Something more than a simple request

John 4.5-9   NIV   courtesy of www.biblegateway.com

So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
 ⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
 ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)



There is so much in this long story from John that I will divide the text into several parts and comment on successive days.

Today we will start with the technical stuff.  John gives us this story immediately following the story of Nicodemus visiting Jesus at night.    John often places two contrasting stories directly next to one another. 

Some contrasts with Nicodemus that we might want to consider
     Nicodemus at night; woman at noon.   Noon was the moment of death for Jesus and the time of day most in contrast to night.  This well was right out in the open; nothing hidden about this encounter.
     Nicodemus was a learned leader of Israel; the woman was a Samaritan.  Samaritans and Jews did not mix; each thought the other was religiously wrong.  A Jew would not accept a drink from the hand of a Samaritan.
    Nicodemus was a MAN and the Samaritan a WOMAN.    Very different status and social expectations.  A Jewish man would not engage in conversation with an unaccompanied woman who was not a relative.  Wasn't done. 
  
Notice the location and identification of the well.  This was Jacob's well - Jacob was an ancestor claimed by both Jews and Samaritans.  It was where Isaac's servant found Rebecca drawing water and eventually led to their bethrothal and marriage.  A lot of courtship takes place at wells.

Samaritans:  Years of conflict had established deep divides between Jews and Samaritans who lived in close geographic proximity (Jesus didn't have to go through Samaria to reach Galilee, but cutting through Samaria shortened the trip considerably).
     Jews saw Samaritans as mixed race people - impure, unclean.  Samaritans drew their lineage from Jacob while Jews were descendents only of Judah.  Samaritans only held the Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy) as inspired word of God, thus rejecting the rest of the Hebrew scriptures.  The Samaritan version of the Pentateuch established Mt. Gerazim as the right place for worship; Jews held that Jerusalem was the only appropriate place.
   [ An irony in this divisive relationship is that the Samaritans acknowledged the God of Abraham as did the Jews and yet instead of this being a point of unity, their other differences led each group to denigrate the other. Think Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims here.]

Get ready to have another classic Johannine conversation.  Jesus is speaking metaphorically / spiritually/ abstractly and the woman receives his words and responds concretely.  (just like Nicodemus)  Thus we can see that Jesus is leading those he contacts to open their spiritual understandings - not just to these images - but eventually to include him as Messiah. 

I am caught by Jesus' request for a drink.  On the cross in John 19.28 Jesus calls out, "I am thirsty"   What can we make of this? 

The challenge as a preacher is to engage this story in a manageable way.  It is long, complex and so full of images and nuances that keeping a single focus without doing harm to the larger story is difficult.

However, I am working with the concept of darkness:  how people who encounter Jesus are called out of some form of darkness into the light of revelation.  I will be watching for an image of darkness that I can use with this Samaritan woman who is standing in the noon sun in the middle of an open space.  Got any ideas?