Chance Encounter?

Did you ever do something intentionally but make it look like it happened by chance?

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”  (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)  The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “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.”  The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?  Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?”  Jesus said to her, “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.”  The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” - John 4:7-26

You probably know the story.

Jesus is hanging out at a well in Samaria, while his traveling companions are out looking for a place to buy food, and along comes a woman to draw water.

I wonder if this encounter just happened, or if Jesus knew she would come by.

The woman came to the well in the middle of the day, rather than in the morning when the other women would come.  She didn't want to encounter them.  She probably didn't expect to see anyone at that time.

She is surprised that Jesus knows about her, but chances are, the town knew her and avoided her.

So, maybe Jesus was expecting her.

After all, he was traveling through Samaria, where Jews would not go.  Samaritans were avoided by Jews.

Why would he be there if not to find someone who might need his help?

In the end, the woman who was rejected by the people of the town would up being the one to lead them to the true Messiah.

The stone that was rejected?

If Jesus had approached the woman, he would have been rejected.  That was the custom.  Men were not to be alone with women, and the fact that she was reluctant at first shows that she understood the custom and abided by it.

Isn't that proof that she, though shunned by the community, was worthy of God's grace?

So, who is to say it didn't happen this way?  Jesus sent his disciples away so he could wait by the well for the woman who others rejected.  This would give him a chance to save her, and through her, the whole town.

He put himself in a position to help.

Isn't that what we are called to do?

Sometimes the person who needs help is too proud to come to us, so we have to find a way to come to them, and what better way than a chance encounter?

More to come...