Water & Shame
| Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." 25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." 26 Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he." 27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?" 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" (John4:4-28) |
You know the story well. It's filled with paradox and pathos. Under the bright noonday sun she comes to the well. Why not at dawn or dusk like other women? We're discreetly left to draw our own conclusion. Is she a social outcast, damaged goods, a woman with a past? Such gossip didn't enter the conversation. His mind and heart were elsewhere. She might well be on the road to perdition. He would set her on the road to redemption.
This is the nub of her story. She comes, hears and believes. Seeking well water, she finds living water and so becomes the first woman evangelist in Christian history.
Seen through the lens of mission, several things about her story catch the eye. Not an ounce of condemnation in him. He sees her guilt and forgives it. He sees her shame and heals it. Not an ounce of patronising patriarchy. His attitude is liberating beyond description and sets the tone for all gender agendas to come.
Perhaps the most radical of all – he placed himself in her debt. He asked for help. DT Niles reminds us, "He was a true servant because he was at the mercy of those whom he came to serve... This weakness of Jesus, we his disciples must share. To serve from a position of power is not true service but beneficence." The Incarnation is at the heart of mission. A babe in a manger is the ultimate expression of kenosis on the part of the one who came to seek and to save.
Another cameo we mustn't overlook. He elevates her self-worth and affirms her dignity. He asks for help from her resources at hand – in this case a leather bucket which he did not have. Again DT Niles is helpful. Regarding the "technical aid" which the majority world often needs at the West's behest, he writes, "Essentially the missionary must come as a bearer of the Gospel. When [they] do, they will be both giver and receiver... and all their other gifts will find their proper place."
Her story has so many facets. Too many to tell in this brief telling. It ought to be our story too.
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Alan Cameron. Teaching Elder at Trinity Lynnwood. Seeking to serve through vulnerable grace. Husband to Cecile, father of three young adults.
