Many years ago, my mother-in-law was active in the American Baptist Church Global Mission Board. This gave her opportunities to travel. At one point she was offered a chance to go to Burma, which we now know as Myanmar. She was so excited about it, and I couldn’t help wondering why. What on earth was in Burma that she cared about?
Well, actually, I should have known at the time. The reason she wanted to go there, or anywhere, was because there would be new encounters. Conversations to be had, people to meet, places to see, things to learn. This is the kind of person Claire is. Every stranger is a potential friend. How you approach the encounter makes all the difference.
Burma was a very unlikely place for Claire to travel, but a journey to an unlikely place can hold surprising gifts. This is the case in Jesus’ journey to Samaria.
Samaria was an unlikely place for him to be. The Jews and the Samaritans did not get along well. You know the parable of the Good Samaritan? Those who heard Jesus tell the parable did not, in any way, consider the Samaritans to be “good.” The notion of regarding a Samaritan as a neighbor was not a popular notion.
In verse 4 of this chapter, John writes, “He had to go through Samaria.” It was in between Judea, where he had been, and Galilee, where he was going. Actually, it was common for Jews to take long detours to avoid going through Samaria, but Jesus did not. He had to go through Samaria, John says, and I suppose he did. Because there was a conversation awaiting him there.
Whether or not he knew he would encounter a woman at the well, I think Jesus went to Samaria with the intention of having a conversation.
His disciples went off in search of provisions, leaving Jesus to wait by a well, a place they, no doubt, considered safe. It was unlikely that anyone would be at the well then. High noon in the desert. Most women would go in the early morning and the evening, when the heat of the sun was not beating down on them. You would be unusually brave or foolish to venture out at midday.
But, against the odds, this woman came to the well at noon to draw water.
Many have suggested that this particular woman is there at noon because of who she is. She is a five-time divorcee, apparently. This would mean that she has been discarded by five husbands. Five different men have married her and then, for their own reasons, announced, “I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you.” It was not possible for a woman to divorce a man, but it was that simple for a man to divorce a woman.
One would think that she carried this as a burden of shame. One might assume that she managed her days so that she could avoid the other women of the village because she knew they talked about her, looked down upon her, and probably distrusted her.
But she doesn’t act like a disgraced woman. She doesn’t shuffle around, bent over, head low in shame. She behaves as a woman who is at home in her skin.
Maybe it is Jesus who has this effect on her. She doesn’t appear to be afraid of him. She recognizes him as a Jew. And she knows all the prohibitions that warn her against interacting with this man. Even so, she asks him a question: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”
And this one question contains so many:
How is it that you, a man, are speaking to me, a strange woman?
How is it that you, a Jew, are speaking to me, a Samaritan?
How is it that you, a religiously observant son of Israel, are speaking to me, one who is considered by your people to be unclean?
What are you doing here in Samaria? What are you doing at my well?
Just asking. Maybe it’s rude, but she’s just wondering.
Jesus isn’t bothered by her blunt question. It is almost like he was waiting for it.
So he says: Let’s talk about the water that I could give to you. The living water.
And they’re off.
She is a worthy conversation partner for Jesus. She doesn’t back down. She responds to every strange thing he says – at first not understanding him, but staying with him nonetheless. Perhaps one of the best things that can be said about her is this: She is not afraid of what she doesn’t understand, but is willing and able to continue the conversation through the ambiguity.
The Samaritan woman did not come to the well looking for Jesus. She had no idea he would be there. But finding him there she was fully present with him. In the bright midday light, they speak and listen to each other in truth. She has questions: Why do you ask me for water? How would you possibly get this water you are referring to? How can I get this living water that will forever satisfy my thirst? Wait –
Why do you mention my husband? What is that to you?
How do you know me, Jesus? How do you know me?
Jesus has never met this woman before, but he does know her. And he doesn’t shame her or look down on her.
One thing you notice in this story is that both Jesus and this woman have the traveler’s mindset; they are open to seeing things in a way they haven’t before; they are open to learning something new. They are having a real, authentic, and meaningful conversation.
When you have a conversation, there are two sides to it. That is what a conversation is, after all. Each one shares with the other. And you never know, when you enter into a conversation, whether Jesus might be a part of it too.
The prophet Mohammed said, “Don’t tell me how educated you are. Tell me how much you have traveled.” I would modify this to say, “tell me how much you have lived in the world with a traveler’s mindset.”
My mother-in-law, Claire did not get to travel to Burma, because the political situation became too volatile and dangerous; the trip was cancelled. She was deeply disappointed. But she did have other adventures. She traveled to Russia during the Cold War. She traveled to Nicaragua during the revolution. And she had extraordinary, life-changing encounters. But it is also possible to have extraordinary encounters without leaving home, because there are people all around us who have come from all over the world and have lived through extraordinary things.
An encounter with someone different is an invitation to deepen our compassion, to make meaning, to broaden our perspective and our spirit. And it is an opportunity to give the gift of God’s love.
May you open your heart to the encounter, and may you encounter Jesus.
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Photo by Vincent Eisfeld on Unsplash
