Jesus Meets the Woman at the Well. Lent 3. Year A. 24/2/08/.
The thing that strikes me most about this long gospel passage… is that Jesus is exhausted….. he is tired, he is hungry, he is very, very thirsty….. does he drop himself down next to the well, weary, physically, perhaps emotionally…… the toll on him of his frenetic mission to travel the countryside, including places that other would normally avoid…… must have weighed heavily….. he had some successes…. but an awful lot of rejection, controversy and ridicule as well……..
here he is… exhausted….. sitting next to a well in the heat of the day…. only outcasts or madmen would be out in this kind of heat……. or weary travelers……
The disciples rush off to buy food and supplies to re-energise their master and themselves too…… Jesus is left there, probably too tired to walk with them…. longing for a drink…. but he has no bucket with him…. he is longing for someone to come along………
even though Jesus was tired, thirsty and hungry… it is as if these things lead him to think about what really matters to him……. when we are down… the things that are at the heart of ourselves come to the surface…. and look what arises in Jesus….. he is thirsty…. but his physical thirst serves only to remind him how much he thirsts to do the Father’s will……. he is hungry… but this recalls to him how he longs to fill himself with the bread of his father’s word… and to keep it….. he thirsts for the faith and love of those he meets…… for he is God’s beloved son… and he longs for them to hear, to respond and to accept the word of God…………..
he has already warned his disciples…. don’t give up… even if the results of your preaching and ministry is patchy….. stay faithful…….. even if you don’t always see the fruits of what you are doing…… even if there appear failures and rejections….. keep sowing the word… keep living the word of God….it cannot but bear much fruit… but maybe not in your time… maybe not here and now…. perhaps the seed sown by you will be sown by others at a later time…. perhaps you will be in the right place and the right time to harvest the seed of the word of God that some previous disciple planted long ago….. keep working…. keep thirsting…..
We know that jesus thirsted for the Father’s will…. it is a reminder of the fact that you and I thirst for so many things, not least of which the fulfillment of our physical and immediate needs…… and sometimes we thirst for things that are not priorities in Jesus’ kingdom,…. it is good for us to pause…. look into our hearts…. for what do I thirst…… what are the things that occupy my heart and my desires……. do I thirst for the ways of Jesus…..
This gospel is long, but it is beautiful… filled with so many meanings……. Jesus talks to a Samaritan,… and not only a Samaritan but a Samaritan woman… and not only a Samaritan woman but apparently a woman who might have been on the outer of her own community…. why else go to the well at such a hot time of the da……….. Jesus shows us again……..God simply will not be confined. Jesus would not be confine ! Jesus is unafraid to step over the border into places where \"good\" Jews would not go. Jesus is unafraid to speak with foreign women. Jesus is unafraid to touch lepers. And we hear these stories about Jesus over and over in the Gospels. Jesus breaks down prejudices and barriers and responds to need and truth……
It is true, Jesus really does want water when he asks for it….. but he means it too when he says… ‘but, you know…. I have a water … a living water… that will satisfy the human heart….. he is offering the water of union and relationship in God’s very life….. sharing in communion with God… becoming part of God’s family…. this is something that will fulfil our eternal desires… and live forever……. this is offered to all…… the woman at the well accepts…… she is open to hear… she shouldn’t be… but she hears and accepts….. and Jesus’ joy is deeply moving…. the woman runs off to tell others… she has every intention fo returning because she has left her bucket behind…..
maybe this is what the Jesus words mean….. does he look around and see the people in their white robes coming out of their houses…. does he look around and see the grain high in the fields around him…. he says…. ‘the reaper is already recieing his wages” ….. perhaps jesus, tired by his efforts, was overjoyed and surprised that his words produced instant fruits….. where in other places…. people did not respond as he hoped… as he had thirsted for them to accept……. does Jesus point to the crowds coming from their homes to see this man that the woman had told them of…… is jesus saying of them…. see… you will reap where you have not sown… and other times people will reap what you have sown… but today..… we reap what has produced fruit right here and now……
what joy !!!!!
I will finish with a little reflection I read the other day… Jesus said that ‘whoever drinks the water from this well will thirst again… but the water I give you will never thirst again.” one day a priest came to visit a lady who was gravely ill… he said to her… ‘ I will pray for your healing.” The lady replied.. “yes Father, do that, I believe in that… but also… pray that I will experience God’s peace… if I am healed, I will get sick again, maybe many times, and each time I will be dismayed and fearful…. unless I learn to put myself in God’s hands, whatever may come… - so, above all pray for peace… for that will last….”
(reflection, by Paul Kelly, with also quotes from ‘Monastery of Christ in the Desert,’ and also ‘2008, a Book of Grace Filled Days’).