A God that Seeks to Encounter Me! (Lent III)

This Sunday we hear the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. Like many stories from the Gospel, this one has become so familiar over the years that it is easy to gloss over what is happening in the narrative and move straight to Jesus’ declaration that he is the Messiah.

But sitting with the passage this week I have been struck by the encounter this un-named woman has with Jesus before he makes this declaration.

The writer of this story tells us very specifically that she has come to the well in the middle of the day, when no-one else is around. She is not seeking an encounter. She is going out of her way to avoid one. And when Jesus first speaks to her, she immediately draws a boundary between them. I am a Samaritan – you are a Jew.

She expects (or maybe hopes) that this will put an end to any further conversation between them. But Jesus persists – at first speaking to her of God and then, most surprisingly, about herself.

One thing that I notice is that there is a more than just a cultural gap between Jesus and the woman. When he begins to speak to her about living water, she doesn’t understand that He is talking about eternal life. She is still focused on the well, the actual water, and the reason that she is out here in the middle of the day, not drawing water with the rest of the women from town.

The other thing I notice is that it is Jesus who closes this gap between them, when he begins to speak about her life. Revealing how intimately God knows her and wants what is best for her.

And it is when this hits home that Jesus reveals who He truly is.

The depth of this encounter with Jesus transforms the woman – from someone that is avoiding others, to someone that seeks to share with the whole town what she has seen and heard. And evidently her witness was so compelling that they came to see for themselves, and they came to believe.

As we head into the third week of Lent this story challenges me to reflect on the moments of encounter that I am avoiding in my life – whether they are with God or with others. On the boundaries that I cling to that are the opposite of life-giving.

And I am encouraged by the image of the God that sits in those spaces and seeks to encounter me.

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