My life began simply, but with such promise. My family all come from Sychar, we're known there. Like most women, I married young. He was, to begin with a good man, but he soon became not such a good man, then a wastrel really, drinking all day & rolling in drunk every night & I couldn't bear it. I asked him for a certificate of divorce as the law of the Moses dictates. To my surprise, he gave it to me!
After you have done that once my friend, it is so much easier to do it again, then again, then.......
Anyway, it wasn't really the life I would have chosen, this life I had become accustomed to.
It was as if with each certificate of divorce, I withdrew further & further from normal society. I became the black pariah in our town - everyone knew of me, but no-one wanted to know me.
It was ok, this half-life, it wasn't a bad life & I had what I needed, or at least I thought I did. Ok, I couldn't go to the market with everyone else because they pointed the finger, but going late to the market meant I got the bargains at the end of the day!
Going to get water from the well was the hardest really, because I had to go during the heat of the day to avoid the gossips & the slanderers.
Then, there was that day! That day above all other days, that day when it all changed!
I'd gone, just as I did every day, it was about noon. As I got to the well there was this man there. I set myself to ignore him, steeling myself, but as I drew closer, I realised He was a Jew & I didn't recognise Him at all, so I relaxed.
As I began to draw my water, He spoke to me - well, there was no-one else, so I knew He was speaking to me. He asked me to get Him a drink. Well, I was stunned on both counts - firstly that being a Jew, He would ask me, a Samaritan for a drink, but also that He a Jewish man, would even speak to me, a Samaritan woman! You know how things are between Jews & Samaritans!
'Well,' I said to Him 'How come you're a Jew & You're asking me, a Samaritan for water? We don't associate with one another, or has no-one told You that?' I had to smile. Surely no-one could not know that!
He said something really strange then, He said that if only I'd known who it was that was asking for water, I'd ask Him to give me living water. Well, I just laughed then. Boy, did laughing feel good after all this time, I couldn't help but laugh, He had no pitcher, nothing with which to draw water, yet He reckoned I should have been asking Him!
When I'd stopped laughing a little, I asked Him whether He thought He was greater than our forefather Jacob, (for it was at Jacob's well where I had met Him), that He could give me water?
It then got even more strange with this man from Galilee. He told me that everyone who drank of the water from Jacob's well would thirst again, but if you had some of His living water, you'd have your own wellspring & eternal life!
Well, who wouldn't want that eh? No more having to trudge to the well & for me, no more having to do it in the blistering heat of the noonday sun!
So, I said 'Sir, give me this wellspring of living water, so I don't have to come here every day, I'd really like that!'
His next words shook me, quelling any remaining laughter & bringing me back to reality with a jolt. He asked me to go & call my husband!
Ah, now there was the problem. Yet, what was so strange about this Galilean stranger was that I didn't think to lie, I didn't think to give excuses, It didn't occur to me to do anything other than be honest & tell Him I had no husband.
If I'd been amused, entertained & surprised before, now, I was confounded, for He told me He knew I'd answered truly, that He knew I'd had five husbands & the man I now lived with wasn't even my husband.
You know when you don't know what to say & you find yourself burbling, well, I began to burble at that point. I told Him I could see He was a prophet & asked the question every Samaritan reckons they want an answer from every Jew - not that they would ask it of course, because, as you know, Jews don't talk to Samaritans. I asked about our worship on this mountain - after all, we had the same forefather as them in Jacob.
He spoke of there being a time coming where we wouldn't worship on this mountain or even in Jerusalem - not that we did, of course. He said that we Samaritans didn't know who we worshipped, whereas the Jews did & that salvation would come from them, but that the Father (whoever He is) wanted true worshippers who would worship Him in honour & in reality with all of who they really are! Well everyone knows the stories from the Jews, even if we don't associate with them, don't they, about the Messiah who would come from the Jews & explain everything. I don't know even now, what made me think of it, but I said that to Him. As I did so, I looked at Him, I mean looked at Him properly & He looked at me even more intently.
The world stopped.
He said "I who am talking to you, I AM He."
I was astounded & the world which had stopped began, in my mind to spin - was this the Messiah? This man, sitting on Jacob's well in the heat of the day, this Jew talking me to me, a Samaritan woman, was this the promised Messiah? Out of the jumble of thoughts that had spun around in my head I realised then that actually I believed Him. I believed this stranger from Galilee, I believed I thought He was the Messiah & although I still don't fully understand why, I've never really been taught much about these things, I knew I had to tell other people I'd met Him.
I look back now & realise just how big a deal that was to do what I did after my encounter with Jesus - yes, I know His name now, at the time, I was simply compelled to go & tell people that I'd met Him, that they should come to meet Him too.
I forgot that they didn't talk to me, I forgot what I'd become, I forgot what they saw me as & I went & told them I'd met this Galilean who had told me everything I'd ever done & that I thought He might be the Messiah & that they should come & see for themselves.
Well, they did come & Jesus stayed around in our town for a couple of days because there were so many people who wanted to ask Him questions. I listened in, I listened to Him as He taught us all & life has never returned to that lonely place it was.
It never could, not when you've met the Messiah, the Saviour, not when you've met Jesus. Nothing can ever go back to what was, for life is different with Jesus.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment