Lent 3A
March 8, 2026
The Rev. Patricia Templeton
St. Dunstan’s
Once again, Jesus is breaking the rules. The religious leaders of the day would be horrified if they saw him talking to the Samaritan woman at the well.
Certain things were very clear in the culture of Jesus’ day. One was that Jews did not talk to Samaritans, their bitter enemies for centuries. In fact, most Jews would have walked miles out of their way to avoid going through the Samaritan city at all.
Another rule was that Jewish men did not speak to women in public. “Who speaks much with a woman draws down misfortune on himself, neglects the words of law, and finally earns hell!” one writing of that time said.
Devoutly religious Jewish men would literally walk into walls to avoid looking at or talking to a woman.
But here is Jesus, a Jewish man, in a Samaritan city, sitting at the public well, the place where women come to draw water for their homes and families.
It is noon, the heat of the day, a time when most women avoided the hard, hot work of drawing and carrying heavy buckets and jars of water.
Early morning and evening, the cool hours of the day, were the busy times at the well. In fact, the well was the social gathering spot of the village, the place where news and gossip were exchanged, a place where women could relax and chat with their friends.
One can guess that a woman who comes to the well at noon is an outcast, someone who would rather avoid the stares and gossip of other women in the village. At noon she could go to the well alone, and not have to see or talk to anyone.
But not on this day. When the outcast Samaritan woman arrives at the well she sees a Jewish man sitting there. To her amazement he speaks to her.
“Give me a drink,” Jesus says.
The woman is shocked.
“How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” she asks, knowing that no Jew would dare drink from a dipper used by a Samaritan.
As is often the case, Jesus’ answer is oblique. “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’”
“How could you give me a drink when you don’t even have a bucket?” the woman replies.
The woman is at first unaware that her conversation with this strange man is proceeding on two levels. While she speaks of literal water, Jesus is speaking metaphorically about the abundance of the living water of God’s grace.
The living water that Jesus offers is more than anyone could ever drink. More than anyone could ever need. There is enough for all. No one will be left thirsty.
When the woman asks for some of this wonderful water, Jesus abruptly changes the topic. “Go call your husband and come back here,” he tells her.
The woman confesses that she has no husband.
Then Jesus tells the woman her darkest secrets, her deepest sins. “You’ve had five husbands,” he says, “and the one you are living with now is not your husband.”
Instead of fleeing in embarrassment or disgrace, the woman praises Jesus, calling him a prophet. Perhaps she is relieved that he has stated the facts of her life without berating or condemning her. He has seen who she truly is and still is willing to converse with her.
And then, amazingly, Jesus confesses to the woman that he is the Messiah. This sinful, outcast woman of an enemy race is the first person to whom Jesus confides his true identity.
The woman is so astonished that she leaves behind her water jar, surely one of her most valuable possessions, to run and tell others what she has experienced.
And many of the Samaritans, those people despised by the Jews, listen to the outcast woman’s testimony and come to see Jesus for themselves.
He stays there in supposedly enemy territory for two days. The Samaritans proclaim, “We know that he is truly the Savior of the world.”
The Samaritans knew what many Christians today have difficulty believing or accepting – that God’s grace offered through Jesus has no limits or boundaries. Everyone is included in the embrace of God’s abundant, amazing grace.
The salvation that Jesus offers the woman at the well, and those who come to know him through her, has three main characteristics.
First, Jesus’ salvation is inclusive. Jesus in not limited or intimidated by the barriers that we humans erect among ourselves.
He overlooks race, religion, gender, and sexual history to see the Samaritan woman as a human being, a fellow child of God. He treats her with dignity and respect.
Second, the salvation Jesus offers is compassionate. Jesus knows the truth about the woman at the well, but he does not condemn or belittle her
He does not try to scare her into belief with dire threats of judgment, nor does he wow her with miracles. He takes her seriously, listens to her, and gently leads her to faith.
As theologian Douglas John Hall says, “What serious Christians should remember is not so much the miracles of Jesus as his many conversations with people; his way of being with them.
“He did not command belief in them; where possible, he evoked faith. Jesus was willing to trust language; he did people the great honor of discoursing with them reasonably; he did not want to thrust change upon them, but to help it happen within them.”
Indeed, Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman is the longest recorded conversation between him and another individual. Jesus’ compassion and acceptance of the woman allowed her to enter into true discourse with him, and when she did, her life was changed.
Finally, the salvation that Jesus proclaims is abundant. The well of living water does not run dry. There is more than enough for everyone. Sharing God’s grace only increases it.
One of the major heresies of our time is that God’s grace is scarce; that salvation is limited, that we must guard the doors of our world, being careful who we let in.
Jesus shows us the opposite – that grace is abundant, that he is the savior not just of the Jews, or the Christians, or of one denomination or another, but of the world.
Inclusive, compassionate, abundant.
These words remind us what the business of the church should be about. Our goal should not be to construct boundaries, but to cross them, as Jesus did.
We should not try to scare or threaten people into faith, but should be Christ-like to all we meet, to be compassionate to the woman at the water cooler, or the man in the checkout line.
And finally, we should – like the woman at the well – share our experience with Jesus and our salvation with others, letting them know that they, too, are loved and forgiven, inviting them to experience the gift of God’s abundant grace, a gift that can transform lives.
Amen.