I Am He (John 4:1-42)

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Carl Heinrich Bloch - Woman at the Well


He asks me for a drink of water.  The man, a Jew, who sees me for what I am, but still, does not condemn my flesh.

I have known many like him, those who claim a special union with the God of my ancestors.

Do I know of Messiah?

Do I believe he will come to rescue the house of Israel?  Is Samaria included in the liberation?

Stories, told by my angry father.  Stories told by a couple of my husbands, amid laughter and cheap wine, I do not share this thought with the Jew at the well.

He looks to be neither a warrior nor a charlatan.

Why would he ask me for a drink?  My ancestors worshiped on this mountain.  We do not journey to the temple in Jerusalem and offer doves and unblemished lambs to God.  He should not consider us clean.

He speaks of life giving water, living water.  I will never thirst again if I drink the water he offers.  How can that be, the dust of this land brings a thirst difficult to quench?

I ask that he might give me some of that water, so I might not have to draw water from the well ever again, never have to raise a cup to my lips.

He smiles and tells me to go and get my husband. 

I am a woman who has made poor choices.  The men in my life are a few of the worse.  I tell him I now am unmarried and he nods his head, tells me I have spoken the truth.  He knows.

He makes note of my five former husbands.  He acknowledges my present companion.  He judges me with compassion I have rarely seen, even among other sinners.

Is he a prophet, or is he more?

I explain to him about our mountain, the place of our worship, not keeping my ideas to myself.  A woman should not speak to a man in such a way, but my life has made me bold.

“Believe me,” he says, “a time is coming when God will be worshiped neither on the mountain, nor in Jerusalem.”

He describes God as spirit, neither reigning on a mountain top or in a temple, and says that soon we will offer the Father true worship.

Is he speaking of the messiah, the one who will come and tell us everything?

“I am he.” The Jew at well speaks clearly.

I leave my water jars.  Come see the man who told me all deepest shame.  He exposed my unworthiness.  Could he be the one we have been waiting for?  Come see and hear, listen to him for yourself, so that you might also believe.



copyright 2018 - Donald P James Jr

 

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