"The Woman at the well" John 4:1-42

​Our Scripture Text this morning comes from the 4th chapter of John, verses 1 through 42.  Let us listen for how the spirit is speaking to her church.
John 4:1-42
4 Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was making more disciples and baptizing more than John (2 although Jesus’ disciples were baptizing, not Jesus himself). 3 Therefore, he left Judea and went back to Galilee.
4 Jesus had to go through Samaria. 5 He came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, which was near the land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there. Jesus was tired from his journey, so he sat down at the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water to drink.” 8 His disciples had gone into the city to buy him some food.
9 The Samaritan woman asked, “Why do you, a Jewish man, ask for something to drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each other.)
10 Jesus responded, “If you recognized God’s gift and who is saying to you, ‘Give me some water to drink,’ you would be asking him and he would give you living water.”
11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket and the well is deep. Where would you get this living water?12 You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave this well to us, and he drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks from the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles up into eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will never be thirsty and will never need to come here to draw water!”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, get your husband, and come back here.”
17 The woman replied, “I don’t have a husband.”
“You are right to say, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus answered. 18 “You’ve had five husbands, and the man you are with now isn’t your husband. You’ve spoken the truth.”
19 The woman said, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you and your people say that it is necessary to worship in Jerusalem.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you and your people will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You and your people worship what you don’t know; we worship what we know because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the time is coming—and is here!—when true worshippers will worship in spirit and truth. The Father looks for those who worship him this way. 24 God is spirit, and it is necessary to worship God in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one who is called the Christ. When he comes, he will teach everything to us.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I Am—the one who speaks with you.”[a]
27 Just then, Jesus’ disciples arrived and were shocked that he was talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 The woman put down her water jar and went into the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who has told me everything I’ve done! Could this man be the Christ?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to see Jesus.
31 In the meantime the disciples spoke to Jesus, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
32 Jesus said to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”
33 The disciples asked each other, “Has someone brought him food?”
34 Jesus said to them, “I am fed by doing the will of the one who sent me and by completing his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘Four more months and then it’s time for harvest’? Look, I tell you: open your eyes and notice that the fields are already ripe for the harvest. 36 Those who harvest are receiving their pay and gathering fruit for eternal life so that those who sow and those who harvest can celebrate together. 37 This is a true saying, that one sows and another harvests. 38 I have sent you to harvest what you didn’t work hard for; others worked hard, and you will share in their hard work.”
39 Many Samaritans in that city believed in Jesus because of the woman’s word when she testified, “He told me everything I’ve ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of his word, 42 and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is truly the savior of the world.”
 
Sermon
Have you ever met someone or been somewhere, stepped into a place or a conversation, and left feeling known? Left feeling seen? Feeling heard? Left with your heart full, your eyes lifted because of the encounter you just had.
What echos in my head while reading today’s text is Jesus’ response to Nicodemus in the chapter prior to this one: “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you[g] do not receive our testimony.”
 
How often have we heard in the last few years, “we told you, but you didn’t believe us”? 
Whether it’s our children being disproportionally punished or even bullied to the point where they don’t feel safe at school and it falls on the deaf ears of our administrators, teachers and even the ones who are supposed to advocate for them? 
 
Whether it’s the policing of Black and brown bodies in our communities and no one pays attention until something bad happens, like a rapper is beat and it’s caught on video? 
 
Whether it’s the horrors that our siblings who cross our borders are escaping from? 
 
Whether it’s the countless women who won’t report sexual harassment, abuse, or rape because we know the predominant questions won’t be about our care and mental health but if we are telling the truth. 
 
Whether its how we identify. As Gender fluid, nonbinary, trans—our siblings tell us who they are, but family and friends refuse to believe them. Refer to them by their dead name. 
 
Jesus had to go there.
 
John 4:4
4 But he had to go through Samaria.
 
This verb “had” is translated from the Greek edai, meaning “it is necessary.” Saying Jesus had to go there is a theological statement. It’s a fullfillment. A part of God’s plan.
 
Jesus had to go through Samaria to meet that particular woman at the well.
 
There are a lot of stories we Christians tell oursevles about who this woman is. How she’s a prostitue. How she’s full of sin. Full of shame. 
But the story actually says no such thing, and there is nothing about sin or Jesus’ forgiveness mentioned in the text. 
 
Jesus says, “Go get your husband”
The woman replied, “I don’t have a husband.”
“You are right to say, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus answered. 18 “You’ve had five husbands, and the man you are with now isn’t your husband. You’ve spoken the truth.”
Her response? I see you are a prophet. 
 
Sometimes we like to say prophets are people who predict the future, but they aren’t. In the Bible, prophets are people who tell the truth. And Jesus tells the truth of this woman’s life, he names her truth, that she has had five husbands. And we know nothing of why she had five husbands. Maybe they divorced her or maybe she has buried each of them. But he names her truth, the fact that she has five husbands and is living with a man who isn’t her husband, and then shares the gospel with her. 
 
As Jamie Clark Soles writes, “Jesus and this woman have a deep, rich theological debate that allows them to form an intimate connection across real and perceived differences such that the woman receives the first theophany (manifestation of God) in the Gospel of John and then evangelizes her community.”
 
We live in a world that is so intent on dividing us from one another. Whether it’s our politics and religion or literally systems like red lining that try to keep us separated from one another. The woman at the well has bought into it: 9 The Samaritan woman asked, “Why do you, a Jewish man, ask for something to drink from me, a Samaritan woman?”
 
The disciples have bought into it: “27Jesus’ disciples arrived and were shocked that he was talking with a woman.”
 
But Jesus just isn’t having any of it. 
 
Jesus sits down at a well, with a woman, a woman who has no standing without the relationship of a man, with a Samaritan, a Samaritan who thinks her community are the chosen people of God and simply says, “I am thirsty.”  
 
He had to go there. To that well. To that particular woman. 
 
And she leaves Jesus and goes back to the city and shares her experince. Testifies to her encounter with Jesus. And they believe her. When she names her truth, they belive and they want to find out more. Her testiemony, leads others to go and see for themselves, which leads to their own testimonies.
 
I think if this passage were a movie, the last shot would be a slow zoom of the woman’s jar. Left empty beside the well. I love that detail John gives us. 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city.”
 
The invitation is for us to do the same. 
 
May we be bold enough to share our story. May we be brave enough to believe other’s.
 
In the name of the creator, sustainer, and redeemer.
Amen.