Today is International Women’s Day, and I love that our lectionary reading for today is about an extraordinary woman from the Bible, known simply as the “Woman at the Well.”
Throughout the gospels, Jesus has conversations with many people, but his longest conversation is with the Samaritan woman at the well. I think this is incredibly significant, and it makes me quite emotional when I think about it.
As we’ve discussed before, women in Jesus’s day were considered inferior. They were the property of men.
And, if you remember from when we discussed the “Parable of the Good Samaritan” a few months ago, Samaritans were also considered inferior.
They were considered “unclean,” and good Jewish people were supposed to avoid any interactions with Samaritans. In fact, Jews were expected to travel around Samaria, but never through it.
So, this Samaritan woman at the well has two strikes against her…she’s a woman and she’s a Samaritian. And, we also learn that she has been married 5 times, and is currently living with a man who is not her husband. Quite scandalous in the time of Jesus!
In Jesus’s day, women couldn’t divorce their husbands. Only husbands could divorce their wives. So, this Samaritan woman at the well has been rejected five times.
And, although it doesn’t say so in today’s story, I think this woman has probably been rejected by her own townspeople.
Most of the town’s women would get water from the well early in the morning before it got too hot. Today’s gospel story tells us that this woman is getting water at the well at noon, the hottest time of day when no one else would be around.
So, Jesus’s longest conversation with anyone in the entire Bible is with someone who was rejected because of her gender, her ethnicity, her religion, and her status.
It is why she is so shocked that Jesus would even be talking to her in the first place.
And, what does Jesus say to her? Does he scold her, judge her, call her a sinner, tell her she’s broken and unworthy? No. He does just the opposite: he tells her her worth.
And in doing so, he frees her from the limitations imposed upon her by society and religion.
She is spiritually thirsty because she’s been told she is so far removed from God. But Jesus tells her about this incredible “gift from God,” this living water that dwells within her.
And of all the people in entire Bible, this woman is the very first to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah. Someone rejected because of her gender, her ethnicity, her religion and her status is the very first to recognize the divinity of Jesus.
That’s why I love this story so much, whether it actually happened or not. As we heard in our “Words of Integration & Guidance” this morning, Bishop John Shelby Spong wrote that characters in the Gospel of John are literary creations of its author.
Bishop Spong passed away last in 2021 at the age of 90, and he devoted his life to studying the Scripture. In fact, he is considered one of the greatest Biblical scholars of our time.
In one of his last books, he wrote: “The characters who appear in the pages of this book were never intended to be understood as real people who actually lived in history.”
The Gospel of John is not historical but is full of symbolism. In fact, the author or authors of John’s Gospel often seem to mock those who take things so literally.
For example, in last Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again, and Nicodemus replies, “How can I go back in my mother’s womb?” and in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the woman at the well that he will give her living water, to which she replies, “Man, you don’t even have a bucket!”
These stories were not intended to be understood literally, but symbolically.
And, even though they may or may not have happened, they reveal Truth.
So, what is the symbolism and the Truth that is revealed in today’s Gospel story of the Woman at the Well?
Well, on the surface, it seems like this story is about literal water and literal thirst, but Jesus, of course, is speaking about spiritual water and spiritual thirst.
Jesus is talking about thirsting for God. Everyone who drinks of literal water will be thirsty again, but everyone who drinks of spiritual water will never be thirsty.
And, where is this spiritual water, this living water of which Jesus speaks? Well, Jesus says it is within us. He says in today’s gospel reading that there is an eternal spring of water gushing within you.
Most of us are trying quench our thirst with literal things outside of us: money, success, material things. But, even when we get those things, our thirst still isn’t quenched.
Jesus is saying: Seek inner things – that internal and eternal living water within you – and you will thirst no more.
And, this gift is given to everyone…regardless of their gender, ethnicity, status or religion.
Yes, you don’t have to be a certain religion to drink of this living water.
Jesus tells the woman at the well that she doesn’t have to worship God at the temple. He says, “God is Spirit” and true worshippers worship God in Spirit.
To “worship God in Spirit” means to drink each day from that living water, that eternal spring that is within us.
Now, today is the 3rd Sunday in Lent, and the word “Lent” comes from an Anglo-Saxon word which means “Spring.”
When most of us heard the word “Spring,” we think of the Season of Spring, but today’s Gospel story also causes us to think of that internal spring, that fountain of living water within us.
The Season of Lent is a time for us to “go to the well” each and every day. To spend time alone with God, going deep within the well to access that living water, that Spirit of God.
The purpose of Lent is to give up those things that are no longer satisfying your thirst and your hunger. It’s a time for you, instead, to drink each day of this living water and feed on this daily bread.
Jesus says to the woman at the well, “If you only knew this gift of God within you.”
Most of us don’t. This Good News seems too good to be true. We think, “How can the Spirit of God be within me? I thought it was only in Jesus.”
Well, as Bishop Spong reminds us in our “Words of Integration & Guidance” today, a paradigm shift must take place where “Christianity is not about the divine becoming human, as much as the about the human becoming divine.”
That’s why we gather here each Sunday…not just to recognize the divinity of Jesus, but to recognize our own Oneness with God.
Jesus showed the woman at the well the gift of God that was already within her…and he came to show you the same thing.
So, this season of Lent, my friends, I invite you to spend time alone at the well each day. Go deep within. Drink from that living water. Be still and know that you and God are One.
Here are three follow-up questions for reflection and/or journal writing:
-
The Samaritan woman was rejected because of her gender, ethnicity, religion, and personal history—yet Jesus chose her for his longest recorded conversation and as the first to proclaim him as Messiah.
Where in your life have you felt rejected or “not enough,” and how might this story invite you to see your worth differently? -
Jesus speaks of “living water” as something already within us, yet we often try to quench our thirst with external things like success, approval, or material comfort.
What external sources are you relying on to satisfy your spiritual thirst, and what might it look like to turn inward instead during this season of Lent? -
If, as Bishop Spong suggests, Christianity is about the human becoming divine—about recognizing our Oneness with God—
How would your daily life change if you truly believed that the Spirit of God dwells within you? What practices could help you “go to the well” each day?