I’ve been spending a lot of time at Jacob’s Well with Jesus and the Samaritan woman. This was a challenging story to keep within my word count. My research led me to think and pray on so many different nuggets, so despite a looming deadline, I can’t move on until I digest some of my thoughts in writing, as I often do. 🙂 Here are just two musings:
1) This story comes to us from John and is told shortly after Nicodemus (super Pharisee) comes to Jesus at night. I love how John gives us a sharp comparison in this setup. With Nicodemus, we see Jesus addressing the religious systems. With the Samaritan woman, we see Jesus addressing those who have been made enemies by those religious systems.
Jesus doesn’t feel compelled to pick a side (love that about him!) or fit into a preconceived box that fits the expectations of either Nicodemus or the Samaritan woman. He calls out the weaknesses of both. He refuses to make excuses for either. And yet, for both, he opens a door to a better way.
I want to be like this. In my family, in my church, in my community, in my politics, in my writing, I want to be a light for a better way. (I’m meditating a lot on the Sermon on the Mount this year and I have a strong inkling THIS is the better way.)
2) Jesus steps into the Samaritan woman’s life with a basic human need. He asks her for a drink.
I’ve read this story so many times, but I never caught this until now. This is actually a big deal—not just because he’s a Jewish rabbi and she’s a Samaritan woman and the two groups rarely associate with one another—but because, um . . . he’s Jesus. He could just cause it to rain or create water from rocks. But he doesn’t. He chooses to step into community with this outsider.
I can’t help but think how different this is from the way we as Christians often see our place in the world today. We think we can’t show weakness, that we must fight for our worthy causes and have all the answers when it comes to faith, which is actually pretty ironic since faith is belief without seeing. I don’t want to be known for having all the answers (spoiler alert—I don’t) or for not ever struggling with doubts (I do). I want to be known by love. (John 13:35)
Sri Lankan theologian Daniel T. Niles said that, “The only way to build love between two people or two groups of people is to be so related to each other as to stand in need of each other. The Christian community must serve. It must also be in a position where it needs to be served.”
This is radical. This is not what we might expect. And sadly, I don’t see a large part of the American church (all too often, myself included) walking this narrow path. But Jesus was not afraid of weakness, and I think that can scare us a little because it requires faith to lean into.
So, I’m praying. I’m praying for wisdom for all of us. And perhaps the next time we’re tempted to fight our neighbor who has differing views on us about the current hot-topic social issue, we can remember Jesus asking for a drink from this woman whom his culture told him to hate. Perhaps we can think of a well-respected father running to a lost son and throwing him a party (something no respectable man in Jesus’s day would have done for an ungrateful heir). Perhaps we can think of Jesus on the cross, asking God to forgive those who pinned him there.
This is not a weak faith. It is a strong faith. And it is a picture of the upside-down kingdom of the Great I AM.
I don’t think I’ll ever think about this story the same way again.
Photo by RENZILIU FUN on Unsplash