John 4:5-42
“Look for the Thirst Quencher”
March 12, 2023
Like most of the successful and sustainable relationships in our life, balance – not too much and not too little – is critical to making them work.
Think of that best friend, spouse, sibling, even a pet.
You want them there when you want them but a non-stop 24/7 in-your-face situation will not survive the very human need for breaks or other interests or other relationships.
The same can be said for water.
Too much is what our siblings in parts of California are facing today and what so many others faced down during those named storms like Maria, Katrina, Sandy, and Irene here in Vermont.
Too little and wells run dry, all manner of life shrivels up and dies, including we humans who need lots of water to keep our internal body temperature where it needs to be and our cells alive. We can only survive 3 days without water. We all need to find water – in some shape or form – to refresh or renew us – to keep us alive.
Jesus arrives at the well and here we are privy to the longest conversation he has with anyone in the Gospels.
And why her, this nameless woman, of all people?
First, her status as a Samaritan would have been a mark against her.
She arrives at the well during the hottest time of the day when there would be little chance of running into those who would judge her mostly because of her marital status. Her gender would also be held against her.
At that time, it would be unacceptable for this woman to be talking with a man to whom she was not related.
But for Jesus on that hot and tired day, at the well, none of this matters.
He asks her for a drink of water – she who others have little use for, who herself was preparing to lug her heavy jar of water home in the midday heat – she is put in the position of being able to give something to the most unlikely of people.
The water that is at the center of this interaction, both literally and figuratively is the backdrop for this remarkable conversation.
Imagine how hard it would have been for this woman to feel understood and appreciated.
Most of us yearn to be heard and taken seriously.
When we were children, many of us were raised in homes where we were instructed to be seen and not heard.
By really listening to this woman and recognizing who she was and what she comes to the conversation bearing and then offering her a new path, Jesus is expressing that every person is worthy of God’s love and that is what he has to share with her.
She has water to offer and so does Jesus, a water that quenches more than a dry mouth.
It’s a life-giving and affirming water that will provide eternal life, beginning right there next to that well.
This encounter and Jesus’ offer is the invitation we are all looking for.
And Jesus comes with much to offer but recognizes that most people want to contribute something to a relationship.
He begins with vulnerability, his own thirst, which is a wonderful way to provide this woman with the knowledge that she has something to offer.
Their religious differences were not an issue here.
Jesus as a Jew who willingly interacts with a Samaritan woman speaks to the openness of God’s invitation to a life filled not with the kind of water in that well or that fills the Battenkill or comes rushing out of our faucets or is sold to us in so many bottles.
No, the water Jesus is offering doesn’t need the jug – which is a good thing since the woman runs without hers in her excitement to tell others what has happened to her.
Her big news when she runs back to her friends and neighbors is “At last, the one who we have been told about, the one who will save us, has found me, knows me and wants me to know that I am wanted.”
Her belief and the change it makes in her must have been powerful because in her telling of the encounter, those Samaritan’s ended up yearning for that living water that Jesus had to offer.
They wanted to be near him and took him in and fed him and they had their own encounter with Jesus.
The Samaritan woman may have led them, like the proverbial horse, to water but it was Jesus himself who made them want to drink of that living water.
What thirsts do we have which could use quenching?
During this Lenten time of leaning into our still-speaking God, what is it that we take away that is life-affirming?
Like the Samaritan woman who couldn’t keep this experience to herself, what living water do we have to share?
There will now be ever increasing light to our days and the water that is snow will soon be a memory – hopefully sooner rather than later.
As we continue to journey with Jesus at this almost halfway point of Lent, where are the dry places that God might water among us, using us and the ladle we have in the form of our unique gifts of time, talent, and treasure?
It is not enough to gather our own water.
We like the woman at the well have the stuff of life to share.
Let us then raise up these words of prayer from the Rev. Megan Stowe:
The well is deep, but I have no bucket.
Parched, bone-tired, thirsting.
Like the woman at Jacob’s well,
I had sought to quench my thirst in other ways,
ways that leave me empty.
But you offer me, you offer us the living water.
Through the dry wilderness of our lives,
offering healing and refreshing our weary souls.
Give us these sweet waters.
We thirst.
Give us courage to drink deeply.
Fill us to overflowing.
Satisfy our souls.
Help us to never thirst again,
oh fountain of life.
Transform our thirst to thirst for justice.
I thirst for righteousness.
Jesus is the only one who can quench this thirst.
Minister to this parched and thirsting world.
Give us this living water. Amen.