- Samaritans typically hated Jews. But with the sun shining overhead, the woman came to understood that the real Water was right before her very eyes.
This morning one of the guys in my discipleship group shared an interesting nuance of the “Women at the Well” narrative from the Gospel of John, chapter four.
Jesus “had to go through Samaria” enemy territory for the Jews) and to a town called Sychar. He came to a well which – if the stories of Isaac, Jacob and Moses are any indication – was where young men found wives. The woman has some questions for this Jewish man who has shown up at her well, and they begin a dialogue that results in many people from her village being convinced that Jesus is the “Savior of the world!”
Jesus wasn’t looking for a wife, but He did desire to establish a spiritual relationship with the woman, as He does with all of us.
“Time of day is really important in this story,” commented one of my friends. Jesus met the women at the well at the sixth hour of the day, or noon. “That means,” he continued, “that it was the one time during the day when the sun is straight overhead and you can see straight down the well all the way to the water. See the water clearly.”
As the story begins, the woman calls Jesus a “Jew.” And then, “Sir.” But the more time she spends with Him, and things become increasingly clear. She then declares Him a “prophet”…then “Messiah”…and finally the “Savior of the world.”
Samaritans typically hated Jews. But with the sun shining overhead, the woman came to understood that the real Water was right before her very eyes. Despite his ethnicity, He embodied the opportunity for a relationship with God that she had always wanted.
Whether we recognize it or not, we all have a God-shaped vacuum that cannot be filled with other people or money or possessions, sex or power or…anything of this world. Only God.
That day, many Samaritans believed, according to John. Enemies became friends. Their perspective of Jesus was transformed from Jew/Sir to Savior.
That same transformation is freely available today. Christ’s people need to go to the “enemy” places of our culture and be present where many others decide not to go – whether for safety reasons or reputational consequences. His contemporary disciples need to infiltrate the “messiness” – as Jesus did with a bitter women on her sixth man. In the poorest state and one of the most challenging capitol cities in the nation, there should be plenty of opportunities. And we, who Jesus called the “light of the world” need to go to the dark places, the hard places, and let His light shine through us.
John tells us that Jesus “had to go through Samaria.” Interpreters still wonder what that might mean. I am pretty certain, however, it means that He asks us to follow Him (words that came a few chapters earlier in this gospel), and go with Him to situations where He can shine down on us and through us to make a real difference in people’s lives.
Matt Friedeman
