Third Sunday of Lent

Just How Thirsty Are We?

The Samaritan woman is alienated from her community. The Jews considered the Samaritans less than human. Her relationships with others are all messed up. She needs water and to avoid contact with others, she goes to the well in the heat of mid-day. There she encounters a man who asks her for a drink. Men aren’t supposed to speak to women in public. It is Jesus who acknowledges her presence and her need. And he tells her that he needs her. Imagine! He asks her for a drink. 

What follows is a dialogue. The woman is curious. She questions and she persists in her wonder about this man who is speaking to her, understands her and reveals himself to her in a way she least expected. No longer feeling marginated, she instead experiences belonging. She leaves the well excited, rushes home and boisterously, boldly tells the story of her experience. She has been promised living water. Out of her vulnerability—the dryness and the brokenness of her life—she has experienced the revelation that Jesus is the Messiah. Because of her and the telling of her story, many came to believe.

What’s dry and parched in our lives? For what are we thirsting? Do we seek the water that leads to eternal life? 

Who are the alienated among us, who seek belonging? How do we use dialogue and presence, curiosity and persistence in understanding those who are not like us? Just how thirsty are we? What are we willing to risk in order to receive “living water?”