The Encounter

Gospel: John 4: 5-42

Jesus enters a Samaritan town and asks a woman for a cup of water.  The woman is shocked, for he is Jewish and what he asks for is forbidden and unclean.  She is a Samaritan, a bitter enemy and foreigner to the Jewish people.  Moreover, she is a public sinner.  The woman is at the well at noon because of this fact, and we discover in the conversation that she has had five husbands and now lives with a sixth man.  This entire scenario is utterly unbelievable to her.

And yet Jesus engages in conversation with her.  He does not condemn or castigate her.  He simply has a conversation.  Jesus has no set script, no agenda.  He simply talks to her, and in the course of the conversation she comes to a dramatic transformation.  Her understanding of Jesus grows - beginning first with a racial slur, then moving to "sir", then "prophet", then "Messiah".  By the end of two days both she and the entire town will declare Jesus to be "savior of the world."  All from a simple conversation.

What transformations could we effect in the world if we simply had conversations with other people, authentic encounters with no script, no agenda.  What realizations could be had in such engagements.  This is the way of Jesus, and this must be our way in our interactions with other people.  But how few of us wish to do this.  How many people are on our no-fly list - people we would not break bread with or talk with, even in our own families!  This Lent, let us imitate the Lord Jesus in this story.