Samaritan Woman!
(SAMARITAN WOMAN, holding a jar is seated ENTER JESUS who sits next to SAMARITAN WOMAN)
NARRATOR:
So Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jesus was resting on the wrong side of the tracks, the bad part of town, a gay couple accidently attending a service at Westboro Baptist, a Jew in Samaria... have you ever felt out of place—that’s this moment!
Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
A small detail, but not that small. For John the Gospel writer, night indicates unbelief, day belief.
A small detail, but not that small. Women go to the well when it is cool out, not at noon—unless you are an ostracized, unwelcome, out of place, woman.
A small detail, but not that small. We’re going to see a story of belief! We’re going to see a story about an outsider.
JESUS:
Give me a drink.
SAMARITAN WOMAN:
(To Congregation)
What’s he on about?
I’m a Samaritan, he’s a Jew.
I’m a woman, he’s a man.
The wrong gender.
The wrong religion.
For this…
How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?
JESUS:
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.
(To Congregation)
Have you heard of living water?
The Rabbis recommend it for ritual baths.
The Early Church will recommend it for baptism.
Fresh and clean.
Bubbling, clear, living!
From God’s good earth—a sign of God’s goodness.
SAMARITAN WOMAN:
Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?"
JESUS:
Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.
(To Congregation)
Think of it!
To be filled with a life flowing!
Flowing from God’s good earth
You, a sign of God’s goodness!
A living, clear, bubbling life
Fresh and clean.
SAMARITAN WOMAN:
(To Congregation)
What’s he offering me?
You know…
I’d take one less backbreaking job
Out here in the heat
Fetching water at noon
Is not a sign of God’s goodness,
But society’s stubbornness.
I’d settle for slaked thirst and less monotony
But, I think he’s offering me more.
Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.
JESUS:
Go, call your husband, and come back.
SAMARITAN WOMAN:
(To Congregation)
He didn’t just go there!
(To Jesus)
I have no husband.
JESUS:
You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!
SAMARITAN WOMAN:
(To Congregation)
Five husbands.
Everyone jumps to adultery
I guess that’s what people do when there is a woman involved…
But that’s not it
It’s abandonment
Barrenness
Left
Again
And again
And again
And again
Left to fend for myself
To carry my own water
Left in the noon sun
Left to grow hard
Abandoned.
But he knows, and… wants to know… what kind of man is this?
(To Jesus)
Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.
JESUS:
(To Congregation)
Peter won’t even top this!
Nicodemus was blind,
But this woman, she sees.
Sees me in the harsh noon light
We’re both exposed here
Exposed for who we are
I named her and she named me.
We see each other here at Jacob’s well.
(To The Woman)
Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
SAMARITAN WOMAN:
You’re a prophet, but not of my religion… so… brass tacks.
The place between you and me.
The space between Mount Gerezim where I worship and Jerusalem—Mount Zion, where you worship…
What of it?
It’s nice to say it isn’t about place, but by what authority do you say it?
I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.
JESUS:
I am he, the one who is speaking to you.
NARRATOR:
(To Congregation)
He doesn’t say I am he…
English communicates this poorly
He says “I am”
I AM
When Moses spake with the burning bush
The bush said “I AM”
I am. With a period after it.
No genealogy, but Genesis instead
The origin
The formation of it all
It all flows out from this
He says I AM…
Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?"
(Exit JESUS and SAMARITAN WOMAN—leaving her jar behind)
(Re-enter SAMARITAN WOMAN)
SAMARITAN WOMAN (to congregation):
Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?
My question mark is a shepherds’ crook
One leading us
Like Moses with a staff
Miriam’s song at the river
I’ve found the One Who Fills the Water Jar
Fills is forever!
I’ve seen one who sees me
He knew me and saw me!
In the noon sun
I saw him!
Come and see!
NARRATOR:
They left the city and were on their way to him. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something."
JESUS:
I have food to eat that you do not know about.
NARRATOR:
So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?"
JESUS:
My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.
(To Congregation)
Sometimes my disciples don’t see…
Even in the noon sun
They don’t see!
Do you not say, 'Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.
(To Congregation)
She sowed
She sowed with her words
Sowed in the noon sun
Sowed because she saw me
My disciples did not labor
But they will reap
Because SHE sowed
Here in the noon sun.
NARRATOR:
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, for she said:
SAMARITAN WOMAN:
He told me everything I have ever done.
NARRATOR:
So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."
They came to see
In the noon sun
Bright with belief
These Samaritans
Stayed with the Savior
Seeing him
Because she sowed
And said
And suggested
And saw her Savior!
Amen.
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah