8-14-13 - At the Well

Some people just aren’t interested in metaphors.
When Jesus tells this woman at the well, “Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty,” she calls his bluff. “So, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

And Jesus abruptly changes the subject. He tells her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘That’s nicely put, I have no husband; for you have had five husbands, and the one you’re with now is not your husband. You’ve spoken the truth.”

Well, this conversation just took an interesting turn. This woman has a complicated history and present. Is this why she’s out here at the well in the noon sun, when no one else is likely to be there, snickering, judging? And what about this guy… is he judging? How does he know this? “Sir, I see that you are a prophet,” she says. And then she changes the subject too, talking about why Jews and Samaritans split, over whether worship should take place only in Jerusalem, or in other holy places too.

Jesus replies that the time is coming when it won’t matter where we worship the Father – what matters is that we worship in spirit and in truth. And this bold woman, who hasn’t backed away from argument in this whole exchange, appeals to a higher authority, “I know that the Messiah is coming," she says, "And when he comes, he’ll set this all straight.”

To which Jesus simply says, “I’m your man.” (Or, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”)

And at that momentous revelation we get… interrupted. The disciples come back. The woman leaves the water jar she has carried all the way out to the well, and runs back to town.

What would you think if a stranger you were talking to said he were God’s long-awaited salvation, the relief you’ve been thirsting for your whole complicated, lonely, outcast life? Maybe that he was crazy… unless maybe he’d revealed some inner knowledge about you, saw who you are and didn’t judge you?

What is it you are thirsty for today? What are you sorry for today?
Where might Jesus be waiting for you, among your regular chores and routines?
Sometimes we meet him in the people we encounter, and other times he speaks to our spirits directly.

If you can spare a few minutes today, take some time and imagine yourself at that well, or in any other place from your own life that comes to mind. Bring yourself and your own complicated life to that place and invite Jesus into it… maybe you’ll visualize him coming into that scene, or you’ll just open a line of conversation in your head. What do you want to tell him? What do you want to ask him?

What does he say to you?
Sometimes we hear his words, other times we just get a feeling.
Other times we wait for a bit and then wander back to town and our busy lives.
Whatever happens, the time we spend opening our spirits to God is always time well spent.

I pray for deep springs to open up in you…