A college professor tells the story of having a student in his class who had fought against his condition of having cerebral palsy all his life.  The student was able to walk, but with great difficulty and his arms and legs would jerk in all directions with out of control motor impulses as he made his way through the campus.  He got many stares wherever he went.  Even though he was quite intelligent and capable, his speech was slurred, slow and agonizing, demanding great concentration on the part of any listener to understand.  Those who took the time to know him were inspired by his courage and grit, but often, he was very isolated and alone.   One day, he stayed after class and approached his professor.  He was struggling with a problem and had worked up the courage to talk to his professor and asked that he pray for him.  In the course of the prayer, the professor said something like this:  “Oh God, please help this man as he wrestles with his problem.”  When the professor opened his eyes, his student was quietly weeping.  The professor was concerned, and asked what was wrong.  He stammered this reply…”You called me a man - no one has ever called me a man before.”

Today we once again read and study the story of  THE SAMARITAN WOMAN. A woman who knows the sting of being ostracized.  Like  that young man, she carries a deep reality of UNGRACE in her heart and mind every single day.   Jews looked down on Samaritans for intermarrying and thus destroying the purity of their Jewish heritage.  Samaritans lived on the fringes, as second class citizens, not unlike the poor, homeless, ethnic immigrants in our world today that also try to carve out a safe community in which to live within their traditions.   And this woman also knew the cruelty of sexism.  A woman in her day had legitimacy and protection ONLY if she married an honorable man from a good family.  This woman has been connected to five men.  Five different husbands, five different rejections and her current man won’t give her his name…only a place to sleep.  She knows the bitter shame of being worthless property, despised and thrown out.  She is a woman living in futility and destined to end in futility, unless….unless someone cared enough to intervene; to love her; and restore her to a sense of self-respect and belonging to her community again.

One of the reasons this story of the Samaritan woman is so powerful is that Jesus literally starts his ministry here…in Samaria, a place that SYMBOLIZES the REAL WORLD. This despised and rejected woman literally becomes the full embodiment of what a true disciple will look like…an evangelist that is so loved by Jesus that she is transformed into the very first evangelist!   Jesus, who had just had his encounter with Nicodemus, a pillar of the Jewish faith…who goes away confused by this Jesus who talks of his being born again, NOW walks right into what the religious Jews considered the “pig sty” of the world…and to the least of these…a Samaritan Woman…to proclaim that the KINGDOM OF GOD is HERE… “For God so loved the WORLD..”  The world…

The world that is thirsty…the world that is hurting and marginalized, the world that truly needs a Savior….here is where the kingdom of God comes near and offers living water.

“I know,” says Jesus…”I know all about the five men you have lived with.”  Her cob-webbed door of sin and shame had been blown open wide….and yet, Jesus’ eyes didn’t reveal the mockery and rejection she knew so well.  There was no criticism…no “look” of “what a mess you have made of your life” lecture.  It wasn’t perfectionism that Jesus was seeking, just honesty.  The woman was amazed!  This man must be a prophet…he must know God!

And so she asks another question that reveals the hungry state of her soul.  “Where is God?  Your people say he is in Jerusalem…my people say he is here on this mountain….I don’t know where God is, do you?

Jesus’ eyes must have watered with tears of tender joy as he looked upon this lonely, thirsty woman…searching for God….searching for hope and real life.  And so, he told this woman a precious secret he had yet to reveal to anyone…even his on disciples.  In the hot sun, in a rejected land and to an ostracized woman, Jesus’ eyes must have danced as he whispered his secret:  “I am the Messiah!  I am He!  I have come to change everything.  No longer will you be bound by human judgments and rules, for in the Kingdom of God, God’s children worship in truth and spirit!  I am the one who has come to give you the water of GRACE…Water which springs up to eternal life, and can never be taken away by futility or shame.”

And then a remarkable thing happens…She drops her water jar and leaves it behind to run back into the very community that has rejected her, with so much love and truth in her heart that it cannot be contained.  It must be shared.  She has the joy of the Lord…she no longer needs the water at the well…and all the enslavement that her water jug represents.   “Come and See!  Come and See this wonderful prophet who know everything about me, and yet, he loves ME…just as I am…He loves me anyway!  Can he be the Messiah?”

And so they come…by the hundreds and thousands.  Caught up in the transformation and testimony of this one they had despised and rejected before. They listened and hungrily entreated Jesus to stay among them, and he did, for two days.  The Kingdom of God was thrown open to the Samaritans…the outcasts, those struggling with lives filled with futility.  And it was the beginning of God’s transforming love that could never be stopped and never will.

As we reflect his morning on this wonderful story, I am drawn to the water jug that was left behind at the well.  What’s its significance?  Why is it discarded and forgotten?  Will she come back for it another day when she literally needs water to drink?  

Perhaps John, the gospel writer, wants us to reflect on what futility we carry around in our own lives, and that we may keep hidden by coming in the heat of the day when no one is around to wrestle with.  Could it be Worry?  I know that when I get anxious and begin to worry, I find myself withdrawing and anticipating all the worst care scenarios.  I’d love to leave that water jug at a well and be free of it.  Or maybe it's a jug of resentment and anger that never resolves?  When I carry that jug on my shoulders it’s a burden that weighs so heavy.  Maybe it’s grief and regret.  Regrets we just keep dipping into the well of our disappointment to fill over and over again.  

Whatever our water jug may symbolize…take heart, for Jesus offers to us, just as he did that woman, LIVING WATER…relief, hope, newness and joy that doesn’t need to be carried around in a jug…just our hearts.

“I tell you,” says Jesus, “Look around you and see that the fields are ripe for harvesting!”  EVERYONE is carrying a burden…but…the living water of Christ IS for everyone..the Kingdom of God changes everything.  You can leave your futilities buried in earthen water jars and Come and See for yourself.  Meet the one who knows all our woes and sins…and yet…Loves us anyway!  Could this be the one you are thirsty for as well?

John’s final words in this story are powerful:  They (the community) said to the woman (they are speaking to her now!)  “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for WE HAVE HEARD IT FOR OURSELVES AND WE KNOW THAT THIS IS TRULY THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD.”     AMEN.