Contemporary Midrash Interview of the Woman “after” the Well
Love flows from Christ
(Also see follow up incremental midrash of Love Flows into Discipleship)
The Woman of Samaria at the Well, James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum
Woman: Come with me to see a man who told me everything I have ever done!
Divinity: Jesus had just entered Samara, thirsty from his walk from Judea heading to Galilee with his disciples. It was about noon and he was silently sitting at the town well, filled with love and being present to respond to the Father’s will.
Woman: As I approached the well he asked me for a drink of water. I felt emboldened to ask; how can you ask me for a drink?
Divinity: It was a simple request for a little bit of water. Her heart opened with our prayers, preparing her for far more.
Woman: With his friendly warm and inviting eyes, I was comfortable talking to him.
Divinity: Jesus’s spirit appeared to her physically in His (our) humility, demeanor, and a gentle smile while her soul began its surfacing,
Woman: I felt myself surrendering to the desire to want to know the man.
Divinity: Jesus knew to challenge her to consider the impossible with a paradox.
Jesus: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him for a drink, and he would have given you living water.”
Woman: I was drawn in further. I had no idea what living water was. All I could say was that he had no bucket, and the well was deep, where do you get that living water? “Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?”
Divinity: Jesus, as of that moment was still not fully visible to her.
Woman: At the same time I struggled to grasp what seemed beyond my ability to understand. I wanted to hear more and he was being patient with me. I began to realize that he could not be speaking of ordinary water. More questions flooded my mind. Perhaps he was asking me to rise above to more lofty thoughts? Could I believe something I could not see? Was he talking in metaphors? I know I spend a lot of time on my own seemly insatiable needs.
Divinity: Jesus knew she needed help to understand.
Jesus: “Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
Woman: I had to have some of this water. Maybe it would satisfy my endless thirst that I had not been able to describe. Could it help me link my ordinary life with the little faith I have to bring me closer to God? Perhaps I can be hopeful again. I could not resist asking for it. I realize he is no longer ordinary and I begin to feel my smallness.
Divinity: She will never be thirsty again. Jesus also thirst for her love. His love flowed outward to fill a void in her life.
Woman: I did not want to let go of the conversation. He had challenged me with a request of the heart. He asked me to get my husband, and come back to talk with him.” I was immediately filled with shame. He asked me for something I cannot give to him. My guilt filled me with darkness, just when I was I beginning to sense light.
Divinity: Jesus unconditionally offered her forgiveness, mercy and compassion.
Woman: I had no choice to let him know that “I have no husband” but in my heart I knew it is not the whole truth.
Divinity: Jesus reached directly into her past, present and future knowing the full truth.
Jesus: ‘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. What you have said is true!’
Woman: I began to feel a great weight lifting off my shoulders.
Divinity: The candor of the conversation surfaced multiple interior feelings. She was surrounded in light and peace, her confession released shackles, freeing her to call out for more.
Woman: I let him know I believe he must be a prophet. I asked him why he think the God he worships is in Jerusalem and our God is on our mountain.
Divinity: Her encounter and trust deepened as she listened intently for his answer.
Jesus: “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.”
Woman: I wondered, when was this hour? Could the hour be in that moment? Is God present now, not dependent on me being on the mountain?
Divinity: She is Christ’s neighbor, surrounded in unconditional love, Jesus began to prepare her to do the same.
Jesus: ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Divinity: She has received and entered the mystery.
Woman: I grasped that I was in this place he spoke of. I began to think about what I was to do with this new knowledge. More questions came from within. Will he be there with me when this “place” of future conversations moves?
Divinity: Jesus saw her belief, confident she will comprehend deeper truths:
Jesus: “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.”
Woman: Any doubts about what this man shared with me evaporated.
Divinity: Forgiveness, Faith, Love and Hope filled her to overflowing. A new horizon became visible to her. In that hour, the Father that she thought was at a great distance is always with her in Spirit. In her reaching out to know Jesus, she discovered that He had reached back to her.
Woman: I want to learn how to more deeply worship, to invite this Spirit in, as I thought the Spirit was only for Prophets.
Divinity: Her heart opened to allow in the more she wants to know.
Jesus: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Divinity: She recognize the truth that God is the love that surrounds her.”
Woman: My joy in the moment allowed me to soar into areas I have not been before.
Divinity: What seemed out of reach now attracts her, moving her beyond her previous limits into a reality that she has longed for. She was (is) at peace, embraced in beauty she has never known.
Woman: In this light new light, I let him know that I believed that Christ the Messiah is coming to proclaim all things to us.
Divinity: The intensity of the moment increased as it reached the height of Jewish tradition.
Jesus: “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
Woman: My view could not have been grandeur. It’s as if I was standing on the tallest mountain absorbing everything my eyes could see. I knew instantly that this man was the Messiah.
Divinity: The disciples had returned from acquiring food, but were astonished to see that he was speaking with a Samarian woman. Even Jesus’s disciples needed their hearts opened more to love unconditionally.
Woman: I can only guess what they are thinking. “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with me?” Do they understand he is inviting me to join with them in my own way?
Divinity: Jesus’s encounter with the woman is also a lesson for them.
Jesus: ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.’
Woman: I became certain that they like me were drawn to him for the spiritual food he possessed.
Divinity: It was (is) time for her to become the laborer, to re-enter her village renewed in hope, peace and love, her past was left behind symbolically as the water jar.
Woman: I want to share what I have learned and am becoming. I have had an encounter with the Messiah, you can also do the same. Come see him as I do.
Divinity: She is not a woman with nobility or wealth but with an experience that could be important for you. Look at her radiating with joy. She is happy that you are going with her to know Jesus better. She also heard Jesus’s friends urging him to eat.
Woman: Maybe they are not in the place I have been. They did not seem to understand he is life giving water.
Divinity: Earlier today she would not have appreciated it when he told her of food which you do not know.
Woman: I am only beginning to understand this conversation is about consuming and sharing his living water and food. It is the fruit of the mystery hidden within our own relationships with him then outwards to others.
Divinity: The disciples were perplexed, earlier they went to buy food and now he does not want any.
Jesus: ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.’
Divinity: This is the same truth of what God desires from you in your unique ways.
Woman: With my new found courage I continue to tell my story so you can receive with gratitude not just what you need but to have what others need.
Divinity: She did not yet know billions would be influenced by her encounter. It continues to ripple, challenging you to walk in His light, concern, mercy, generosity, and desire for us to Love God and neighbor.