This week, the lectionary takes us to another passage from John’s gospel. This conversation Jesus has at the well with the Samaritan woman is the longest true conversation Jesus has in John’s gospel. Many times, such as in our reading from last week about the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, conversations end up with Jesus going into a monologue. But in this instance, Jesus has an extended theological conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well.

Just a little background will tell us how unusual this conversation would have been. First of all, Jews and Samaritans did not like each other. They didn’t share anything in common because the Jews thought the Samaritans were unclean. The Jews and Samaritans also disagreed about where the proper place to worship God was located. The Jews claimed that the proper place to worship God was at the Temple in Jerusalem while the Samaritans believed that true worship occurred on a specific mountain.

For these reasons and others, many Jews would not travel through the region of Samaria. Even though the most direct route to Jerusalem was through Samaria, most Jews would have taken the extra travel time and gone around the border of Samaria, but not Jesus. Jesus chose to march right on through the region of Samaria and as we see from our passage, that isn’t the only unusual thing Jesus does.

It’s broad daylight when Jesus sits down to rest at Jacob’s well in Samaria. When Jesus strikes up a conversation with a woman who has come to fill her water jug at the well, Jesus is once again going against the tradition of the day. Men did not speak to women that they were not related to. It just wasn’t done. But here Jesus is at the well talking to a woman and a Samaritan woman at that.

Jesus asks the woman for a drink of water, showing that he doesn’t seem to care at all about the whole idea that Samaritans are unclean and therefore shouldn’t share anything with Jews. This request sets the stage for the theological dialogue that will follow.

Last week, we looked at the conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus. Many contrasts can be made between Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Nicodemus traveled to see Jesus in secret under the cover of darkness while the Samaritan woman meets Jesus in public at the brightest time of day.

Nicodemus doesn’t seem to grasp what Jesus tells him about being born of the Spirit and about the Son of Man being lifted up. Nicodemus seemed to fade into the background as Jesus goes on with his teaching while the woman at the well actively engages Jesus in conversation. The woman at the well shows through her questions and responses to Jesus that she has an understanding of the issues he is talking about.

But the most pointed contrast between Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman at the well is what they do after they leave Jesus. Nicodemus merely fades into the background once Jesus begins his monologue and is only briefly referenced two other times in the gospel, one of which occurs after Jesus’ death. However, the Samaritan woman, following her conversation with Jesus, is so quick to run and tell her fellow villagers what has happened to her that she even leaves behind her water jar.

Nicodemus doesn’t seem to be too changed by his conversation with Jesus while the Samaritan woman has had her whole life changed. No longer is she a woman with an interesting marital history who comes to the well to draw water but she has become a witness to Christ. She runs to her village and tells them that she has met a man who has told her everything she has ever done.

Now let’s stop for a minute and think about her proclamation. What would it be like if we were to meet a person who was able to tell us everything we have ever done? What would be our reaction?

In the movie Evan Almighty, Steve Carell plays Evan Baxter, a congressman who gets elected under the slogan, "Change the World." When Evan encounters God, played by Morgan Freeman, he doesn’t believe that he has met God. So God tells Evan a little bit about his life: wife’s name, children’s names, mother’s maiden name. Evan seems a little put off by this but brushes it off by saying that he must have gotten this information from the Internet. Then God goes on to tell Evan a little more about himself; things that no one else would know. Evan seems pretty shook up at this point and after nervously laughing it off, ends up running inside his house.

Would it be disconcerting for us to find someone who could tell us everything we have ever done? What would we think about that person? Would we come to the conclusion that Evan came to? That this information could have been acquired through the Internet or some other research tool? Or, would we come to a place of questioning faith and ask the question that the Samaritan woman asked: "He cannot be the Messiah, can he?"

The other people in the village don’t ask questions of the woman when they hear her testimony but they immediately leave their town and walk out to the well to see this man she has spoken about. Already, when the people get to the well, many of the villagers believe this man the woman spoke about is the Messiah. They believed merely on the testimony she gave. They believed through her witness.

When the rest of the villagers, meet Jesus at the well, they convince him to stay with them for two days. After Jesus’ time living among them, more people believe in Jesus as the Messiah. Their belief is no longer based solely upon the witness the woman offered, though that probably set the foundation, but their belief is based upon their own experience of Jesus. Unlike Nicodemus, who faded quietly into the night, the woman at the well has shouted through the streets in broad daylight her witness to Jesus as the Messiah.

Through her conversation with Jesus, this woman has experienced a renewal, a re-birth through water and Spirit. She has truly received the living water Jesus has promised.

Water is an amazing substance. Much of our earth is covered with it. Behind the house where my family lived in Georgia there was a small stream. My sister and I would spend hours playing in the stream. If the day was hot, we would wade in the cool water which in some areas would reach our knees.

But in the Fall, leaves would fall into the stream and cause blockages in the water’s flow. One of our favorite things to do in the Fall, was to clear out the leaves from parts of the stream. There was something wondrous about seeing a pool of water that had become mostly stagnant become again a flowing stream with the removal of a few leaves.

As I read this passage, I thought about that stream becoming unblocked and once again becoming living water. When the woman met Jesus at the well, she had a lot of questions. Through talking with Jesus she was able to meet a person who knew all about her and talked to her any way. Without the leaves of everything she had done to block the flow, she felt living water springing up within her as she realized who Jesus is and she became a witness for him. The living water that was working within her spilled over to her friends and neighbors as she proclaimed the gospel to them.

Just as Christ was able to tell the woman everything she had ever done, Christ knows all we have ever done, the good and the bad, and he lived and died for us anyway. Because of what Christ has done for us, perhaps we can, during this renewing season of Lent, clear away all the leaves that are blocking the flow of the Spirit within us and feel living water springing up within us as well.