LOST AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WELL
John 4:4-14 (NIV)
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
This woman had lost something at the bottom of that well. Or, perhaps, it would be better to say, she had lost something, and she thought she might find it at the bottom of that well.
That’s why she brought her water jar. She brought it every day at this time. It was an odd time to come to the well. The other women in the village came every day, too, but they came in the morning, in the cool of the day. By now it was noon.
It was an avoidance tactic, really. The other women judged her. They shunned her. And what little she had left of herself they seemed to want to take away. It was safer at noon, even if it was hot.
You see what you have here. You have a woman who is hiding in broad daylight. She is protecting herself as well as she can. Her world is admittedly very small, but it’s her world. And it is a very dangerous world, but it is the only world in which she can ever hope to dwell. And, because of its hazards, all of her energy is expended in surviving in it.
At the same time, there is this thirst. This woman’s life is dried up, parched. She is enduring a drought of the soul. And so, she comes to the well. She cannot see that what she seeks she will not find in that well.
We would do well not to ridicule her. We do it too. We try to fill up the inner emptiness with outer solutions. No amount of water will ever satisfy the thirst we have, but we show up with our water jars all the same.
Today, however, this woman will meet a stranger, a man whom she has never seen before. And he will not be like any man she has ever known before. Other men have abused her. He will not do that, but he will disabuse her...of her illusions. Others have stripped her of her dignity. He will not, but he will strip away all her self-deception. What she has lost, she will come to learn, is not at the bottom of the well; there is nothing there that can bring lasting satisfaction. What she has lost is actually at the bottom of her heart.
Now, I must tell you, to see this -- to recognize this -- requires a major shift in perception, a shift that is extremely difficult for most of us. It means letting go of what we think secures us in order to find what truly secures us. It means to abandon the outer solutions to fill the inner void. It means to expose yourself to the hazards of your world without your customary defenses.
Before meeting this stranger, this woman’s fabricated defenses were intact. She saw her security at the bottom of the well. When the stranger, whom we know to be Jesus -- when he told her that he could give her “living water,” do you see what she did? She countered by saying, “Sir..., you having nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well...?” You see, at this point she’s holding on. She isn’t even aware that there is anything more to life than day-to-day existence. And she’s not about to let go of what she has even for the promise of something better.
To let go requires a change of mind. It’s not unlike jumping from a burning building. I have to decide that “down there” is safer than “up here” even if getting “down there” involves a risk. That’s what the Scriptures call repentance. It means seeing the wells in our lives for what they are -- a source of certain physical necessities, in this case, water, yes; but a source of spiritual satisfaction, no. Jesus says, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again....”
If I may return to the picture of the burning building, It’s a sure thing that I won’t jump if I don’t know the thing is on fire. And neither will the woman. We will not give up the structures of our existence -- not on your life -- so long as we think that they will protect and secure us. And neither will the woman. Something drastic has to happen. So, in the woman’s case, Jesus makes it happen. He prompts her. And he does it by revealing to her her what he knows about her life. It is a sore spot with her. She has many failures and inconsistencies in her life. It is because of this that her neighbors reject her. And it is because of their rejection that she comes to the well at noon. The other women of the village will not be there at that time. It is a defense. It is an act of self-protection. It is a means of survival.
But Jesus doesn’t reject her. He knows all there is to know about her -- even the worst -- and he does not reject her. In fact, what others will not do. He speaks to her; he listens to her. He engages her and takes her seriously. And in so doing, he ascribes value to her. He even breaks the rules to do it. Did you notice that? Look at verse 9. It says, “Jews do not associate with Samaritans.” Besides that, he’s a man, and she’s a woman. And in their world, men do not speak to women in public. “You are a Jew,” she says to him, “and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” How can you speak to me? That’s what she’s saying. Jesus bends all the categories. He crosses both racial and gender boundaries to reach this woman.
And look what it does. It unravels all her defenses. She is seen for what she is, and she is totally accepted. This is another impasse for so many people. We hide behind our defenses because we’re sure that no one can possibly accept us if they really know us. And this, in our minds, is especially true of God.
But then, God does know us -- right? And if we can ever make the shift by which we come to believe that, not only does God know us but that God also accepts us... Why, look what happens.
You see it in the woman. Look at verse 28. In some ways, it’s the most important verse in this whole passage. What does it say? It says, “Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and [spoke] to the people....”
Do you see the revolutionary shift that has taken place in this woman? She leaves the water jar. She abandons the object that symbolizes her futile search for fulfillment. She has discovered that what she has lost she is not going to be able to fish out of the well with the jar. Because what she has lost is not there. It’s not at the bottom of the well. It’s in her. It’s in her own heart. And Jesus has shifted her perception so that she can see that. She no longer looks the well as the fount of life; she now looks to Christ.
And this frees her from the other major illusion in her life -- that she has to hide. He whole life has been patterned on avoidance of the judgments of others. She has always waited until noon to come to the well -- until the coast was clear, until she would have to face any of her adversaries. If she could avoid them, she could avoid pain.
But now look. What does she do? She goes back to the town, where the people are, and she summons them to come out of their houses. And right there -- in the full light of the day -- she presents herself to them. What freedom is that? That we no longer have to fear the judgments of others because we have been accepted by God.
This woman becomes a believer, and, according to verse 41, so do “many more,” that is “many” of the people in that village. You can see already -- without too much more information than that -- that a community of faith is forming. And what will characterize that new band of believers? Many things, no doubt. But above all else, what will characterize their common life is that they will be safe with each other. No one will have to hide -- ever again -- and people will not shun one another or set themselves above or against one another.
The people of the village will go through their own shift of perspective. As they gather around with Christ in the middle of their gathering -- as he becomes the center point of their new circle -- they will look across and see each other. And they will see each other with love. And while they will still make daily trips to Jacob’s well for water -- the unnamed woman going with all the other women from now on -- their true source of life will be the water they receive from Christ. “Indeed,” as Jesus says, “the water I give...will become...a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
To that well may we all come. And in its depths may we all find life.
