Sam Bush, “A God Who Listens and a God Who Speaks”

If you’ve been to the DMV or an airport security line recently, you’ll probably appreciate the story from The Onion that reads: “Report: It’s Not Okay To Just Start Talking to People You Don’t Know.” This report from Stanford states that approaching a stranger and saying “Beautiful day,” “That’s nice, where did you get that?” or “Hello” is, under no circumstance, acceptable. Even when you are both in a long line that doesn’t seem to be moving – the appropriate thing to do is to face forward and keep silent.” Now, maybe you’re the type who has “never met a stranger” (just a friend they haven’t spoken to yet) but I wonder if at least some of those “friends” would have preferred to remain anonymous. 

These days, we seem to be opting out of conversation in favor of online communication. Face-to-face interaction is far too disorderly. Eye contact is too intense, the pauses and interruptions require too much of our attention. And yet, true connection between people often happens when there’s time to read each other and react, almost like a dance.

With that in mind, the account of Jesus and the woman of Samaria is quite a tango. It’s the longest conversation recorded between Jesus and anyone. John’s Gospel gives us a treasure trove of little details. We know what time it was - it was about noon - and that Jesus was feeling tired; and that the setting is intimate because the disciples had gone to the city to buy food. 

Now, at that time, the well was, literally, the watering hole, the place to socialize. The well was where you caught up on current events, it’s where you gossipped, it’s where you maybe met that special someone - the most famous couples of the Old testament - Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel and Moses and Zipporah - all found each other at a well. It was like the original dating app (“Ya, we met at the well”). In this passage, we have the oddest of couples meeting at a well. 

Let’s dive in. It says Jesus, who was traveling from Judea up to Galilee, “came to a Samaritan city called Sychar.” Now, it’s worth mentioning that strict Jews would bypass Samaria completely. The Samaritans had a blend of Jewish and Gentile ancestry and, because they were racially mixed, they were considered by many to be unclean and outside the reach of God’s grace. Even drinking water from the same jar would defile them. But what does Jesus do? He not only goes directly into enemy territory, but he engages with the enemy who certainly was not expecting anyone like him to engage with her. 

Jesus throws out a casual conversation starter, “Give me a drink” and she’s completely caught off guard. “How is that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” You see, it would have been scandalous for a Jewish man to talk publicly to any woman, let alone a Samaritan. He replies by saying, “Trust me, if you knew who you were dealing with, you would ask me for a drink. Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.” In other words, he takes the conversation from Level 1 to Level 3, getting at the heart of who she is and what she longs most for. She takes the bait. She says, “I’ll take some of that water.” 

By this point in the conversation, it would have been suspicious for a man and woman to be speaking together alone so he says, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” He’s taking the conversation to Level 5 (which is the highest level, in case you didn’t know). He takes it to where she is most vulnerable.

And she deflects, saying, “I have no husband,” which is a half-truth. A half-truth is like when you say, “I noticed we’re out of ice cream,” when we all know who really polished off the ice cream. The full story is that this woman had had five husbands and was living with a prospective sixth. It doesn’t necessarily mean she was promiscuous - at the very least those five men had either died or divorced her - but she would have developed a reputation living with this man who hadn’t offered her the security of marriage. This would have been widely seen as immoral. 

So she hides behind her anonymity. She assumes the man she’s talking to doesn’t know her backstory. But Jesus calls her on it. “You are right in saying ‘I have no husband’ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.” You can just picture the shock in her face like someone on a daytime talk show after trashing his ex-girlfriend and then they bring her out from backstage and she’s heard everything. But Jesus doesn’t lecture or berate her; nor does he mindlessly affirm her and say “You do you!” Like a light, he shines into the hidden part of her life to reveal what is true.  He’s not embarrassed by the truth. He’s not interested in teaching her a lesson. He just wants to keep the conversation going. 

Eventually he will finally introduce himself as the Messiah and she can’t help but run to share the news - “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!” - and many in her village come to believe. It’s no coincidence that this disgraced woman would become one of the founding members of our church, which is also known as the bride of Christ. And, wouldn’t you know, Jesus and his bride met at a well!

There’s a memoir called Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri (pronounced Nie-eh-ree), an Iranian refugee who fled persecution for being a Christian. At one point, he asks the reader, “Would you rather have a God who listens or a god who speaks? Be careful of the answer… At their worst, the people who want a god who listens are self-centered. They just want to live in the land of "do as you please." And the ones who want a god who speaks are cruel. They just want law and justice to crush everything. This is the kind of thing you live your whole life thinking about probably. Love is empty without justice. Justice is cruel without love.” And then he says, “Oh and in case it wasn't obvious the answer is both. God should be both. If a god isn't, that is no god.”

Here we find that Jesus is a god who listens and a god who speaks, a god who enjoys being in conversation with people. He is a god who knows, a god who has never met a stranger, a god to whom all hearts are open and no secrets hid. More than that, he is a god who justifies. He knows this woman’s sin and knows that she cannot justify it herself so he does on her behalf. As the Latin writer, Publilius Syrus, said, “Acquitting the guilty convicts the judge.” Jesus, our righteous judge, would rather convict himself than convict the guilty. 

Do you remember how John specifies that “It was about noon?” Only one other time does John mention that it was about noon, maybe you’ll recognize it. “Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover, and it was about noon. Pilate said to the Jews, ‘Here is your King!’ They cried out, ‘Away with him! Crucify him! And he handed him over to them to be crucified.” Jesus starts this conversation with, “Give me a drink” but he never gets his drink until he is on the Cross where he says, “I thirst” and is given sour wine that will moisten his parched throat so that he may proclaim a loud cry for all to hear: “It is finished.” In other words, your thirst to be deeply connected to the God who listens, speaks, knows and justifies you is quenched by his blood. He has interrupted our lives of solitude to introduce himself, to be in conversation, that we may thirst no more. Amen.