The Woman at the Well (Third Sunday in Lent)
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If you’ve ever been part of a Bible study on today’s Gospel reading, you may have read, or been told, some traditional assumptions about this woman who Jesus meets at the well. For example, there are lots of commentators who point out that coming to the well at noon was unusual, as most people went to get water earlier in the morning when it was cooler. Therefore, the commentators assert, this woman was probably an outcast in the town who came to the well when others wouldn’t be there.
Further, the commentators assume that the reason this woman was an outcast was because of these five husbands she had had, and that she was now “living in sin” with someone who wasn’t her husband. And therefore, she’s probably been beaten down by all the scorn she’s received and so she probably shrinks back from human interaction with others and just wants to be left alone.
And of course, because she’s a woman (and the traditional commentators are usually all men!), it’s simply assumed that she accepts the “traditional” role of women and tries her best to blend into the background. And she would do that, many commentators explain, except for Jesus insisting on engaging her in conversation at the well.
Now of course, like many people who meet Jesus, we don’t actually know much about this woman. But the problem with the “traditional” description of the woman at the well is that there’s really no evidence for any of it in the text!
In fact, from beginning to end, the woman at the well is the opposite of who we’ve been told she’s supposed to be. She is not timid and retiring. She does not shrink back from even arguing with Jesus. And at the end, she does not go back and hide in her house. In fact, the opposite is true!
And so it’s important when we read this story to hear it kind of like this:
Jesus and his disciples are heading through Samaria on the way back to Galilee. On the way, they stop at Jacob’s well, where Jesus is tired and hangs out while his disciples go to into town to buy food. While Jesus is at the well, about noon, a woman arrives at the well.
Now, if you’re a Jew reading this in the first century (and not a 19th century Victorian gentile Christian), you immediately notice the reference. Jacob (whose well this is) first met Rebekah at a well – and also at a time of day when it was unusual for people to be at a well. And so John sets this story up to alert us that something important is about to happen!
Jesus says, “gimme a drink of water.” The woman says, “of course, sir, I am an obedient handmaid and will get it for you right away.” Oh, wait, that’s not what happens! She says, “how is it that you – a Jew – ask a drink of me – a woman of Samaria.” In other words, “why do you think I’d give you a drink – Jews and Samaritans don’t share stuff! Who do you think I am? Some servant girl from Israel?!”
Then Jesus goes on to talk to her about living water, which in the first century usually referred to running water – a stream or perhaps a Roman aqueduct. Unimpressed, the woman retorts back, “Sir, you got no bucket and this well is deep! How do you expect to pull that off?”
But Jesus insists that he can give “living water”, and so the woman says, “you know, that would be great, and if you can do that, give it to me so that I don’t have to keep schlepping back to this well every single day!”
It’s at this point that Jesus tells the woman to call her husband and come back. When she tells Jesus she has no husband, Jesus responds that in fact she’s had five husbands, and the one she has now is not her husband. (And you should note that Jesus’ only comment on this is that the woman has told the truth, not that she’s guilty of some kind of special sin.). So, at this point, the humiliated woman hangs her head and goes home. Oh, wait. Again, that’s not what happens! But that would be the traditional idea of this woman.
What actually happens is that the woman says, “OK, smart guy, I see that you’re some kind of prophet. If you are then tell me why we can’t worship God on this mountain – which is, after all, the original place Jews used to worship! – instead of Jerusalem?”
And then Jesus begins to speak to her about Spirit and truth. And this resonates with the woman, who’s heard a lot of “traditional interpretation” in her life, too! And so she tells Jesus that she knows that “messiah is coming, and that he will declare all things to them.”
And then – for the very first time in John’s Gospel – Jesus says, “I am he”. I am the Messiah. He says it not to a Jew. Not to a guy. But to this Samaritan woman at the well.
But just as the dialog is now getting intense, John interrupts the narrative to tell us that the disciples return. And the woman is so intimidated by this big group of guys that she runs away. Oh wait, that’s again not what happens. She and Jesus keep talking! It’s the disciples who are intimidated. Not a one of them asks the woman, “What do you want” or even asks Jesus, “why are you talking to her?” They all stand there with their mouths agape!
Eventually, though, the woman leaves her bucket (we never do find out whether Jesus uses it to get a drink after all!) and she returns to town. But rather than hiding in her house, she tells everybody in the town about Jesus and she does what no disciple has done since Philip found Nathanel in Chapter 1, and she uses the exact same words, “come and see”… (this is what disciples are supposed to do. The disciples apparently didn’t do it when they went to buy food, but the woman does…!)
This also refutes the idea that she’s a scorned outcast. If she were, people would have shunned her and ignored her words. But apparently, she’s as persistent with the townspeople as she is in her conversation with Jesus. And because of her – both her own testimony and her invitation to “come and see” for themselves – the whole town has a living experience of God in their lives. And maybe this “living experience of God” is the first part of what “living water” is all about.
My point in telling you all this is not just to warn you that much of the “traditional” interpretation of this woman at the well is probably wrong. Honestly, if you read the story as though this woman was a timid and passive person, I think you’ll miss the point.
Instead, I’ve told you all this because this woman at the well is somebody who exemplifies the biblical idea of wrestling with God. And after all, it happens at Jacob’s well – and Jacob was the guy who was renamed Israel because he literally wrestled with God.
But wrestling with God is also about actively and even aggressively challenging God when we’re wondering whether it’s God talking to us or just some guy at the water cooler of our lives. Wrestling with God is about insisting on getting beyond stuff that just sounds like pious drivel – in the way that “living water” probably sounded to the woman. And wrestling with God means actively exploring questions that resist quick and easy answers – questions that this woman continues to ask in her life as she says, “He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”…
Too often, when things are difficult in our lives – or when there don’t seem to be any good answers out there – much of “traditional” Christian piety says we should approach God as though God were a medieval king and we need to be timid, quiet and submissive so we don’t get God on our bad side, too.
But rather than do that, consider how much better things turn out for the woman at the well, who’s totally willing to argue and verbally wrestle with Jesus. And that’s because it’s through that kind of wrestling that this woman comes to have a deeper and living relationship with God. It’s through that kind of wrestling that this woman becomes the kind of disciple who can credibly invite others to “come and see” Jesus. And it’s through that kind of wrestling that this woman – even though she may never have known it – becomes an example to followers of Jesus everywhere who can learn through her that wrestling – and even arguing with God – deepens our faith and empowers us for service.
Amen.