Christopher Campbell

Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.

Beloved in the body of Christ,

Today's Gospel is one which speaks directly to our time in many ways.

We see Jesus resting at the well of Jacob when a Samaritan woman approaches him. His action then, of merely asking her for water, may seem small, but to the people of this time this was unheard of, as John says: Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.

To respond to this Samaritan woman's shock of being asked by a Jew for water Jesus responds:

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.

As Christians we are meant to live as Christ Jesus, but what does this mean today, and in the context of this Gospel?

The most obvious lesson might be that we are meant to reach across cultural, social, and political backgrounds to ask for and offer help when it is needed. However, there is more to this story, and more to its message.

Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.

We are being challenged in this passage to complete one of the most difficult charges within Christianity: evangelism.

In its history, Judaism was not just a religion, it was a cultural heritage handed down genealogically. But what Christ offers is faith and redemption for both the Jew and Gentile.

What we are being asked to do now is to offer this faith and redemption to all those around us. And Jesus has shown us the way to do this.

I often feel a negative connotation associated with the word evangelism, and I feel much of this has come from how evangelism occurs nowadays, it is too aggressive. Help is offered, but it often seems almost transactional, as if there is a buyer and seller of hope.

What Jesus shows us instead is that even as the son of God he will ask for help, even across cultural borders. And through purely the action of asking for help, he offers hope.

In the same way we must humble ourselves, and we must ask others for help. And in asking for this help, perhaps we will offer others hope!

May you live in Truth, Peace, and Love,

—Chris

Chris is a current member of Beloved in the Desert Episcopal Service Corps. He serves at St. Philip’s, working extensively on tech support, as well as planning a Tucson community-wide compline. Beloved in the Desert is an intentional community for young adults that fosters beloved Christian disciples through service, study, and prayer in the Tucson borderlands. To learn more or donate to this ministry, click here.