I appreciate the many thoughtful responses to The Woman at the Well, and I appreciate the expressions of concern and even anxiety. All these thoughts and feelings have their place in our society’s current moment of self-examination, and I’d like to respond. I think a good approach is to dig a little deeper.
“What was he thinking?” Bartholomew whispered, turning away from Jesus, who was sitting in the shade on the far side of the well, sipping water from a clay dipper. They glanced nervously after the woman hurrying away into the heart of Sychar.
“Do you think he got that dipper from her?” Peter asked.
“And he didn’t want the food we brought!” John said, leaning slightly around Peter to look at Jesus. “You know what that means. . .”
“We’ve seen all this before, guys,” James said. “That’s just him.”
“But this is different. These people are . . .” Jude said, a little too loudly.
“Careful,” Matthew whispered sheepishly. “And, after all, he took me in . . .” He knew his companions could never forget that he had actually worked for the Romans.
“Your . . . situation . . . is different,” Jude continued. “You’re one of us. But these people . . .”
“What do you expect?” Philip said. “We try to help them, but what do you expect? You take a bunch of people from who-knows-where in the wilderness and try to mix them with hard-working, upright people, and what do you get?”
“They can’t help it,” Simon sighed. “They can’t fit in.”
“What they want is handouts,” Judas said, glancing again up the road toward the city.
“A herd’s probably on the way right now,” Jude added. “What they need is a herder.”
“They’re taking advantage of him, you know,” Thomas complained. “And he doesn’t even notice.”
“It’s just him,” James reiterated. “That’s how good he is.”
“Rabbi is too generous for our good.” Judas said. “I mean, come on — there has to be a limit.”
“Exactly,” Simon said. “But what do we do? We need to convince him to tone it down. And you know how he is.”
At this point in our exploration, I’ll turn the story over to you:
Jesus 1: “Come over here — sit with me in the shade. I know you’re anxious. I get it — you’re right to be afraid of them. They are different. So, no worries: Stick together and go back across the border. I’ll stay. I’ll teach and heal them and offer them God’s love. You can wait for me there. Go ahead — here comes a crowd. I’ll deal with them.”
Jesus 2: “Come over here — sit with me in the shade. I know you’re anxious, but this isn’t about how you feel. It’s about living my love to our Neighbors, whoever they are and however they make you feel. It’s about seeing their suffering and taking it on yourself — before too long, you’ll see what that’s all about for me. But this is not about playing it safe or blaming anyone. It’s about being my heart and hands at work in the world. Get past your fears, and do what I’m doing, right now.”
We could talk a lot about whether they can assimilate and whether they just want handout and whether they are enough like us to warrant our love and concern. But that’s not really the question the woman at the well poses. What is the question, then? Let me put it like this:
Which Jesus do you want to follow?
Christians see the Comforter that Jesus sends his disciples as the Holy Spirit, another person in the divine triune nature. What if it’s simpler than that? What if it’s just the power of Jesus’ example? What if it’s the willingness to sacrifice himself that inspires the disciples with the courage to overcome their fear and follow Jesus 2?