INCLUSIVENESS IS NOTHING NEW

A woman was leaning over the victim of a road accident and the crowd was looking on.

Suddenly she was roughly pushed aside by a man who said ‘Step back, please. I’ve had a course in first aid,’

The woman looked on for a few moments while the man got busy with the victim. Then she said calmly, ‘When you come to the part where you have to send for a doctor, I’m here already.’

To my mind, this is one of the most exciting episodes in the gospels. It demonstrates the true inclusiveness of Jesus’ ministry. And it shows how his message could sweep people off their feet.

We need to know a bit of background to fully appreciate what’s going on. Here’s Jesus, tired from travelling, arriving at a famous land-mark, Jacob’s well. He’s in Samaritan territory: that’s important, and he speaks to a woman, that’s important and it’s mid-day, that’s also important.

Jews and Samaritans did not get on. They had a common ancestry, but the Samaritans were looked down on by the Jews for having sold-out their religion by marrying outside the faith community. You remember the story of the Good Samaritan, how its bite comes from the fact that it’s a hated outsider who shows the love and compassion of a good neighbour.

And Jesus is talking to a woman. Good Jewish men did not engage in conversation with women. It simply wasn’t respectable.

Even worse, this woman is an outcast within her own community. That’s why she’s come to get water in the middle of the day, when the coast is clear, her respectable neighbours safely in their own homes.

So there’s Jesus, once again crossing the boundaries of the behaviour expected of him by the religious establishment.

This particular conversation is an interesting contrast with the one between Jesus and Nicodemus that we looked at last week. In that case, Jesus was stern with this rather condescending man, not concerned that he was making him look foolish. Here he gently draws the woman into a serious conversation. He’s just as determined to press home his point, but he’s more gentle in the way he does so, a lot less confrontational.

See how gently he approaches her. He asks for her help, makes himself vulnerable, enables her to be the one who gives, the one who’s magnanimous.

And his teaching uses common ground. Water, then as now, is an extremely precious commodity in Israel. One of the boasts of the newly formed state of Israel was that they would make the desert blossom. We are so conscious of water conservation in our rather soggy land, that it comes as a bit of a shock to visit Israel and see how much irrigation of municipal flower-beds takes place even when the country is experiencing the very late arrival of the autumn rains. It’s a matter of civic pride that these beds will be watered, the desert will continue to blossom.

Wells, are and remain a very important feature of the land-scape. They allowed settlements to grow up; they were precious and life-giving. Jesus uses the common understanding of the importance of water to gently draw the Samaritan woman into a conversation about the kingdom of God and the coming of the Messiah. He uses the imagery of flowing water, gushing up in a never ending stream. In that dry land it is a promise of the utterly wonderful, the absolutely desirable.

The woman is charmed, but Jesus has more to tell her. By revealing his total understanding of her marital situation he helps her recognise him as a prophet. One of the issues on which Jews and Samaritans disagreed was where God was to be worshipped, in Jerusalem or on Mount Garazim. As a Samaritan, she would have held dear the belief that God should be worshipped on Mount Garazim. But she recognises this prophet as one who is special, and dares to ask who’s right, Jew or Samaritan? It’s a question that is full of trust. She trusts him to give a true answer, and she trusts him enough to be prepared to hear the answer that would sweep aside her cherished beliefs.

But Jesus moves the goal posts completely. The stumbling block to the joining of Jew and Samaritan in common worship of God Almighty is about to swept out of sight. Neither Jew nor Samaritan is right about the place of worship. There is a whole new way to worship, ‘in spirit and in truth’. The old way of doing things simply won’t do any more. Step by step Jesus helps the woman express her faith ‘I know that the Messiah is coming’ and then he can reveal himself to her as the one for whom she hopes.

Then she’s away. She leaves her water-jar there at the well and rushes off back to the city to tell her neighbours the good news. And get this, they listen. They listen to the outcast woman, because her enthusiasm is so infectious. She’s seen the Messiah and she just has to share that fact with everyone.

Initially her neighbours believe because of her testimony, but soon they too encounter Christ and their faith, too, becomes personal.

So why do I claim that it’s one of the most exciting passages in scripture? Well, it’s a cracking good story, the repartee is witty and quick paced. Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham likens it to one of the clown scenes in Shakespeare.

The imagery is stunning, living water conjures up the giving of life, the slaking of thirst, the sheer vitality and vibrancy of the gospel message.

It’s a real triumph of the under-dog story. The person you’d least expect becomes a disciple and an evangelist. There’s no holding her back, once she’s grasped who Jesus is she’s off to share the good news, no longer cowed by her less than respectable domestic arrangements. And her enthusiasm succeeds. In the dialogue we can see her talent for quick thinking speech. She goes on to use that talent to the full in proclaiming the message.

It’s a story which proclaims loud and clear that the Kingdom of God is for all. It takes no account of race or class or sex or whether you’re rich or poor or respectable or not. The Kingdom of God calls to all, and it gathers workers from everywhere.

And it’s a pattern and a model for us all. It teaches us how to approach the vulnerable, the broken and the unloved. It shows that they have as much to give us as we to give them, that drink of water after a long and dusty journey is highly symbolic.

It teaches us that Jesus knows us through and through. He sees the brokenness of our lives, those things of which we’re ashamed, those acts about which we feel guilty. And he continues to love us and value us despite them all.

It teaches us to drink deeply of that stream of living water. We need never be thirsty, we can always be refreshed. We can return again and again.

And it shows us how our enthusiasm for our Lord can be passed on to others. Enthusiasm is infectious. If we dare to follow the example of the woman at the well we also will tell our friends and neighbours about the amazing man we’ve encountered.

And it reminds us that the kingdom of God is for all. As we heard from St Paul ‘God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.’ And as he wrote to the Galatians ‘There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female.’ The outcast Samaritan woman who becomes a powerful evangelist shows us how God uses the gifts and talents of all, even the most unlikely to build his kingdom.

Rev. Penny Sayer

Curate, St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea