John 4: 1-26
Imagine Jesus quietly, patiently sitting at the well waiting. Waiting for a drink? I suppose in some ways perhaps. We are made for companionship with God. Perhaps he thirsted for time with her. Perhaps he thirsted to satisfy her thirst. God is like that.
And so, sitting in the noonday heat, he waits for her to come. And when she does, he speaks to her. She is not impressed. In fact, she puts up all kinds of walls. Thin places can be rather unnerving. Thin places are those places or times when the veil between heaven and earth, between the physical and the spiritual is so thin you can see and feel and hear and know the other side. It is a holy place. And I am certain that wherever Jesus was, became a thin place.
The trouble is that in that moment of sensing the divine’s touch, you know that all that you are, all that you have done, all your traumas and fears are revealed. There is no hiding in the noonday sun at the well.
She begins at the surface by identifying Jesus’ race. You look like, talk like a Jew.
Jesus says “Ah, if you only knew me, really knew me, you would be so filled and refreshed.”
“Are you greater than my ancestry? I belong to such and such a religion, denomination, church. Are you saying you are better than those that I follow?”
“What I have to offer will change your life forever!”
“Share that with me! Please!”
Like lowering a bucket into a well, Jesus slowly takes her deeper. From the obvious physical, to the outer rim of religion, to her own thirst. Yes, Jesus was waiting in the hot sun thirsting to relieve her thirst.
Here is where it all gets hard. “Let’s talk about you. The real you. The one that you hide from others and yourself. The one that has been traumatized by people, by society, by religion. Let’s lower that bucket even deeper. That’s where we will find that living water.
At that moment there is no veil. The thin place has become, there at the well in the noonday sun, the Kingdom of God. She feels it. She is unnerved. She’s confused. She wonders what is real? Her faith or his? Her temple or his? The world, the culture in which she has been raised or his?
Jesus says, it is time to get past all of that. It is time to not worry about which church to worship in. It is time to stop clinging to your ancestry. God is not a Samaritan, God is not a Jew, God is Spirit. God is another realm, another understanding, another way of seeing life.
John, in his letter, writes that God is love. Relationship, companionship, caring, forgiveness, mercy, compassion…..love. The Spirit of God is love.
Jesus is not waiting to talk religion, politics,race, culture, or laws with her. Jesus is not waiting at the well to bring judgment for her choices or to shame her. Jesus is waiting to go far beyond all that she sees as her identity. Jesus is waiting to talk with her true self. The deepest part of her where living water awaits.
I believe that Jesus is ever waiting at the well for us, hoping to help us lower that bucket deeper and deeper. I also believe that while we thirst for that living water deep down in the well, we, for some reason, tend to avoid going to those depths. We prefer to stay on the surface where we find ready answers, answers with which we have grown comfortable, answers passed down from our parents, teachers and preachers. And when Jesus says “But wait there's more” we look for the catch. Kind of like those ads on television!
Jesus says, “if you want to know God, if you want to know love, if you want to be part of the Kingdom of God, we will have to get beyond your rote prayers, creeds, and theological certainties. The living water requires us to dig deep, through traumas and shame and teachings that create the false self.”
A few years back I was fortunate enough to find someone trained as a Spiritual Director who took me through many of these levels to a deeper place in the well within. In many ways our conversations over the years looked alot like this one at the well. I preferred to stay on the surface but living water waited deeper.
Jesus calls to each of us to find that living water deep within us. Thomas Merton, an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar, refers to this as our true self. The person God created us to be. The very image of God within.
We allow the Spirit to dig a deep well within us through times of contemplative prayer, silent meditation, spiritual direction, and many other ancient practices we have long forgotten. I would love to talk about these things with you further if you are interested in knowing more.
For now know this: God is waiting at the well. In the heat of the noon day sun and in the chill of the darkest night.
No comments:
Post a Comment