AT THE WELL

Richard Beck writes in “He Asked for Help”
We know the story well:
Now Jesus and his disciples had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
We all know how low this woman was in the social and religious hierarchy. She’s a woman. That’s low. She’s a Samaritan. That’s lower still. She’s been married five times. Still lower. She is currently living, in an unmarried state, with another man. Lower.

If the Samaritan woman isn’t at the absolute bottom, she’s got it pretty well in sight.

But here’s the amazing thing. Jesus finds a way to place himself lower, to lift her up to the superior position.

“Will you give me a drink?”

Jesus doesn’t come to her with answers or gifts or power or miracles or a sermon or a program or an invitation to come to church.

Jesus approaches this woman and simply asks for help.

He asks her for help. And it blows her heart wide open.

And I wonder if the church will ever learn that lesson as we approach the world.”

“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give Me a drink,” you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” Jesus