WHERE JESUS SHOWS UP

 MARCH 8, 2023

Do you remember the Bible reading from Yesterday

from John 4:7– 15? 

“. . . 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 livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”


She came seeking water, not Jesus.

Whether she had heard of his ministry we are not told. Only that she knew the promises of Israel’s Scripture, and that these words were heard in the context of the centuries-old conflict between communities, who were at odds with one another over interpretations of the law and customs.

Could this be the place where Jesus shows up? 

It is in the places where we are most divided that God intrudes into our world. Among those who we should call our community. We are like the woman, after centuries of hearing the promises of God, sometimes forgetting whom we are seeking as we fulfill our tasks. Yet, her enthusiastic introduction to Jesus changed an entire city.

I am reminded of the end of the Gospel of John. There too we hear of the witness of a woman who came with watered eyes, seeking Jesus. And her testimony to the Risen Lord confronts the betrayer, the doubter, the confused, and those who thirst for righteousness even today.

LET US PRAY

Resurrected Lord, intrude into our everyday moments in such a life-changing way that we might become those who speak of your yet-fulfilled promises with the confidence that reconciles communities. Amen.