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At the time of Jesus, going to the village well was as routine and necessary as the weekly trip to Sainsbury’s or Tescos, except that it would probably have to be done every day. Millions of people throughout the third world will still be making that daily trip, possibly travelling miles to get there – if indeed they are lucky enough to have a well at all. The well would have been more than a source of water – it was actually quite a social place to be, a place to meet, to exchange news, even gossip. The local well was like the village pump or the school gate. In fact the Old Testament even gives us several examples of marriages being set up around the village well.
So it probably wouldn’t have been too unusual for two strangers to strike up a conversation as they were waiting to draw water but what was unusual was for a Jew to speak to a Samaritan, what was unusual was for someone to turn up to the well without a bucket, what was unusual for the normal chit chat and gossip around the well to turn into a life-changing, profound experience. Imagine going out to tescos and coming back with a new life! You won’t see that on special offer! Why doesn’t that sort of thing happen to us?
Perhaps the point of the Gospel story is to convince us that it can and does happen. Jesus opens up a possibility for the woman that is already there – he is helping her to realise a potential she already has, a potential within each one of us to be thirsty and hungry for that which only God can offer. Lyndsey and Karolina who undergo the first scrutiny this Sunday are genuinely seeking that new life of baptism.
Trouble is, most of us, most of the time are too easily satisfied – we rarely, if ever experience true hunger or thirst, we take enough food and drink for granted, we’re spoilt for choice and we spend more effort on the avoidance of eating too much rather than finding enough. It all comes easily and we expect the same from our religion – but God doesn’t operate in a market economy.
If you do endurance sports, like long distance running or cycling – and I’ve been known to do both – you can’t take drinking enough for granted. The advice is; start drinking early and keep drinking. If you leave it until you feel thirsty, then it’s probably already too late! You can’t make up for what you haven’t already had. That’s probably good spiritual advice too. Don’t leave it until some crisis or dire need – we need to drink early and regularly from the wells of salvation; rather poetic language for saying: keep praying!
When faced with the man who offers her the water of eternal life, the woman at the well begins to ask deep and disturbing questions of him. Questions of faith and life and the nature of true worship – she has the courage to lay aside her pre-conceived ideas and the status quo which up ‘til now had kept her comfortable. Not only does Jesus begin to reveal who he is for her but he lets her know that he knows who she is for him. In spite of her colourful past – she is accepted as a disciple. When Jesus reveals his identity she even leaves down her water jar because suddenly she has a more important task – she hurries back to town to tell the others. She becomes an evangelist.
When we have the courage to encounter Jesus, to allow him to reveal who we are to ourselves, then we realise that we have a more important task. Not just more important than our trip to Sainsbury’s or Tescos – this is more important than anything else which preoccupies us. Our relationship with Christ is not one out of many easily satisfied appetites – we don’t become one more satisfied customer in the supermarket of religion – we enter into a relationship which can always be deepened and strengthened. Then the most important task becomes telling other people about how good this relationship is. We don’t seem to be terribly good at this – either because we remain unconvinced ourselves or because we want to guard the gift jealously – both positions are untenable for Christians, both need conversion.
The woman at the well initially, didn’t even know that she needed conversion, until that chance meeting with Jesus. When Jesus confronted her not just with his own identity, but with hers – she realised, and released the love and energy that was already in her – this woman on the margins becomes a disciple and evangelist because she was willing to take the risk of talking to the stranger at the village pump. More to the point, she was not just willing to talk, but to listen. What will it take for us this Lent, to leave down our water jar, our shopping basket, our unnecessary preoccupations and past baggage, and once again become a disciple? Those among us who are preparing for baptism and confirmation, in a sense, have their work cut out; the know what is expected of them and they long for the Easter Vigil in just under four week’s time. At that same vigil (or some other Easter mass) the rest of us will be invited to renew our own baptismal promises. If we are going to renew them and not simply repeat them, then we need to learn how to enjoy the water of life now and how to keep enjoying it.