Others Invited

Sermon by Deklan Jay Lewis.

Growing up in the 90s, I was told that being gay was a sin and that HIV/AIDS was proof of that.

I was taught to see gay people as willfully disobeying God and that I shouldn’t associate with them. Later in life, I was told that Muslims were terrorists, that they all hated Christians and wanted to kill us. Purity culture taught me to guard myself against temptations regarding members of the opposite sex and that just being alone with one could lead to all manner of sinfulness. These were all cultural norms, and they formed the way that I viewed certain people and caused me to avoid engaging with them, to the point of basically alienating them and myself, out of fear. 

This behavior is a symptom of the human condition and was very present during Jesus’ lifetime too. Jesus came to break those patterns and stereotypes and dividing walls. The story of an afternoon by a well in a town he had no business being in, talking to a woman he had no business talking to, is in itself an example of a learned bias, as we have all heard this story told from a particular perspective. But what if our teachers, our cultural interpretations, and assumptions are wrong? 

I did a lot of reading this week as there is no shortage of commentary on this passage.

One of my favorites said this: “In the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, we find the longest conversation Jesus has with anyone in the Gospels.” That right there should tell us something! “Contemporary interpreters tend to miss much of the significance of this encounter because they make it into the tale of the sinful and ignorant foreigner whose life turns around because she meets Jesus—the bread and butter of a revival preacher’s repertoire.” Oof! Where have we heard that before?

Did you ever read a story or hear a guest speaker talk about the most pitiful lost soul you could imagine coming to the saving knowledge of Jesus and turning from addict to evangelist, or the missionary stories about the witch doctor becoming the village pastor? It’s miraculous, charismatic, but still carries a level of shame; it ties that person forever to their less-than-desirable (in our eyes) past. That’s what we have done to the Samaritan woman. 

We’ve laid out the case: she was at the well in the middle of the day… why would she do that? She must have been an outcast! She had 5 husbands, and the man she currently lived with was not her husband at all. We have labeled her: Whore, Prostitute, Loose Woman, Serial Divorcee! The kind of woman you want to avoid.  Why do we do this to the women in the Bible? Why do we assume the worst and paint them as scheming, deceitful, fornicating women of very low or no morals? Why do we not believe women, even today, when they tell the truth about things that have happened to them? Why do we blame them for the things that men have done to them? 

According to every source I read this week, there is NO way she could have divorced multiple husbands! It was not possible in those times. For a woman to get a single divorce was virtually unheard of, but 5, no way! So what then could have been the explanation? The most likely story is a familiar one, if you know your Hebrew Bible. Anyone recognize the name Tamar?

I’m gonna switch gears for just a second to address the other questionable elements in this stories setting… the well at midday.

The writer of John’s gospel relies heavily on some themes; one of them is the contrast between darkness and light. At the beginning of the previous chapter of John, there is another story of Jesus revealing himself to someone. In that story, Nicodemus, a Pharisee and known leader in the Jewish community, comes to Jesus, in the dark of night, to ask Jesus about his identity. Without going into all the details, Jesus shares with Nicodemus some of the mysteries of God; he shares about being “born from above,” and about how God loved the world so much that God sent Jesus. But despite being a teacher of Israel, Nicodemus doesn’t understand, and we are left to imagine him leaving, even more in the dark than before.

Here is an alternative explanation as to why the Samaritan woman was at the well at midday: it was a literary device, employed by the writer of the Gospel, to draw a comparison and drive home a point. Nicodemus, a man of the law, came in darkness and left more confused than when he arrived. The Samaritan woman, an outsider, if not outright enemy to the Jews, meets Jesus in the light and can see and understand what Jesus is saying and who he is. One slinks back home in the shadows and utters not a word to anyone; the other runs back to the village and tells everyone about this man she has met.

Another important image in this story is the well itself. According to various sources, the people hearing this story would have immediately recognized the well as a symbol, used throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, to indicate that there was to be a wedding. Several of the patriarchs met their future wives by a well. The writer of John employs imagery of Jesus as the bridegroom throughout the Gospel.

Now lets put it together, a woman, who has been married 5 times, goes to a well at midday and finds a man there. Could this story be an allegory for the relationship God, through the person of Jesus, was to have with God’s people. The Samaritans, and the Jews, were like vulnerable women, who had lost their husbands and found themselves at the mercy of new, less sympathetic, often abusive, self interested husbands. One commentator I read this week described the woman as “wedding-weary”. That phrase really stuck out to me… she wasn’t some floozy who was excited about the prospect of another husband, she was weary, like the people of God.

Think of the number of times the Jewish and Samaritan people were conquered and exiled, then sent home just to be conquered, exploited, and exiled again. Was that the fault of the people? Was it the woman’s fault her husbands had died or left her, failed to value her the way she should have been?

And we only get this story, this reminder that all people are important to God, that God will pursue them and bring them back, because the person of Jesus, or this Gospel’s depiction of him, was not afraid to go to a town his people would have actively avoided, and sat by a well until a woman came to draw water. Then he talked with her and shared intimately with her things that he had shared with no other. He put aside all judgement and engaged with the child of God that was before him.

If we are to be changemakers in this world, we must first be mind-changers.

We have to change our minds about people and get to know them as they really are, not as the world or society, or our culture would want us to see them. We may have to put ourselves into uncomfortable or vulnerable situations.  Jesus never promised that it would all be comfortable and that we could do it with our prejudices and holier-than-thou attitudes. The change has to begin in us, if not we will miss a world of prophets because we have counted them as prostitutes.

In the book of Genesis, there is a story about another woman who has gotten a bad rap; her name was Hagar, and she ran away because of the harsh treatment by Sarai. She was special, like the Samaritan Woman. The Samaritan woman had the longest recorded conversation with Jesus and was the first person Jesus revealed himself to, and Hagar was the first person to give God a name, El Roi, the God Who Sees, because I have seen the God who sees me.

El Roi, open our eyes and hearts to the truth only you can reveal. Help us to be critical of the things that we have been taught, of the ways our culture, family, and religion have shaped us to see. Give us eyes to see others the way that you see them and the courage to humble ourselves so that we may begin to learn from them and from you about the richness and potential that comes from embracing your incredible design of diversity. 

May it be so. Amen.
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