Church Voices

“Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
- John 8:15

This line was spoken by a desperate, hurting woman almost 2,000 years ago. She was coming to a well in the burning, heat of the day to draw water. Generally, women would gather in the morning and the evening to draw water for their households. This woman came in the heat of the day because she preferred the physical discomfort of working in the hottest part of the day to the emotional discomfort she felt around other women. This woman wasn’t just another wife trying to care for her kids and husband, she has had several husbands, and the man she was with now wasn’t her husband at all. A big no-no in her society. And so sweating and working under a hot noon sun was much preferred to the whispers and rejection she would have felt otherwise.

So here she comes down to the well, getting sweaty and nasty, but at least she’s left alone. Then her entire day gets ruined. She’s not the only one at the well. But she’s already come this far, and she does need the water. As she gets closer things are only getting worse. Its a Jewish man. She’s a Samaritan, a half-breed in his eyes, and the long standing religious feud between the two groups guarantees nothing but grief for her in this encounter. But she’s thirsty, and she’s already half way there, and if she doesn’t get water now then she’ll have to get it when the other women of the town do in the evening, so she continues to walk towards the well.

When she gets there the conversation takes an odd turn. From talking about water to talking about the age-old religious feud, and this Jewish man begins talking about living water, and says this living water which satisfies forever is hers for the asking. So she says, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

The Christ stands before her, and her biggest concern is to avoid coming back to get water. Doesn’t that seem a bit short sighted? I mean, the promised one, the one prophesied about for thousands of years by prophets like Moses, David, and Isaiah is here, and she’s worried about chores.

Unfortunately the Samaritan woman isn’t alone. Short sightedness happens to all of us. The gospel message is that Christ has paid the cost of our sins so that we can be re-united with God. We can approach God without fear, as an adopted son or daughter, but all too often we look at the gospel and all we see is a social club, a place to talk about politics or maybe just another charitable organization.

God has pointed his finger at each of us and said, “I want you” and sometimes we get confused and cheer and think, “sweet, now I don’t have to go down to that stupid well every day”. What we’ve been given is something huge, something eternal, something of enormous value, and sometimes all we can think about is how nice it’ll be to not have that long dusty walk out to the city well.