Lenten Stories: Sit With Me (John 4:1-10)

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We are walking the path of Lent: with Jesus toward the cross and toward the resurrection. We're focussing on a number of events that happened over the course of Jesus’ life of ministry. In particular, how these stories would have impacted the Twelve Apostles, because it's in their shoes that we walk with Jesus towards His cross. And it's in their footsteps that we—the Church—walk beyond Jesus’ death and resurrection.  

The story of Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well is well known. Early in His ministry He was on the road, travelling from Judea in the south of Israel to Galilee in the north—a journey of  several days. To get there, the text says interestingly that Jesus “...had to pass through Samaria.” But Jesus did not “have to” cross through Samaria. In fact, the rift between Jews and Samaritans was so deep that most Rabbis would have added the extra 100 km or so to their trip, taking the long way around and avoiding Samaria altogether. 

When Jesus’ crew arrived at Sychar, He was tired. They had no food, so the disciples left Him on His own by the well to rest, and they went into town to buy lunch. The woman arrived at the well, and saw this guy sitting there. She drew her water. And the man spoke to her:

Give me a drink.

Her response demonstrates the depth of the rift between the two peoples. She doesn’t just say ‘no,’ she starts an argument. “You are a Jew! How can you ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” How can you even do that? How can you—a Jew—ask me—a Samaritan—for water to drink? The next parenthetical phrase is translated different ways in different versions. Some of them say ‘Jews do not associate with Samaritans.’ Others say ‘Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.’ Others say ‘Jews do not share vessels with Samaritans.’ The underlying idea is that Jews would not eat off the same plate that a Samaritan had eaten from. Jews would not share a meal with Samaritans. Jews would not sit down at a table with Samaritans because sharing a meal implies a relationship that just did not exist. 

The division between the two groups centred on where and how to worship Yahweh God. The two had fought and wrangled for centuries over that question, even actively opposing and taking steps to undermine each other. The antagonism had deepened and calcified over the centuries.  

In Jewish eyes,  Samaritans were not godly people. Jews would not share a meal with Samaritans, or drink from a bucket of water raised from a well by a Samaritan, because that sharing would cross the line of division that, in their concern for faithfulness to Yahweh God, had to stand.  

When the woman comes to the well, Jesus knows all that. He knows who she is. And He ignores the rift. He just sees her. He knows who she is. He knows who she is looking for. And He tells her, “I’m here.” 

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With perfect timing, just at the moment when Jesus is revealing to her His identity, the Apostles arrive. The text says:

They were amazed to see him talking with a woman.

We've looked at the relationship between Jews and Samaritans. Let’s look at the relationship between Rabbis and women, because Rabbis didn't generally have a lot of time for women—not because they all thought women were evil, or that girls have cooties so stay away! 

Rather, there are some instructive quotes in the ancient Jewish teachings called Mishna that help us understand this dynamic. 

One says, “Jose ben Yochanan of Jerusalem used to say, engage not in too much conversation with women...” Why? “...for as long as a man engages in conversation with women, he neglects the study of Torah (God’s instruction)” (Pirkei avot 1:5). 

Women weren't evil, they just weren’t as interesting as, or relevant to, the study of God’s Law. They weren’t under the same obligation as men to understand the Law. So they didn’t have the same motivation (or the same excuse) to spend their time in study. Also, women weren't a good investment of a Rabbi’s time because women couldn't become Rabbis.   

So... The disciples come back from the city having bought their food. And here is Jesus... 

• Here is Jesus sitting in hostile territory.  
• Here is Jesus loving His enemy. 
• Here is Jesus asking kindness from, and offering kindness to, someone He could have just ignored until she went away. 
• Here is Jesus investing time in someone who didn't look like a good return on that investment.  
• Here is Jesus drinking water from a Samaritan’s cup. 

Yeah, they were amazed. 

