"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst." – John 4:13-14
(Trigger Warning: description of violence and rape from the Old Testament)
Location, location, location. Our stories and identities are unavoidably tied to locations. Sychar (or Shechem) of Samaria provides the setting for this scandalous story of Jesus having an unchaperoned conversation with a woman by a well. And she’s not just any woman–she’s a Samaritan, the object of such deep ethnic hatred that Jews “will not use the same cups or bowls that Samaritans use.” It’s also not just any well–it’s the well Jacob built nearly two thousand years before, right before a severe ethnic divide erupted in his own day. Interestingly enough, this ethnic divide was also connected to a woman caught between men trying to use her.
After their sister, Dinah, is raped by a Caananite prince, two of Jacob’s twelve sons take advantage of the situation to build their own wealth (Genesis 34). They offer to let the prince marry their sister, but require him and the whole city to be circumcised. While all the men in the city are painfully recovering, the two brothers, armed with swords, enter the city and murder every male, taking all of the women, children, and belongings for themselves. Their father, Jacob, (who never did anything about the rape in the first place) selfishly complains that his sons have made him “a stench” to all the peoples around who would hear about the carnage. Where Jacob was supposed to be God’s vessel of blessing and unity to the neighboring people, there was now only violence and hatred.
It was still happening in Jesus’ day, but now they were called “Samaritans.” It is at the very same well, the same traumatic location where the violence and racism began that Jesus brings Israel back to, this time in order to heal. The woman asks if he is greater than their father, Jacob, “who built the well,” (and incidentally doesn’t seem all that great). Jesus responds, claiming his “living water” does what Jacob’s water cannot–gives lasting and eternal life like Eden’s river and tree, whose “leaves are for the healing of the nations,” (Rev. 22:2). He removes the “dividing wall,” (Eph. 2:14), crosses over and offers this living water to Israel’s enemy, specifically a woman who likely has much reason to mistrust men. May God accomplish the miracle of bringing “siblings to dwell together in unity,” (Ps. 133) in our own time and place!
Reflection:
- What areas of your life need the living water Jesus offers?
- How can you share His transformative love with others?
- How does this story encourage you to embrace His grace?
- Art: Samaritan woman at the well 1651 by Gervais Drouet, photo by Didier Descouens – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65152015
- Songs:
- “Come to the River” – Housefires