The Woman at the Well.

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 (Jn.4:10).

Jesus, "tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well."  We don't usually think of Jesus being tired.  But every now and again, we see glimpses---he is sleeping in the boat; he tells his disciples he has "nowhere to lay his head;" and now we see him resting at the noon hour.  He is homeless for a reason---so many people are also without a home and have nowhere to lay their heads, spiritually.  He thirsts because they are thirsty. 

The woman who comes at noon to fetch water for her household is alone.  The respectable women of the village do not want to be seen talking to the slut; the men cannot afford to speak to her.  She is with a man who is not her husband, but she does not have friends with whom to laugh, relax, be herself.  She knows that God has rejected her, by the laws she has been taught.  In her isolation, she too is thirsty for human companionship, for recognition of her worth, for community.  She needs to be able to extend a hand to those in need without being rebuffed, and she needs neighbors who will knock on her door once in awhile.  She is as tired from her journey as is Jesus from his.

In His weakness and need, He opens a door to all that she needs and wants, even though she is guarded at first---why are you speaking with me?  "Give me a drink," He asks.  He, the Living Water, thirsts for what she can give Him; she thirsts for what only God can give her---a restoration of her life.  In his need, He opens the door for what she needs. 

It is strange that in all of Galilee and in Jerusalem, this woman should be the first to suspect that she is talking with the Messiah.  And "when he comes," she said, "he will explain everything to us."  The laws and rules had shut her out as unworthy; his explanation has re-drawn the boundaries to include her---true worshippers will worship in spirit and in truth.  If she had not been seeking, she, like so many others of the time, would have failed to recognize him.  She was thirsting for everything He came to give, much more than the Scribes and Pharisees were.  And He gave her what she was longing for, spiritually.  She went into the village and told them about her encounter.  They all came out to see the One she had met at the well, "and they believed in him because of the woman's testimony."  They said to her, "...we know that this man really is the Savior of the World."

They are talking to her, forgetting that she was "a fallen woman."  They are sharing their own experiences with her, the outcast, the one who had to come at noon to draw water so that she would not be an embarrassment to the respectable women who came early in the day.  And all because He was tired from the journey and desperately needed a drink of water. 

In His need, in His weakness, He gave us a way to approach the living God, who makes all things new again.  No one could be afraid of a tired man who asks for a cup of water.