"Give me a drink of water."

Woman at the Well

“Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 'Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?'”

John 4:28-29

I have always loved reading the story of Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. He had been traveling; he was hot and dusty and tired. So his disciples left him there to rest while they went into the city to buy food. When the woman came to draw water, he asked her for a drink in spite of the fact that her very existence made her unclean for an observant Jew. She was first of all, a female; unclean simply by nature. Secondly, she was a foreigner, a Samaritan with whom Jews had no contact. And, finally, she was fallen, having had not one but five husbands! Three strikes that would have compelled some people of Jesus' day stone her to death. And yet, here they were at the well, and Jesus asks her for a drink of water.

I think Jesus' relationship to women may have been the thing that set him apart most dramatically from the rest of Jewish society of his day. He talked with them, he taught them, and he touched them and allowed them to touch him—to wash his feet, to pour nard over his head, to draw healing power from his robes, and to give him a drink of water from a common vessel. Unlike the men of his day, he treated women with respect. Even this woman, who was the antithesis of pure. He requested a drink and in return, promised her living water.

After the woman went back into the town and told the people what had happened, that Jesus had told her everything she had ever done, they came to see this man for themselves. Again, according to Jewish law, Jesus should have skedaddled out of there, but he didn't. Instead, he stuck around for two more days and taught these foreign people about the kingdom of God. We are told that many believed. Many female, foreign and fallen people could see the work of the Spirit in Jesus. I wonder whether we still believe in a Jesus like that. One who is kind, accepting and willing to get his hands dirty if that's what it takes to change hearts.

                                  In the Spirit,

                                     Jane