Water (a tale of redemption)

a reflection on Jesus' approach to people

Samaritan Woman at the Well, by He Qi, China

A conversation between two women in a village in Samaria... 

Woman: Hey, listen! listen!

Villager: Just leave us all alone, you always have so much to say and nothing worth listening to.

Woman: Honest, I’ve had this amazing encounter! I’ve been talking to this man at the well...

Villager: Talking to a man? well, I never... Do I hear the sound of wedding bells - number six, eh?? Does Reuben know?

Woman: No no! - this man’s a Jew.

Villager: It gets worse! He must be desperate, chatting up a Samaritan woman!

Woman: No, he wasn’t like that - he’s a prophet. He’s never been to the village before yet he knew all about my past!

Villager: And that’s good, is it??!

Woman: That’s the trouble with you lot. You all use the truth about me to condemn me. With him the truth has made me feel free! It’s like the truth of who he is has flooded through me and my past has been washed away. I never knew truth could be so good!

Villager: Well, I must admit you do seem happier than you’ve been for a long time - since you were a kid, even - more relaxed, like you’ve taken a big swig of some magic healing potion.

Woman: Funny you should say that! One minute this man and I were talking about water in the well - you know, how the dry weather’s affected its level, the usual sort of chat - and the next moment he was telling me about water that if I had I would never need to drink again.

Villager: Useful!

Woman: That’s what I thought. But he’s deep - he wasn’t talking about water-water at all. He was talking about water from God - you know, like from Isaiah, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters...”. I never knew what that meant before. But the way he looked at me, I knew - and this is going to sound weird - that somehow he is the source of this living water. You’re right, I have drunk something!

Villager: So why were you the chosen one to meet him? Oh yes, because you have to go to the well in the heat of the day because everyone ostracises you.

Woman: But that’s just it, he shouldn’t have been there either, a Jew in Samaria. I’ve always known that’s a stupid rule - and he knew it too and was quite happy to break it. He’s like me, he breaks rules too. But I break the rules when it’s good for me - he broke the rules because he cared about me. It was like he was there just so that he could meet me - how could that happen?!

Villager: Clearly a really good man. And I suppose you just left him there, didn’t offer him any hospitality??

Woman: A group of his friends turned up and started to give him a hard time for talking to me. I wasn’t going to hang around!

Villager: Well, I’ll get some others and go and find him. He sounds too interesting to miss. Let’s see how far he’ll push his rule-breaking and see if he will actually stay in Samaria for a bit...

Later...

Villager: And this man, who I learned was called Jesus, did stay a couple of nights, though his friends were all pretty grumpy about it. How can one person change the whole way life is, change people in our village, change our community? But he has. It’s like the water from the well has overflowed down into the village and we’re refreshed, renewed. And all through our friend here, of all people - the most unlikely of encounters...
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That evening...
Peter speaking to his brother Andrew...

Andrew, Jesus is making me mad! We’ve got to stop him before he truly goes off the rails.
Being an impetuous type myself, I’ve really appreciated his calm, peaceful manner ever since I met him. He feels grounded, safe - like you can really trust him. And then he just gets these mad-crack ideas - OK, so we had to go through Samaria this time but not dilly-dally over it. And then talking with a Samaritan woman, on his own - what is he thinking!

He worries me, Andrew. He just doesn’t care what people think. The only thing he seems to cares about is other people. And it doesn’t seem to matter who those people are, for goodness sake!

I have a theory, and it worries me if I’m right. Remember when Jesus got, quote, ‘baptised’. And this thing like a bird came down on him, and afterwards he said it was the Holy Spirit. Well, I’ve been watching him, and there’s something so - how can I put it - guided about him. It’s like he just follows some internal guidance as to what to do and where to go and what to say. (I reckon all that early-morning praying he does has something to do with it too.) He goes off on completely unpredictable tangents, does bizarre things, and says really open things to people - sometimes really challenging things - whilst obviously caring for them, and you think ‘where did that come from??’. But the maddening thing is, he’s always right! That woman, that village - they’re transformed, they love him!

Thanks again for introducing me to him, by the way! It’s quite a ride with Jesus, alright. He’s no tame, domestic rabbi, this one - he’s got a wild streak! But boy, he’s good to be with!... 

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Alphaeus adds:
for the authorised version of this story, see John’s Gospel chapter 4.