“Everything I Ever Did” (John 4:5-42)

There are a lot of good things that come with living in a small town. People can know each other well and have relationships that go back a long way. There can be a strong sense of community as people do things together, engage in similar activities and participate in civic events. When people have grown up together, and especially if they have gone through tough times or even natural disasters together, a bond forms between them which isn’t easily broken and can last a lifetime.

However, being part of a close community in a small town can have its drawbacks as well. If something has happened in the past to damage or fracture a relationship, sometimes people can carry that hurt or guilt for a long time. If people have done something wrong, others can form opinions about them or they can have a reputation which can tarnish the way others see them. Even if no wrong has been committed, but others in the community think something isn’t right, stories and gossip can circulate which can result in people being excluded, shunned or ostracized. Once that happens, it can be very hard for people who find themselves on the outside to be accepted or welcomed back among the people of that small town again.

That’s what it could have been like for the Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well of her small town in this week’s gospel reading, John 4:5-42. Jesus talked about and offered her “the living water” (v10) which could satisfy her “thirst” (v13) and become “a fresh, bubbling spring” within her that would give her “eternal life” (v14). After she asked Jesus for that water, he asked her to get her husband (v16). The woman answered that she didn’t have a husband and Jesus replied, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband – for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now” (v17,18 NLT).

We don’t know why the woman had been married five times. It is possible that at least some, if not all of her husbands had died prematurely, leaving her widowed and in need of financial support. It could be that she had made some poor decisions in her relationships and had gone from marriage to marriage, trapped in a cycle which resulted in divorce. While we can imagine what her past was like, the story only tells us that her past relationships had meant that she needed to go to the local well at midday, under the blaze of the hot noon sun, in order to avoid the other locals who would have gone in the cool of the morning.

However, going to the well when she did brought her into contact with Jesus. And this encounter changed her life. She went to the well to avoid the locals, but after meeting Jesus she returned to tell the people who had shunned her or that she had wanted to avoid about what she had found. The woman went out to the well, lonely, isolated and rejected. She returned to the town full of joy and eager to tell others about the person she had found.

What caused this change in the woman was the grace she encountered in Jesus. He didn’t judge her, condemn her, shun her or reject her. He knew everything that she had done in her life, but he didn’t think less of her or make her feel bad about herself. Instead, Jesus talked with her. He engaged in respectful, non-judgmental conversation with her which communicated acceptance, value, compassion and grace. Jesus told her that he knew about her past marriages and her current living arrangements, not to burden her with guilt, but so that she would understand that Jesus knew about everything she had ever done and he still accepted and valued her as a person for whom he would give his life. The grace in this story is that by talking with her, Jesus gave her the living water of acceptance, value, respect and understanding.

We can thirst for these in our lives too. We have all done things that we’re not proud of, that we might be ashamed of and would prefer that no-one knew. We can try to hide things about ourselves or things we’d done from others because we can be afraid that they might judge us, criticise us, condemn or reject us. However, the grace that Jesus showed the Samaritan woman at the well is the same grace he shows us. Like the woman, Jesus knows everything we ever did, both good and bad. He doesn’t criticise, condemn us or reject us. Instead, Jesus offers us the life-giving water of grace as he accepts us, forgives us and values us. Jesus knows everything we ever did and chooses the way of the cross to liberate us from our bad choices, to free us from the guilt of our wrongs, to cover our shame with his goodness, and to give us value as God’s dearly loved children. In knowing everything that we’ve done, Jesus knows that we don’t deserve his grace but he gives it to us because God knows we need it.

When we drink of this life-giving grace that Jesus offers us through faith, it changes us the same way his grace changed the Samaritan woman at the well. Instead of trying to keep our past secret, we can be honest about what has happened because we trust that we are more important to God than the things we’ve done. The living water of God’s grace “becomes a fresh, bubbling spring” within us (v14 NLT) as God’s grace wells up within us and overflows into the lives of the people around us. Instead of wanting to hide what we’ve done, we can join the woman in her witness to others that Jesus knows everything we’ve ever done and he still loves us enough to give his life for us on the cross. This grace flows into the lives of the people around us as we accept others the way Jesus has accepted us, value others the way he has valued us, forgive others the way he has forgiven us, and love others the way he has loved us. One conversation with Jesus changed this woman from wanting to avoid the people of her town into someone who wanted to share the grace she had found in Jesus with them. Jesus pours the living water of his life-giving grace into our lives, so, in our relationships with the people around us, it can flow through us into their lives as well.

This small-town woman with a history of failed relationships and a bad reputation found grace in her conversation with Jesus. It’s my hope and prayer that, as we learn to listen to Jesus, we might find his grace to us as well, and his grace would become “a fresh, bubbling spring” within us, overflowing into the lives of the people around us. Whether we’re thirsty for acceptance, value, forgiveness or love, or whether we’re looking for how to accept, value, forgive or love the people around us, we can find it all in conversation with Jesus and the life-giving water of his grace.

More to think about or discuss:

• How would you feel if someone knew everything you’ve ever done, both good and bad? Why would you feel that way?
• What do you think it was about her conversation with Jesus that made such a difference in the life of the Samaritan woman? How might this be good news for you?
• What does this story say to you about finding grace in Jesus? What does it say to you about showing grace to others?