Tuesday, 25 August 2009 21:02 | and posted in Jesus & the Gospels
When was the last time you went to a well to get water?
What about your parents? Or your brother or sister?
In our Western society we do not need to visit wells to meet our basic need of water. We simply visit the kitchen or the bathroom or our second bathroom or the water closet… We turn on a tap and instantly water flows out - as much or as little as we desire!
What this observation highlights is how far removed we are from the world of the Samaritan woman in John 4:7. To get to grips with what God may want to communicate through this story, we will need to come up with some contemporary equivalents...
Wells are about quenching thirst. They are about meeting our needs and satisfying our thirst for water. We return to wells again and again as they give us water that lasts a while, but then we need to go back for more.
Wells are good things, but in this story something is not right with this woman’s daily journey to the well. The story tells us it was the sixth hour or midday (John 4:6). In a hot country midday is not a good time to visit a well!
At this point in the story we know nothing about this woman, except something tragic has happened in her life to mean she chooses to visit the well at midday. A good thing has been distorted and twisted. A basic need is being looked for in an unusual way.
This leads us to our contemporary equivalent. Where do you go when things are going badly? Where do you go when you are unhappy, frustrated or angry? What do you repeatedly turn to whenever you want to escape reality for awhile?
What are your wells?
Some people turn to alcohol, sex or an endless line of relationships. Others turn to new shoes, chocolate or Ben and Jerry’s. Others turn to football, or movies or computer games.
Wells are not necessarily bad things. There’s nothing wrong with alcohol or new shoes or football in and of themselves, it’s about our motivation for why we turn to them. If we were in a healthy place these things would bring us pleasure; in an unhealthy place they try to satisfy an emptiness in our lives for love and meaning and peace.
In a healthy place the Samaritan woman would go to the well early in the morning or in the evening when it’s not so hot and enjoy socialising with the other women making the journey. In an unhealthy place she visits it on her own at midday in the roasting sun.
But where do we find Jesus in this story? In those days men didn’t visit wells. Even today how many photos of men carrying a water jug on his head have you seen? The good news of this story is that Jesus unexpectedly and counter-culturally met this woman during her unhealthy visit to a well.
If Jesus hung out at wells back then, where might you expect to run into him today?
