Part 9 (2/2)
His laugh was genuine. ”Not quite, Miss...uh. I'm sorry, what did you say your name was?”
”I didn't say.” She flipped her hair over her right shoulder, suddenly embarra.s.sed.
”It is 'Miss'; I'm sure of that.” He was looking through her again. ”Though it would've been 'Mrs.' last month.”
It wasn't a question. Her eyes widened. How could he know? Folding her arms, she leaned back slightly, trying to put some distance between them. ”I don't have a husband.”
He folded his arms as well. ”That's true. Not anymore. You've had five, though...”
She gasped.
”...and the man you're living with now-Mick, right?-he isn't your husband either.”
”Mister, I...I'm...” Her face was on fire. Her tongue was glued to the roof of her mouth, refusing to budge. Was he a psychic? Employed by the court system? Or your everyday, garden-variety madman?
”Uh...” Get hold of yourself, Crystal! ”It's obvious that you...know some...things about me.” Everything, probably.
The warmth in his eyes was unmistakable. ”Would you like more water?”
”Yes, I...I think I would.” She stuck out her gla.s.s with a trembling hand. Had she ever been this thirsty in her entire life? He wrapped his strong fingers around hers, steadying her hand as he poured while she watched, mesmerized. ”So...what did you say your name was?”
”Ahh.” The warmth in his voice was unforgettable. ”I thought you'd never ask...”
Known by Her Location but Not by Her Name: The Woman at the Well
So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar... John 4:5 Lord, with all due respect, surely you made a wrong turn somewhere. What was a Jew like you doing in a place like this? True, when someone travels from Judea to Galilee, it's hard to skip Samaria, but most Jews at least tried to avoid a group of colonists they saw as less than honorable members of the house of Israel.
Jews and Samaritans had one thing in common though. On a hot day, they all developed a powerful thirst.
Jacob's well was there... John 4:6 It still is there, as a matter of fact. Visit the Holy Land and see the ancient well of Jacob for yourself, once a welcome source of water in a parched parcel of ground that Jacob bequeathed to his son Joseph.
But it was the women of the land who spent time at the wells. Rebekah was wooed at a well by Eliezer on Isaac's behalf. Rachel was courted by Jacob at a well at Haran. Now we find another well in the wilderness where a woman's arrival was imminent.
Antic.i.p.ation hung over the scene like the desert heat, unseen but palpable. By all that was considered right and holy, Jesus shouldn't have been there. But he was.
...and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. John 4:6 By Roman time, it was six o'clock in the evening; by Jewish time, twelve noon. Since most women went to the well at eventide and there wasn't a water pot in sight yet, we'll stick with the conventional reading and a.s.sume it was noon, the heat of the day. Jesus had been traveling all morning. Finding a watering hole, he dropped there in an exhausted heap. His spirit was willing to press on, but his flesh was too weak to move another step. Though he's fully G.o.d, Jesus' utterly human nature in this scene always tugs at my heart.
Would someone get this man a drink, please?
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water... John 4:7 There she was, just a-walkin' down the street. She had two strikes against her already: (1) She was a Samaritan, not a Jew, and (2) she was a woman, of all things. John, the only gospel writer to record this story, didn't even include her name.
Non-Jew, non-male, who cares?
Jesus cared.
Jesus said to her, ”Will you give me a drink?” John 4:7 He cared so much he spoke to her directly. No doubt he looked her in the eyes when he said it, might even have touched the sleeve of her garment to get her attention.
Oh, it gives me s.h.i.+vers just to think of it! The Lord reaching out to someone who was in all ways a social reject. Notice he didn't command her; he asked her. His words were polite and forthright, the start of a lengthy conversation-the longest found in Scripture between Jesus and anyone, let alone a Samaritan.
Let alone a woman.
Let alone that kind of woman.
Her gender and her nationality are not incidental to the story; they are integral, because they drive home the universal truth of G.o.d's fountain of grace: Its refres.h.i.+ng waters are meant for every human being willing to hold out his empty cup.
