3rd Sunday of Lent

Gospel – John 4:5-42

Thirsty!

Baptism Site, Jordan River

A couple years ago, Ginger and I went to visit my sister Mary who lives near Ocean City, MD, on the Eastern Shore.  There is literally only one way to drive to her home and that involves crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge!  I admit it – I am not fond of ‘bridges over troubled waters.”  But this one is a doozy!!  The Bay Bridge is over 4 miles long, technically 2 separate spans, each with 2 lanes and reaching a height of 185 feet.  During the summer season, the backup can reach for miles and often, in high winds or bad weather, it can be shut down completely.  Add in all the semi-trailer traffic and you get the picture!  I am not a fan!  Ginger prefers to just close her eyes and “tell me when it’s over,”

Of course, the bridge is not a destination in and of itself; it is merely part of the journey, literally bridging the gap between 2 locations!  It marks a crossing over water from one town to another.  Those 2 images – of water and of bridging the gap – play a key role in today’s Gospel!

Jesus comes to a town in Samaria looking for water to quench His thirst!  Water is a very familiar theme to the Jews – of passing through it to a new destination, a rite of passage from one life to another.  We see it in the Great Flood, passing from a world of sin to a world fresh and new.  In the Red Sea, for the Hebrews passing from slavery to freedom.  In the Jordan River, passing from the desert into the Promised Land.  And even with John the Baptist, passing from sin to repentance. And certainly, in our own Baptism, passing from original sin to becoming a child of God.  

When Jesus meets the woman at the well, He has every reason to have nothing to do with her. She is a woman and Jews would never associate or talk to a woman in public. She is there to draw water in the heat of the day – which is a way of saying – the villagers want nothing to do with her – she is being ostracized!  She is a Samaritan, a fallen-away Jew, and Jews would have nothing at all to do with Samaritans. And yet He did! He broke through society's barriers about whom to talk to and whom to avoid and He engaged her in conversation.  He bridged that gap!  He crossed society’s boundaries of judgment over gender, and culture and religion.  He saw through her exterior and saw within what she truly was - a child of God. And the woman, through the eyes of faith, responded!  She saw Jesus for who He truly is - the Messiah, the Son of God. And she changed!  She believed!

 For the Samaritan woman at the well, her encounter with Jesus was certainly transformative, even life-changing!

Jesus comes to that well THIRSTY!  But by the end of the story, it is the Samaritan woman who realizes that she is the one who was thirsty, that she was the one whose thirst was quenched, whose life was forever changed by Jesus’ presence in her life.  She is transformed!!   She not only heard the Word of God, she not only tasted the living water, but she became a disciple!  She began to spread the Word to all of the people in her village.  All it took was a bit of courage and faith to bridge that gap.

How often do we allow today's society to tell us whom to talk to and whom to avoid? How often do we judge people just by what we see: their gender, their clothing, their culture? What will it take for us to see everyone with the eyes of faith, to see everyone as a brother or sister, a child of God?

And maybe, in the simplest of terms, that is our challenge today.  Are we still THIRSTY?  Do we still thirst for His healing touch?  Do we still thirst for His love and forgiveness?  Do we still thirst to share His message with others?  Do we still thirst for His Word, like the woman at the well?