If there's one person in the gospels who makes me sit up and think "that could've been me" she's in this reading.

If there's one reading that reminds me what a rebel Jesus really was - it's here.

If there's one passage in the whole of the bible that tells me what Jesus' attitude is to our people - it's this one.

This is a story that really shows Jesus challenging all the preconceived ideas about how to treat other people - that exposes prejudice and sexism - instead of turning a blind eye to prejudice he cuts through it and focuses on what is important - he speaks of God's living water - a water of eternal life, which is living water, running water. We all need to be touched by this. The water of eternal life is moving. It is living, not dead. It is moving water. It is alive.

In contrast are the barriers, the walls, the man-made rules that keep people apart.

What is not alive, what is deadly, is the rule of caste and class, apartheid and segregation, exclusion, homophobia, bigotry. Rules like: "Godly men don't talk to women;" "Jews have no dealings with Samaritans;" "only men can be priests;" "gay people aren't welcome in church."

Jesus was alone that day. He was thirsty and he asked a woman for a drink. In those days it would have been a taboo for Jesus to speak to a woman in such a way - another wall, another barrier that should have kept Jesus and the Samaritan woman apart. It was the barrier of gender. It's not too hard to see, in the sexism of those days, parallels with the prejudices of today.

Jesus should not have been talking to a woman. Any devout Jewish man should normally have no conversation with a woman who was not his wife or close relative. This wasn't just a custom: it was the law. And yet, Jesus transcended those kinds of prejudices and reached out to her and asked her for a drink. It wasn't the only religious tradition he violated through speaking to her - because she was a Samaritan. In those days the Samaritans and the Jews would have nothing to do with each other. Yet, he transcended those faith boundaries as well and reached out to her for a drink of water.

She is, perhaps, one of the most broken people in the whole Gospel story. She comes at noon to draw water, rather than in the early morning when the other women of the village would be there; it suggests that she is ashamed of something, or perhaps she has learnt to go to the well when it isn't busy - because that way it avoids confrontations and comments. In all likelihood she is the subject of scorn and derision. People look down upon her because of her relationships.

So here she is trying to avoid being seen, and instead there is someone at the well. Not just someone, but a man. Not just a man - but a Jewish man, in a time and place when men and women were not to be seen in public together, and Jews and Samaritans had nothing to do with one another.

So she is startled to see him there. She is even more startled that he speaks to her.

Jesus, we are told, is tired. As he addresses this broken, lonely and ashamed woman, he asks, "Give me a drink." It is an invitation to be at risk. It is an invitation to cross boundaries and ancient taboos. But he is thirsty, and she has a bucket, and there is the well of their ancestor Jacob.

She's a woman who isn't used to people showing her respect, who isn't used to being talked to like an equal. But Jesus reaches out to her from his need, not hers. By reaching out to her from his own need he gives her dignity and respect - there is something she can do for him.

Jesus gives her identity and purpose. Suddenly something new, something real, wells up inside of her. It is a new confidence, a new spirit. And from this new spirit her real thirst is revealed. It is a thirst that will not be quenched by the waters at the bottom of Jacob's well. She thirsts for real life, authentic life, and Jesus gives it to her without cost and without condition.

After a brief, blunt and challenging discussion, her response is that of total commitment. And why not? She, who had no purpose, but only heartache, is suddenly given the gift of eternal life with Jesus who is revealed to her as God's own anointed one.

Jesus was talking to the enemy. And he was talking to a woman. Because that Samaritan woman would become an evangelist.

She would spread the word. She would go back to her village and tell the story of the man who might indeed be the Christ.
Upon her experience at the well, she goes into the village and starts to tell people about the man she's met - this is someone who hid away from other people only a short while before - but now she goes up to people in the village and starts talking.

Hearing Jesus talk of the living water and then being touched by it liberates her from all that weighs her down. He enters into a relationship with her first. He gives her value. He gives her purpose. He gives her new life by simply letting her know there is something she can do for him. We wonder if we might approach the poor and the broken-hearted as he does.

This story means to ask us if we are willing to reveal our faith to others. Later on in the Gospel the disciples sound so utterly unlike this woman. They all jockey for positions of power and prestige in his kingdom and in his church. They sound so much like us. And yet, what is it that Jesus asks them? 'Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?' He asks us to consider our thirst. He invites us to acknowledge our real thirst so he can give us the living water that wells up inside of us.

How ready are we to go into our Village and show, by how we act, that God's living water is running inside us?

Amen.

(Dan Joseph)

This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.