The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
March 27, 2011
Vol. 14 no. 13
Dirty water is meant to be a pun, both Biblical and geographical. Both scripture readings today deal with water: dirty water in the wilderness for the wandering Israelites; and water from Jacob’s well in an unfriendly Samaritan town. “Dirty Water” – of course! – is a 1966 rock song by The Standells, singing of their love of their hometown Boston, down by the banks of the River Charles. I have spent more time down by those banks than I wish to admit, and our guest Dan Hotchkiss has far outdone me in that category.
Water is liquid life for the human species and particularly so in the arid Near East. In the Exodus, the lack of clean water confronts the former slaves with one more dilemma. They have escaped the fury of the Pharaoh’s army, have walked through the Red Sea, received manna from heaven, but with no water they are back to square one with the prospect of death. Naturally, they blame Moses, but God figures a good rock will be all they need. They slake their thirst, but not their thirst for security.
Where Jesus gets thirsty is the issue, not when. The evangelist John relates several longish stories and this one is crammed full of déjà vu. Jesus is a stranger passing through and asks a woman for a drink of water from a well. The original audience would have picked up the “down by the well” routine, remembering how first Rebekah was found for Isaac at a well and later Jacob encountered Rachel at another well. The audience as well would have known that Jesus wasn’t supposed to talk with a woman, let alone a non-Jewish one. Yet, they kept talking, about water and real life. Funny thing is, Jesus never took a drink.
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan