Well Out of Line
A Samaritan woman came to draw water [from Jacob’s well], and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” – John 4:7 (NRSV)
When you were growing up, was “splitting the pole” a thing? What about stepping on a crack? What superstitious result was predicted to happen if you did that?
Splitting the pole and stepping on a crack both depend on a very strong line. Whether etched in concrete or imagined in the air around a pole, that definitive line – if crossed – could cause something tragic to happen. Isn’t it curious how the simplest rules can change everything?
This is how we build fences out of imaginary things.
The first thing we learn about her is that she was not like Jesus because she was from Samaria. And the Gospel of John tells us: “Jews and Samaritans did not share things in common.” There’s the line. Lines like that live in our bodies. They shape our assumptions and our fears. They whisper that some deserve and others must be left wanting.
But at the well, Jesus steps straight across the line. He asks her for water. He lets her give. And in that one request, every fence of fear, every invisible border, every supposed line of who’s in and who’s out begins to dissolve.
Take your place at the well. The water flows for you. Endlessly.
Prayer: God of Living Water, dissolve the lines that divide us. Let your love spill past every border, until no one is left outside, unnamed, unseen, or forgotten. Amen.
About the AuthorKaji Douša is the Senior Pastor of The Park Avenue Christian Church, a congregation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ, in New York City.