Finding Living Water This Lent
Today’s Gospel is the well know story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. It is a familiar story and one that is important in our Lenten journey.
From the first moment, Jesus does the unexpected. By even speaking to a Samaritan, let alone a woman and a woman with the back story of this one, Jesus breaks the conventions and rules of his society. By doing so he is saying no one is beyond compassion, no one is beyond belonging.
The woman recognised that Jesus was someone special. He knew who she was, her past, her present, he talked of her future and he did not condemn her nor did he turn away. Jesus recognised in the woman a deep spiritual thirst and so he offers her the gift of ‘living water’. She may not have fully understood what she was being offered but what mattered was her openness and readiness to listen. She trusted this stranger at the well. And her response shows she was ready to believe. “Sir, give me this living water, that I may never be thirsty”
Sometimes the verses John 4:26 to 4:39 are omitted but they fill in the story. The woman’s excitement at the news is such that she forgets the water jug, and hurries back to her village. She becomes a disciple and goes to tell of what she has heard. ‘I wonder if he is Christ?’ Her words and actions bring others to see this man and hear his story.
We too can encounter Jesus every day. He knows the depths of our souls and what we truly thirst for. In the busyness of our lives, in our routines, he is there waiting. If we but pause and listen, with our hearts open, we too can find our thirsty souls satisfied. This Lent, may we too find our way to the well and encounter the living water offered by Jesus.
Jane Kelly
