David Bahn – Reflections

John 4:7-9, 27

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

²⁷ Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?”

Have you ever given the advice, “Just don’t speak with her; she only pulls you down.” Maybe you’ve received that advice or simply come to that conclusion. There are times when that is the best practice. There are people who are set on causing you grief, or who will not listen. Some simply bait us too well, and we are hooked into conversations or arguments of their making. One such person in my life was a fellow pastor! He would bait me and I’d take the bait every time – well for a time. Finally I realized what he was doing and quit taking the bait. When we talk today and the barb is thrown, I simply ignore it; happy to stay above the fray.

Then there are those who desperately need to be engaged in conversation, but who we may put off because of their reputation, appearance, or even the circumstance of the encounter. The tatted and pierced server at the local restaurant. The grungy kid down the street. The family who is of a different race or ethnicity: the list is long.

But I’ve discovered that when I ask that server – tats, piercings and all – if we can pray for her, interesting things happen. One time we were declined. Then about 5 minutes later she cam back and asked if we could pray for her sister who was in a very bad situation with life and her children. Another told us she was trying to make a better life for herself and daughter, moving out of her mom’s house and into a place with her boyfriend.Hummm. We were glad in that case to be regulars there so we could pray for her regularly, and talk with her about a different solution to her troubles. Sometimes even the tough looking guys will open up!

The point is, people – even the off-putting ones – have stories, needs, and challenges that provide opportunity for the grace and truth of God to be shared and embraced. Just as this woman at the well might have been passed over by other people, we may forfeit the opportunity to bring the reign of God to bear on the lives of others unless we speak with that neighbor, co-worker, server, or check-out clerk.

The disciples, and even the woman herself, wondered why Jesus was speaking with this woman. He was doing so because he saw the person, not the stereotype. He saw the need, not just the sin. He may or may not have known how the conversation would go when he first began. But he did know that he had a message to share with anyone who would listen. That message is that there is a Savior, and he is seeking and saving the lost. We’ll never know who might listen to that same message unless we strike up the conversation ourselves.

John 4:1-30

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John ² (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), ³ he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. ⁴ And he had to pass through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the fieldthat Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

⁷ A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” ¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” ¹⁷ The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive thatyou are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

²⁷ Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸ So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” ³⁰ They went out of the town and were coming to him.