What was she doing there in the scorching heat of midday? She must have been mighty thirsty to risk the sting of the sun and the neighborhood gossips. Alas, water's a necessity of life, then and now. Forced by that need, she chose the one time other women from Sychar wouldn't be likely to show up and ventured toward the outskirts of town where a well-and a wise but weary man-waited for her.
The woman wasn't expecting him, but clearly Jesus was expecting her. Otherwise he might have joined his disciples.
(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) John 4:8 Instead, he met her one-on-one, the single best way to approach anyone about spiritual matters. Cla.s.sroom teaching has its place, and small-group studies are wonderful, but when Christ speaks to my heart, it's always just the two of us. With you, too?
The Samaritan woman said to him, ”You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not a.s.sociate with Samaritans.) John 4:9 The parenthetical explanation says it all: Jews + Samaritans = No Go. Jesus, however, blew off the Jewish custom of steering clear of Samaritans. He even asked to share her water pot... Germ City, Lord! Clearly he didn't allow anything as trivial as religious tradition to get in the way of her genuine journey toward faith.
(And she thought she was merely walking toward a well.) Jesus answered her, ”If you knew the gift of G.o.d and who it is that asks you for a drink...” John 4:10 The subtle s.h.i.+ft from temporal thirst to eternal satisfaction had begun. ”If you knew” left the door wide open. He didn't say, ”Duh! Don't you know who I am?” He didn't put her on the spot or demand that she identify him...or herself. Ever the gentleman, this Rabbi merely suggested that he had the means to quench her obvious thirst.
”...you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10 Water from a well was dead water-rainwater mostly. Far from pure or refres.h.i.+ng, it was more suited to sheep than people. Well water was common, everyday stuff, but living water? What a concept! The Lord's words, full of mystery and intrigue, got her attention.
”Sir,” the woman said, ”you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?” John 4:11 The woman was polite but gutsy. Observant, too. Jesus didn't have a bucket, barrel, or bowl, and they both knew it. No Web site either-e in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14 Many Sunday afternoons in my childhood my parents drove to the outskirts of our small Pennsylvania town, to a gus.h.i.+ng spring that shot straight out of a crudely made pipe lodged in the side of a mountain. It was spring water-cold as snow and fresh as suns.h.i.+ne, full of natural minerals and absolutely free. People brought empty milk jugs, gallon jars, whatever would hold the crystal-clear liquid. My mouth waters at the memory of it!
The water Jesus spoke of was even more delicious. An endless supply of holy, cleansing water awaited the Samaritan woman-a personal fountain of spiritual youth that could well up inside her forever.
The woman said to him, ”Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” John 4:15 It's obvious she'd like nothing better than never to visit that well again. Never risk public ridicule, never admit she had a need so basic as water. Too bad, my dear. We simply can't live without it. The average woman's body is 50 to 60 percent water, which requires constant replenis.h.i.+ng. A few hours without H20 in some form and our mouths turn to cotton, dark circles appear under our eyes, and our lips grow chapped. A few days without water and serious dehydration sets in, producing weakness, lethargy, exhaustion.
A week without water and we're dead.
One look at her and Jesus knew she was parched with thirst in both body and spirit. The first was easily solved with a dip in the well. The other thirst needed to be brought out in the open before it could be sated.
He told her, ”Go, call your husband and come back.” John 4:16 Jesus wasn't being rude, just bowing to the custom of the day. Women-Good Girls, that is-didn't speak alone with a man in a public place. By asking her to call her husband to join them, the Lord was honoring her, saying in essence, ”I know you're not a harlot.” By inviting her to come back, he was a.s.suring her of his interest in her welfare, rather than in something more carnal.
No, she wasn't a harlot. Nor was she married, at the moment.
”I have no husband,” she replied. John 4:17 We can hear the hesitancy in her voice, sense the blush that might have crept up her neck and across her cheeks. Does he know? Will he a.s.sume the worst about me?
First he affirmed the accuracy of her answer.
Jesus said to her, ”You are right when you say you have no husband.” John 4:17 For one beat she must have inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
”The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.” John 4:18 Her heart surely sank. He knows!
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