Jesus was sitting at a well in Samaria and asked for a drink from woman who came there. She was surprised that a Jewish man would even speak to her. She questioned back in an attitude that appeared to be cynical. Why would not she be cynical? Apparently, no man treated her well, and here was a man, and an enemy of Samaritans at that, that was asking a favor of her.
I wonder if we ourselves question Jesus in cynicism?
He said to the woman, "If you knew who it was that asked you for water, you would ask of him living water".
Sometimes we wonder, as the Samaritan might have wondered, “what on earth is he talking about?”
She said, "The well is deep - how is it possible for you to get water out, I do not see a bucket? Beside this, I do not understand the principles of this ‘living water’ ".
Do we fully understand the immense life Jesus has given to us? How can we get something with what appears to be no effort?
She says, "Our father Jacob dug this well; we have our own established means of religion."
Jesus says, "He that drinks this well water will thirst again, the water I give is living water will be a well springing up in him and he shall never thirst again, Your religion will leave you thirsty, the living water I give will be in you at all times, it does not depend on religion."
If we were there like the woman we would probably say, "yeah, right, prove it, give me the quote living water unquote."
Jesus says "bring your husband"
At this point her whole attitude changes when she admits she has no husband (in fact she has churned through five husbands). She is no longer cynical; she wants to get answers from Jesus. She earnestly asks, "Our tradition says worship this way, you say another; What about that?"
He says, "The time is coming when there will be no politically correct place to worship. We will worship in spirit and in truth. The true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth; Those are the kind of worshippers the father seeks. The way to worship God is in spirit and in truth.
She said, "We know the end times are coming when all things will be put right, Christ will have returned and he will answer all our questions."
Jesus said, "I am here now, and I am speaking to you now."
Isn’t that what we want too? Just skip to the end of it all, let’s do this heaven thing now. Do we really realize that Jesus is with us at this very moment? He is with us even when things are falling in the toilet all around us? He is with us, though disappointed, when we are acting badly? How far, really, are we from the Samaritan woman?
