his insight. I believed him. After all, he had been able to look right into my life and my heart and touch me where I needed it the most. He had spoken to me as if I really mattered and had taught me as if he were my rabbi. He had awakened my spirit and my imagination and had addressed the thirsting of my soul. He had pointed my spirit to God and had revealed to me the truth about myself and about God.

It was as if my spirit had started singing, and I simply couldn't keep it to myself. The others in the city simply had to come and see Jesus for themselves. So I went and got them. I didn't care who they were or what they had said to me in the past. I went and got them, and brought them to see Jesus. I told them, "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!" (Jn. 4:29). And they came, and Jesus taught them, and he stayed with us for two days and revealed God to us.

It was just as if I could see the Spirit of God in everything that he did. His eyes were filled with love and compassion, especially for those who needed it the most. He spoke and taught with a wisdom and authority that I had never heard anywhere else. He taught both men and women - unheard of in those days! And he healed anybody who was wounded or broken.

Now, don't get me wrong. He wasn't a pushover by any means! Jesus wasn't afraid to put people in their place - especially those who were self-righteous and put themselves above everybody else. No - Jesus had it out with the religious leaders on more than one occasion, which was what eventually got him crucified. In fact, it still amazes me - what he went through. It brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it - what Jesus was willing to do in order to bring salvation. It sure came at a high price. But thank God that resurrection followed. Thank God that Jesus was vindicated, so that all the world would know who he was and what he had done for us.

By the way, it wasn't until after Jesus' resurrection and after he returned to heaven that those living waters that he talked about really began to flow. I did get to experience the power of the Holy Spirit at work within me, which is just like a spring of living waters. My heart was touched in ways that I never thought possible, and I still have such a love for Jesus in my heart and such thankfulness that he came into my life. Although I'm sorry that people can't meet Jesus in person any more, I am glad that he still can be met in other ways. Whether it's at worship, or through prayer, or through Jesus' followers, or through the Scriptures, I still bring people to meet him in any way that I can. I pray that you will meet him, too, and will come to know the power of his salvation. May those springs of living waters well up in you, too! Amen.

Lent 3(A) John 4:5-42 February 27, 2005 St. Luke's Zion Lutheran Church Pastor Lynne Hutchison Moore

? 2005 Lynn Hutchison Moore All Rights Reserved