Water-Jars
By Fr. David Kendrick
It was 40 miles north from Jerusalem, where Jesus had been in John’s Gospel, to Sychar in Samaria. It would be another 20-25 miles north to their home base. So at high noon on the third day of their walk, when Jesus collapsed by that well in Samaria, he was as hot, tired, thirsty and hungry as you and I would be. His need for water, His need for food, His need for rest, His needs were as human as yours and mine would be under that hot sun after 2-3 days walking.And then he sees this Samaritan woman by herself carrying her large water-jar which will only get heavier with water under the same hot sun at the same high noon. Immediately, he would know that she was an outcast in her own village, coming by herself under the hot noon sun rather than come with the other women in the morning and have to hear their subtle and not-so-subtle put-downs. Perhaps as she came closer, he began to see more deeply into her heart, into her needs.
Certainly there is the immediate physical need for a cool breeze. But in her heart are those deeper emotional needs that compulsively led her through five broken marriages. And even deeper than those compulsions there is the spiritual need to know that God was really there in her life and the life of her people the Samaritans. The Jews of Judea had burned down their temple on Mount Gerzim about 100 years earlier. But they still had the well of their ancestor Jacob, whom God had renamed Israel. But they also had the Judeans dismissing them as half-breeds, half Israelite, half Assyrian, more pagan than Jewish. Where was God in her and the life of her people, still her people despite their insults?
Here at this holy well, met Jesus’ human needs and this woman’s human needs, along with the need of the incarnate Son of God to assuage our deepest need, our eternal thirst which only Spirit can assuage. But we can’t ignore our human needs; and so that is where Jesus starts, with his thirst, and her sense of compassion for all humanity — Give me a drink. Then he offers her the water of Baptism — The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life — The water I have blessed, every time you feel a little of its refreshing coolness in your forehead, know that it is just a touch of the well just waiting to gush up in your heart if you but ask Jesus for it.
Now she is intrigued, but still focused on her human need and her water-jar — Sir, give me this water, and then I shall never be thirsty, nor have to come all this way to draw water — So meeting her interest, Jesus, as gently as he can, forces her to confront those human needs that have led her through so many broken relationships — At least you told me the truth. Still not quite willing to let go of her human resentments, this woman confronts Jesus with the Samaritans’ sense of being looked down on by the Jews. To which Jesus responds — It doesn’t matter anymore who was right and who was wrong about this temple or that temple, because God cannot be contained in a box of human design, however beautiful. God is not an old bearded man in some distant galaxy or universe; nor is God simply the sum of all human concepts put together. For all who will let themselves breathe together deeply and slowly, there is the Spirit of peace and love and truth. — But only the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed Liberating King of Israel can make this possible, she responds — I AM — Jesus announces. Not — I am he — there is no predicate in the Greek. Invoking the name of Israel’s God given to Moses at the burning bush — I AM THAT I AM — Jesus assures this woman that he is the one who can meet her and all peoples’ deepest needs.
And she gets it — The woman left her water-jar and went off to the town, where she said to the people, Come and see a man who has told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah? — She left the one thing that had consumed her attention, because she heard the truth of her life communicated in the most loving way. What deeper need is there than to we face our truth in way that does not consume us or leave us lonely, but loves us period, stop?
We all have water-jars, deep-seated needs that have consumed us for so long in fear, grief, anger, anxiety or depression. We all have wells that only we know of, those places that we have gone to again and again and again to fill our temporary needs. Imagine who might be at that well waiting for you to acknowledge them, so that they can ask you for a drink. In the imagination of your spirit, bring your fear, your grief, your anger, your anxiety or your depression to whoever is there at your well. In your imagination, listen for the answering love and truth. And let go of your water-jar.
