John 4:12

“Come think of it,” the woman continues, “Do you think you are greater than Jacob, our patriarch?  He gave us this well; he actually drank from this well; his children and his livestock as well!” John 4:12 EFP

Now the woman begins to get feisty with Jesus.  Sensing a disconnect between what Jesus is offering and the reality she sees in front of her, she decides to challenge the stranger.  I like her spirit.  “Jacob drank from this well,” she blasts back. “His sons did too.  Oh yeah, his cattle and sheep drank too!  They either had the wherewithal to do it or had someone do it for them.  But you, well you don’t even have a cup to hold water to drink.”  She is obviously not afraid to speak up for herself.  Perhaps that is because she is used to having to defend herself from hurtful words and piercing glances as they present themselves.  I like her spunk.

The stories she has heard growing up were the measure of what greatness was.  Jacob, later called Israel, was the father of all Israelites, including Samaritans.  She may have never met the patriarch, but she knew his story like the back of her hand.  She had memorized the narrative as any good girl would have.  But that’s all she knew.  Her measure of greatness was a man long ago dead and buried.  All the men she had known since them never came close to measuring up the legend of Jacob.  But even he needed a cup to drink the water that came from this well.  This Johnny-come-lately did not seem to grasp the significance of a cup.

The woman is feisty, but she is also blinded by the limited perspective she has of the workings of God in human history.  These are great stories, but as I tend to do, they are stories of events that took place long ago.  I need evidence of God working today.  In the absence of convincing evidence I also throw obstacles in the path of God’s purposes on my behalf.  Jacob was still giving them water millennia after he drank it himself.  That is a tough act to follow…unless you are Jesus, the Son of the Living God.