What on earth is Integral Mission? And how does it relate to youth work? Click here to take part in our Integral Youth Work Audit. But first, read this story...
Jesus was thirsty, tired from the journey and sweating in the heat of the day. He stretched back against a tree and mopped his forehead in the shade of its branches. Just being in Samaria was contentious. Centuries of religious rivalry divided the sons of Jacob and here was Jesus, a Jew in Samaritan heartland, just a stones throw from his well. He could not so much as breathe here without walking a political tightrope.
Then out of the corner of his eye he spied her, a woman walking alone to draw water. She was so remarkable he could not help but stare as he shrank back into the shadow. Who came to get water at this time, and without company? Some sudden, desperate, reckless compassion pumped his heart; to be this excluded was unjust, and this loneliness must be reversed. Plunging off the tightrope without a second thought, Jesus ambled out from under the tree and made his way towards the well.
When the woman reached the well Jesus was sat by its side, doodling in the dusty sand. He raised his head and smiled. ‘Would you draw me a drink?’ he asked kindly. The woman was visibly stunned. She had hesitated to even continue to the well when she saw Jesus approach it. Now this man, this Jewish man, was asking her, a clear outcast – a Samaritan outcast, a Samaritan woman, to be his patron and draw him water from the very well that represented every division they could have upheld. Was this a trick, or some stunt? Who was this man? She was not shy of men – quite the opposite – but this man had intrigued and unnerved her.
Jesus smiled again. ‘To be honest, you should be asking me for a drink’ he said, his eyes dancing mischievously as he laid his empty hands on the rim of the well. The woman’s eyes narrowed. Was he making fun of her? ‘You don’t have a bucket’ she retorted graciously. ‘Are you somehow greater than Jacob?’ Jesus lent over the side and gazed down into the watery depths. ‘Is your thirst really quenched by this water?’ he asked, his voice echoing against the earthen walls. Straightening up, he turned to the woman, his face true and compelling. ‘The water I can give quenches thirst, like a spring that wells up and overflows into life.’ He did not drop his gaze, and there was something in his eyes that made the woman smile.
‘So give me this water then’ she laughed. ‘I would love not to have to come here every day!’ This man was teasing her. But he was not after what her other men had wanted. She was warming to him, and his way. He was here at the cost of his reputation, but he did not seem to care, or even be aware of it. What was it that he wanted?
‘Go and get your husband and come back here’ said Jesus suddenly, his gaze not stalling nor his manner changing. But the woman’s face turned to stone. ‘I don’t have a husband’ she said quietly after a pained pause. So this was the man’s mission; to humiliate her for her indiscretions. The other women would avoid her, but this man had come over deliberately to embarrass her. A well of memory threw out its deepest hurts within her. She prepared to walk away.
Jesus did not move. ‘You don’t have a husband’ he agreed. ‘The truth is you have had five husbands, and the man you are now with is not your husband.’
The woman froze mid-turn. Memories erupted in her head as a geyser, spraying burning steam which fell from her eyes as tears. The weight of her pain and of her shame rooted her to the spot on which she stood. This man was her interrogator, and she was his victim, with no recourse. ‘I see you are a prophet’ she said, quietly.
Jesus did not look down. They just stood there in pregnant silence. Finally she looked up at him, she could see his eyes; they were wet with tears. She did not move. If this guy was a prophet he was different. She knew, though she did not know how, that her past was not the issue here; it was her. He was somehow in her head and somehow in her heart and the geyser cooled to a spring, a soothing stream of hope for her future.
She looked to her right at the barren mountain peak. ‘We worship here, and you Jews tell us we should worship in Jerusalem’ she sighed. Jesus smiled. This woman was smart. ‘Trust me’, he replied, ‘there’s a time coming when you won’t worship here or in Jerusalem.’ His look told her everything she needed to know. ‘There’s a time coming when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth – that’s who he’s searching for,’ he continued, turning to sit against the well. He looked up at the sky and then back at the woman. Her face betrayed a smile. Was this really happening? She felt so many things; like she had suddenly woken refreshed from the deepest of sleeps, like she had been freed from an unseen prison. The midday light seemed brighter than ever before. She turned back to face him, without defence. ‘I know that the Messiah is coming’ she said, though her words seemed to hang, begging the truth she longed to hear. Jesus laughed; a deep and happy laugh. He looked towards the trees where his disciples could be seen returning, and then back to the woman. Her eyes burned with hope. In an imperceptible moment she had transformed from a woman condemned to a person free. No longer trapped in the stalemate of two religions, only united in their love of her shame, she had seen the future, a different kind of worship, which would mean a different way of treating people, and a different kind of world. ‘Yes,’ said Jesus, feeling like the heat of the sun was heaven burning itself into the earth. Leaning towards her, he whispered with a deep and gentle smile. ‘He is – it’s me’.
(Taken from John 4:1-26)
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