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What impact did this have on the Twelve? How were they shaped and changed by this encounter, and what did they need to learn? To unlearn?  

I would suggest that in this event, they began to unlearn who's in and who's out. 

And they started to learn how to live in Jesus' world. 

Fast forward to the years after Jesus’ death, after His resurrection, after His return to heaven. Then came the day of Pentecost when the Spirit arrived in power and filled all of the believers, sending them to preach the good news of Jesus, ‘to Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’  

Beginning in Jerusalem, in the Spirit’s power, the Church exploded. Thousands of Jewish people recognized Jesus as the Messiah. Thousands of Jewish people were baptized into the Church. The people of the Church in Jerusalem “devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and to fellowship, and to the breaking of bread and to prayer... With one accord they continued to meet daily in the temple courts and to break bread from house to house, sharing their meals with gladness and sincerity of heart” (Acts 4:42, 44, 46) which was wonderful in Jerusalem. It was fantastic in Judea.  

But it got really, really complicated in Samaria and the ends of the earth. 

Simon Peter, true to form, was first among the Apostles to come up against this tension over how the Church worshipped together in homes, over meals. He was the first one to be confronted in real life with this challenge, and because of it, he got called up on the carpet by the other Apostles. They're all, like, “Peter! My office! Now! Listen. We heard that you visited Gentiles. We heard that you ate with Gentiles” (Acts 11). 

Peter's like, “OK, yes, but guys... Here’s what happened. It's going to blow your mind. One day I was praying, and I saw a vision. Jesus spoke to me. And He told me to eat things that are not kosher. And I'm like, ‘OK, no, Lord, I've never done that. I'm not. I can't.’ But Jesus told me, “Do not call impure anything that God has made pure.””  

And Peter says, “Just as my vision ended, I heard knocking on the door. And there were these guys. They were all Romans—servants. They didn't know me. I didn't know them, but they had been sent by their boss--this centurion named Cornelius--a military commander for the Romans. The oppressors. The invaders. They said that Cornelius had sent them to this address, to ask for me by name. Because Cornelius said that he had a vision where God told him that I had a message for him.” And Peter's like, “I hadn't even finished shaking my head when I felt the Spirit inside me say, ‘No judging. No hesitation. Go.’  

“So I went. I went to Cornelius's house. I went to the home of this Roman soldier and when I heard about his vision and I remembered mine,” Peter says:

I now truly understand that God welcomes people from every nation. He sent this message to the people of Israel, proclaiming the gospel of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

Peter says, “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as He had fallen on us at the beginning."

Then... this. “Who was I to hinder the work of God?

“So yeah, I had dinner at the Gentile's house.” 

Suddenly the Church exploded beyond Jerusalem, and there were Churches meeting in the homes of Gentiles. There were people sharing meals in the homes of Gentiles. Jewish and Samaritan and Roman and Greek brothers and sisters in Christ sitting at a table sharing dishes in common.  

As the centrepiece of that meal, they shared the plate of bread and the cup of wine of remembrance of Jesus’ death and resurrection and of His promised return. And it was amazing. It was unprecedented. It was beautiful. 

But it was hard. 

It was hard because the Apostles had to keep pushing back against divisions that wanted to creep in. In Acts chapter 15, there's another big summit meeting among the Apostles where they're discussing this kind of issue again. James stands up and says, “Brothers, listen to me. Peter has told us has told us how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people to be His own. This is consistent with what the prophet Amos said so long ago when he prophesied about all the "...Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord."”

Paul, writing later to the Church in Galatia, again references (in Galatians chapter 2) Peter's experience with the Roman centurion and the doors that opened. Then in chapter three he writes words that many of us will have memorized.

All of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. And there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:27-28)  

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When the Twelve found Rabbi Jesus sitting at the well drinking water from the cup of a Samaritan woman, they found Jesus chipping the first cracks in a dam that, when it burst, flooded the world.

And the Apostles had to learn to swim. 

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