Saturday, March 14, 2020

John 4:5-26

The readings for today and tomorrow comprise the key foundational story of Wellspring. In so many ways, it defines who we are. In this story, Jesus and his disciples are traveling through Samaria (a region typically avoided by Jews because the people who lived there, while practicing Judaism, had intermarried and were considered impure). They have stopped at Jacob’s well (another key part of the story), and the disciples left Jesus alone so they could go buy food for them to eat. It is there that he meets a Samaritan woman who has come to the well for water.

There are several things wrong with this story as it unfolds. First, a woman comes to the well alone, and when it was the custom for women to come in groups, we are already put on notice that she is an outcast. Second, Jesus talks to her (double trouble talking to a woman who is an outcast among the Samaritans). Third, Jesus knows all about her and then dares to offer her a gift of abundant life that, we assume, would have been reserved only for the faithful.

As I hear this story over and over again, all I can think is that we are called to a radical way of being in the world. God knows us for who we are and loves us anyway. God comes amidst our brokenness … our sin … our shame, cradles our face, and considers us worthy to receive the gift of this wellspring of life.

This woman, in all her brokenness, is us! When a radical love like this is so far removed from our world, perhaps it is up to us to live out this radical way of being in the world. Offer the wellspring of life, and your life will never be the same.

Living Water revealed in Christ: Quench our thirst and use us to share this cup of blessing with your world. Amen.