And The Well Is Deep

We’re breaking new ground around here these days, crossing boundaries previously uncrossed.  And it is nerve-wracking, unsettling, to say the least.  The new ground isn’t all that dramatic, really.  Many of you have crossed it before, maybe even a long time ago, and now it’s no big deal.  But the unknown is always sobering if not terrifying.  This particular new ground is that of home ownership. I have lived in parsonages all my life - except when I was in university housing.  And my wife and kids have known only this somewhat nomadic kind of life, relying, as Blanche DuBois says in “Streetcar Named Desire,” on the kindness of strangers.

But now it is all about to change.  The new church doesn’t own a parsonage, and instead provides a housing allowance.  Which means we are moving into the undiscovered country of home ownership. At this stage in our lives to be first time home buyers is a bit daunting, to say the least.  And that we were unprepared to make this leap is also something of an understatement.  But here we go, crossing a line, taking a risk.  Holding our breath, with lots of prayers, we’re stepping out.

Crossing boundaries is never easy.  There is always risk involved.  And it could go terribly wrong. Sometimes those boundaries are there for protection, sometimes they are necessary, sometimes they are helpful to us.  But other times they limit us.  Even worse they keep us from being who we are called to be, who we could be, who our hearts long to be.  And the sooner we can cross over the better.  

Our passage this week has boundaries all over the place.  You almost have to have a scorecard to keep track of them.  The reading starts with verse five of chapter four of the Gospel of John.  But to get the mood, we really need verse four.  And then it just goes on and on, crossing boundaries, stepping into the unknown.  So, hold on to your hats.

John 4:4-42 4 But he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." 11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" 13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." 15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." 

16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." 17 The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" 19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." 21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." 25 The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." 26 Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you." 

27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?" 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" 30 They left the city and were on their way to him. 31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something." 32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 33 So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" 34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, 'Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." 

39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done." 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."

“He had to go through Samaria.”  Actually He didn’t.  In fact most travelers of the time would have done all they could do to avoid going through Samaria.  If there is any had to, it is they had to not go. But Jesus had to.  Why?  Because it was His business to cross boundaries.  He had to so that He could do the job, so that He could live the life He came to live.  He had to.  

He had to step across social convention and speak to a woman on her own at the well in the middle of the day.  No, wait.  He had to speak to a Samaritan woman at the well in the middle of the day.  A Samaritan woman alone, possibly shunned, looked down upon, a woman who out of self-defense and shame made her trip to gather water in the heat of the day, when no one else in their right mind would venture out.  Not just speak to, but ask for a drink. A drink of water, from her personal flask, the one she drank from to quench her personal thirst.  Now this Jew, obviously lost, wandering around an unwelcome land, asks to drink from her hand, almost.  She’s shocked, the disciples when they return are shocked.  That Jesus so cavalierly steps over boundaries into the new world, a new way of living in community.  

We know the conversation, that’s usually the content of the study and the sermon.  How she stubbornly missed the point, kept Him at arms length, tried to turn a discussion about a hurting heart into a theological/worship preference conflict. But Jesus kept crossing boundaries, kept getting closer, kept getting deeper.  She knew it was deep.  She didn’t want to go there.  The well is deep she said, hoping He would give up His pursuit of her soul.  But He kept crossing the line, asking more intimate questions, wanting more of her.  Finally she waved it all off, Yeah, well, someday, she said, quoting the line everyone knew and no one really believed, someday, the Messiah will come and sort out all the brokenness, all the abuse, all the boundaries that keep us from knowing and living love. Someday. He smiled.  Today, He said.  That day is today.  

Was she sure?  Was she convinced?  Or did she just want to hope?  She ran off and spoke to those who had shunned her, tossed her aside.  Spoke to those she had come to the well in the heat of the day to avoid.  Could this be, she said breathlessly, could this be?  And something about her boldness, something about her disregard of proper behavior made them curious enough to come and see for themselves.  So, they came and saw and believed.  

Meanwhile the disciples sat in stunned amazement.  He talked about food they couldn’t see, and He ignored boundaries they could see.  But He came relentlessly closer.  Crossing into territory they had never entered. But like the villagers, they had decided to believe, which meant their lives were in His hands.  So, they followed Him.  Across the boundaries, into a new way of living.    

Shalom, 

Derek