A Chance Encounter Part 2

John 4

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 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.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?” (John 4)

I’m sure that you remember this story. If not, you may want to read it again: https://www.animatedbiblestories.net/blog/blog-post-three-94fzm

And of course, you can read it as originally recounted in your Bible. In our day, as you probably know, we did not have the Bible that you, in your time, can use on a daily basis.

I am writing to you now, some years after my encounter with Jesus. As you might imagine, the experience of that encounter left a very deep impression on me. It still does. And I can report to you that, in my time, everyone who knew Jesus in person, was left with such an impression. It may be hard for you, across the centuries, to relate, because on the surface, Jesus did not seem so impressive. And even in my case, it wasn’t until we had gone much deeper in our talk before I came to realize what a remarkable person he was. I honestly can say that at first, I totally underestimated him.

Yes, Jesus was, at first glance, not a person of note. He was not physically of great stature, and he clearly did not project wealth or power of position. You wouldn’t look at him and think he was anyone special.

And that’s what I want to explain to you. You can’t miss, in our conversation, how I misjudged him at first. I mean, to me, he was just an ordinary man waiting at the well, truly out of place as a Jew in Samaria. Was he lost? Was he just a beggar? An itinerant peddler? A drifter? He could have been any of those. A messiah? The literal Son of God? Ridiculous!

Christ and the Samaritan Woman

Catacomb of Callistus, 2nd century

And so, our conversation began, with me questioning his presence at the well and also his interest in speaking with me, a Samaritan woman. I confess that there was an element of judgment in my comments, especially in my questions about his promise of “living water.”

But of all my semi-snotty remarks, the first one surely stands out. “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep.” In reality, I was not so polite as this rendition might appear.

You see, it was true. Not only was he without the normal supplies of food and water that would accompany a traveler, he lacked the one resource needed to draw water from a well. He had no bucket! Was he helpless, comically unprepared for travel? I confess that I was a bit amused.

I want you to think about that for a moment. Here was this ordinary-looking man out in foreign territory, totally without the supplies needed for a journey, and even without the one tool, a bucket, needed to draw water.

As you think about that, think about other experiences of Jesus. Here are a few:

You remember how Jesus, a guest at wedding in Cana, turned water into wine. He had brought nothing to the wedding, giving him no tangible means to perform such a miracle. The only resources given him were the large jars filled with water. He supplied the rest, but from where?

And surely you remember how he fed thousands, not once but twice. And what did Jesus have? Nothing, absolutely nothing! Relying on others to bring their meager loaves and fishes, Jesus worked miracles, feeding entire hungry crowds.

Jesus healed the sick, but never with any medical supplies. He taught and preached, but he never owned a book. Many considered Jesus a rabbi, and some even called him “rabbi.” But he never wore the rabbinical robes that were proudly displayed by other educated men.

And as my story explains, Jesus traveled. He traveled all over: Judea, Galilee, even Samaria and sometimes, outside the traditional boundaries of Israel. But in reality, Jesus had no home of his own, no place he could call his. He even said “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”  (Matthew 8)

So, yes, Jesus met me at Jacob’s well and he didn’t even have a bucket.

Why? Why was Jesus so totally without resources? I forgot to mention that he also didn’t have any money! I should have mentioned that, perhaps even first. Later, he actually told his disciples to go into the villages in Galilee and carry no money and no purse!

Why was it so important for Jesus to be so poor and so unassuming?

Well, as you might imagine, I have some thoughts about that.

Oh, and while I’m at it, let me add that Jesus truly was and is the Messiah and the Son of God. But because he didn’t look the part, it just took me a while to realize that. Others never did.

How could our YHWH God send his son into our world so poorly prepared? You must remember that a Messiah had long been predicted, though the details of his nature were unclear. And before the arrival of Jesus, quite a few had claimed to be the Messiah, mostly in a military role. But when they went down to defeat, it was easy to conclude that we must still wait for the true Messiah to appear. Hopefully, the true Messiah would be an elite man of power!

You must consider too, the giants of our faith. I’m sure that you remember that there were three:  Abraham, Moses and David. Any expectation of a Messiah would naturally raise all three of these as potential models.

Abraham was wealthy, with large flocks, a great deal of land, and two sons. Ishmael and Isaac. Moses was given power to lead thousands of Israelites out of Egypt. And David was a warrior king who lived in a palace and expanded the territory of Israel beyond any previous border.

I’m sure that you understand that Jesus was nothing like these three pillars of our traditions and faith. We were expecting royalty and power, but instead, what we got was humility and the appearance of weakness.

So, you see, Jesus defied all of our expectations of a Messiah. I’m sure that’s why so many people rejected him. They wanted a Messiah who would produce: produce a powerful victory over our oppressors, produce respect for our nation, produce prosperity and even wealth, and produce peace.

But Jesus promised none of these, and so the expectations of many would never be satisfied by this humble man of no means, this man who didn’t even own a bucket.

No, the power of Jesus was not in his might but in his humility and in his love, even a sacrificial love. As he told me at the well, the power of Jesus was in what he called “living water,” a life that goes beyond power and respect, royalty, wealth and even peace. His power was not in armies and palaces, but instead, in the human heart, one person at a time.

And so, as we talked, Jesus and me, I began to feel that power of love, that living water, begin to work its way into my heart. He may not have had a bucket, but Jesus had something far better: he had the love of our Father God, and he lived that love in a personal and sacrificial way that we could not mistake.

And yet, many of us did mistake Jesus for who he really was. Those who expected a royal messiah found him to be a threat and had him killed. They not only failed to recognize the true Messiah, the Son of God, but they completely missed the nature of our Father God, a god of love, justice and mercy. Jesus, in his life, death and resurrection was not the royal model that we expected, but was instead, the living model of our YHWH God.

And that’s where his promise of living water comes in. Why? Because I am convinced that Jesus was raised from the dead, that he still lives with the Father, and that his Spirit offers that same living water that he offered to me so many years ago. How do I know that? I know it because I can feel it. I can’t get Jesus out of my mind and out of my heart. Even as I stumble, and on a daily basis, I do, I am still fed by his living water.

So, as you can see, our expectations of the Messiah, the Son of God, were all wrong. Jesus showed us the loving heart of our YHWH God, not the power of armies, not the wealth of a palace. And that’s why our God sent him into our world without a bucket.

So then, in your time, what are your expectations of the Messiah, the Son of God? Do you expect him to defeat your oppressors, as we did? Do you expect to see him in royal robes, an elite leader who projects great power? I hope not. My hope for you is to expect the Son of God to give to you his life, literally, as he did for me, in the Living Water that only he can give.

And just to close, here’s an afterthought: could it be at all possible that our YHWH God, in his inscrutable wisdom, sent Jesus to Sychar without a bucket, just so he could meet me?