When What You’re Called Won’t Matter

By: Dave Sims

…the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter... John 4:22 MSG

These are Jesus’s words to the disreputable Samaritan woman he met at the well at Sychar. John tells us that the time was noon. Given her multiple failed marriages, this suggests the woman had come to get water at a time she could avoid the other women of the village, who customarily fetched their water in the morning hours. Jesus’s disciples had left him behind so that they might acquire food in the local village. Jesus struck up the conversation by asking the woman for a drink. She was surprised by Jesus’s request because he broke at least two social taboos. Men, and especially rabbis, did not speak to women, and Jews detested Samaritans. The verbal banter that ensued indicated the woman was not intimidated by Jesus’s maleness or his Jewish identity.

When she expressed curiosity about how he was going to draw water from the well, Jesus told her that he possessed living water, which when consumed would permanently quench one’s thirst. The woman asked for the water.

Jesus then changed the subject, or so it seemed. Seeing that the woman was intrigued, he asked her to go get her husband. Unaware that Jesus knew her story, she said she had no husband. Jesus then revealed his knowledge of her life, acknowledging that she had had five husbands and that the man she was currently with was not her husband.

Yikes! Busted! How did this man know her story? And, if he knew her story, why would he treat her as an equal?

Despite being exposed, the woman did not emotionally cave in. She maintained her composure and showcased her own conversational skills, attempting to “one-up” Jesus by changing the subject herself. She did this by speculating that Jesus must be a prophet, then adding a controversial theological question sure to divert the conversation away from her marital history: Where can we legitimately worship God?

Jesus responded very directly, saying that salvation is of the Jews and the Jerusalem temple is the place for worship. However, he included a caveat. He spoke of a time when those who worship God will not do so in a temple but in spirit and truth.

Then Jesus spoke these words, “…the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.”

She must have wondered: Where and when could there ever be a time when what you’re called does not matter? In what place or among what people would her past not define her? She didn’t know that acceptance from God is the work of God, that He must make us acceptable to Himself. She had not heard John’s previous story in which Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about God’s Spirit brooding over us to birth us by His Spirit. However, she did hear Jesus’s claim about the living water. Could this somehow be connected to how worship will break free from a geographical locale?

Not fully comprehending Jesus’s words and not completely buying his viewpoint about salvation coming exclusively through the Jews, the woman expressed her hope in the long-awaited Messiah, saying that when he arrives, he would set the record straight.

Jesus calmly and gently responded, “I AM he.”

What? Are you kidding me? She couldn’t believe her ears. And yet, it made sense. How else would he know her story? But he doesn’t fit the profile. And yet, he’s better than what I expected.

They were interrupted at that point by his disciples returning with the food. Likely sensing their disfavor, the woman dismissed herself and returned to her village, full of enthusiasm, telling the other villagers that she believed she had encountered the Messiah.

John then records a short conversation between Jesus and his disciples and concludes the woman’s story with an epilogue. Her experience had provoked enough interest in the other villagers that they sought out Jesus for themselves and consequently committed themselves to him. In a demonstration of faithful love, Jesus stayed with them two days longer.

John’s inclusion of the interaction between Jesus and his disciples after they returned with the food seems to have been so Jesus could address the disciples’ racial prejudice.

He began the conversation by responding to their desire that he should eat. He said, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about”, referring to his “doing the will of his Father” as this food. The Father’s will was the redemptive work that was taking place through Jesus’s every action and interaction. Included in his redeeming action was his intent to include the Samaritans in his kingdom. He described them as fruit, ripe and ready for harvest Their readiness was evident by their response to Jesus’s invitation to know him and follow him.

The disciples then watched as Jesus interacted with the Samaritan converts for those two days. They saw these people they despised being filled with delight and awe at Jesus’s teaching. Though outsiders their entire lives, this hated race of people had become insiders, holding onto the same hope the disciples were holding onto. They had been given the water that quenched their thirst.

When the villagers said their goodbyes to Jesus and the disciples, in spite of their many unanswered questions, their souls were pervaded with a sense of well-being and hopefulness. And even though they were still Samaritans, what they were called didn’t matter anymore.