I imagine Jesus, sitting next to that ancient well in the hot, midday sun. Tired, hungry and thirsty, he was waiting there for his disciples to return with bread for their journey. Having no bucket, he was unable to draw water from that deep, cool well. Yet suddenly, right there in the middle of the day, a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus must have been startled – no one draws water in the heat of the day. But there she was – the woman with the bucket. Jesus is forever telling us that God provides.
I imagine the Samaritan woman making her way to the well in the heat of the day. She always goes for water at this hour, as she knows she won’t encounter anyone. Her life has been a series of disasters, so she’s shunned by the people around her, and she is tired from the shame and the shunning. She must have been startled when she came upon this man sitting at the well, and even more startled when he spoke to her. He was a Jew; she, a Samaritan. Jews don’t engage with Samaritans. He was a man, she was a woman. Men and women don’t talk with each other without the presence of other men related to that woman. He wants a drink. That doesn’t make any sense to her. And when she says so, he gives the strangest reply. "If you knew the gift of God, if you knew who I was, you would ask me for the water that quenches every thirst."If you knew…
How often have I questioned all the ways things don’t make sense and can’t get right and all the while Jesus was right in front of me, offering me the living water that quenches every thirst and fills my every need?
Gracious God, give me eyes to see you and ears to hear you in the many and varied circumstances of my life. Amen.
—The Rev Karen Haig
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