Many years ago, my mother-in-law was active in the American
Baptist Church Global Mission Board. This gave her opportunities to travel. At
one point she was offered a chance to go to Burma, which we now know as
Myanmar. She was so excited about it, and I couldn’t help wondering why. What
on earth was in Burma that she cared about?
Well, actually, I should have known at the time. The reason she
wanted to go there, or anywhere, was because there would be new encounters.
Conversations to be had, people to meet, places to see, things to learn. This is
the kind of person Claire is. Every stranger is a potential friend. How you
approach the encounter makes all the difference.
Burma was a very unlikely place for Claire to travel, but a
journey to an unlikely place can hold surprising gifts. This is the case in
Jesus’ journey to Samaria.
Samaria was an unlikely place for him to be. The Jews and the
Samaritans did not get along well. You know the parable of the Good Samaritan?
Those who heard Jesus tell the parable did not, in any way, consider the
Samaritans to be “good.” The notion of regarding a Samaritan as a neighbor was not
a popular notion.
In verse 4 of this chapter, John writes, “He had to go through
Samaria.” It was in between Judea, where he had been, and Galilee, where he was
going. Actually, it was common for Jews to take long detours to avoid going
through Samaria, but Jesus did not. He had to go through Samaria, John says, and
I suppose he did. Because there was a conversation awaiting him there.
Whether or not he knew he would encounter a woman at the well, I
think Jesus went to Samaria with the intention of having a conversation.
His disciples went off in search of provisions, leaving Jesus to
wait by a well, a place they, no doubt, considered safe. It was unlikely that
anyone would be at the well then. High noon in the desert. Most women would go
in the early morning and the evening, when the heat of the sun was not beating
down on them. You would be unusually brave or foolish to venture out at midday.
But, against the odds, this woman came to the well at noon to draw
water.
Many have suggested that this particular woman is there at noon
because of who she is. She is a five-time divorcee, apparently. This would mean
that she has been discarded by five husbands. Five different men have married
her and then, for their own reasons, announced, “I divorce you, I divorce you,
I divorce you.” It was not possible for a woman to divorce a man, but it was
that simple for a man to divorce a woman.
One would think that she carried this as a burden of shame. One
might assume that she managed her days so that she could avoid the other women
of the village because she knew they talked about her, looked down upon her, and
probably distrusted her.
But she doesn’t act like a disgraced woman. She doesn’t shuffle
around, bent over, head low in shame. She behaves as a woman who is at home in
her skin.
Maybe it is Jesus who has this effect on her. She doesn’t appear
to be afraid of him. She recognizes him as a Jew. And she knows all the
prohibitions that warn her against interacting with this man. Even so, she asks
him a question: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of
Samaria?”
And this one question
contains so many:
How is it that you, a man, are speaking to me, a strange woman?
How is it that you, a Jew, are speaking to me, a Samaritan?
How is it that you, a religiously observant son of Israel, are speaking
to me, one who is considered by your people to be unclean?
What are you doing here in Samaria? What are you doing at my well?
Just asking. Maybe it’s rude, but she’s just wondering.
Jesus isn’t bothered by her blunt question. It is almost like he
was waiting for it.
So he says: Let’s talk about the water that I could give to you.
The living water.
And they’re off.
She is a worthy conversation partner for Jesus. She doesn’t back
down. She responds to every strange thing he says – at first not understanding
him, but staying with him nonetheless. Perhaps one of the best things that can
be said about her is this: She is not
afraid of what she doesn’t understand, but is willing and able to continue the
conversation through the ambiguity.
The Samaritan woman did not come to the well looking for Jesus.
She had no idea he would be there. But finding him there she was fully present
with him. In the bright midday light, they speak and listen to each other in
truth. She has questions: Why do you ask me for water? How would you possibly
get this water you are referring to? How can I get this living water
that will forever satisfy my thirst? Wait –
Why do you mention my husband? What is that to you?
How do you know me, Jesus? How do you know me?
Jesus has never met this woman before, but he does know her. And
he doesn’t shame her or look down on her.
One thing you notice in this story is that both Jesus and this
woman have the traveler’s mindset; they are open to seeing things in a way they
haven’t before; they are open to learning something new. They are having a
real, authentic, and meaningful conversation.
When you have a conversation, there are two sides to it. That is
what a conversation is, after all. Each one shares with the other. And you
never know, when you enter into a conversation, whether Jesus might be a part
of it too.
The prophet Muhammed said, “Don’t tell me how educated you are.
Tell me how much you have traveled.” I would modify this to say, “tell me how
much you have lived in the world with a
traveler’s mindset.”
My mother-in-law, Claire did not get to travel to Burma, because
the political situation became too volatile and dangerous; the trip was
cancelled. She was deeply disappointed. But she did have other adventures. She traveled
to Russia during the Cold War. She traveled to Nicaragua during the revolution.
And she had extraordinary, life-changing encounters. But it is also possible to
have extraordinary encounters without leaving home, because there are people
all around us who have come from all over the world and have lived through
extraordinary things.
An encounter with someone different is an invitation to deepen our
compassion, to make meaning, to broaden our perspective and our spirit. And it
is an opportunity to give the gift of God’s love.
May you open your heart to the encounter, and may you encounter
Jesus.
Photo by Vincent Eisfeld on Unsplash
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