Avoiding broken stuff to sit among we the broken people, as one broken brother described my effort to make an appearance at the broken wrecked-table, we opened our Bibles to John 4. It would be an evening proposing probably many more excellent questions than answers, leaving one lingering even here until morning.

Jesus, in this encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well directly identifies himself with none of his usual hazy inferences, “I am the one you look for.”

It takes no more than a dilettante theologian to recognize something very special is taking place here at this well Jacob once dug, where now, no forthright Jew would be found partaking its elixir.  And yet, Jesus asks for a drink… from a woman… a Samaritan woman… a Samaritan woman of very ill-repute.

One of the broken asks ‘why?’ ‘Why so much unusual attention towards this woman?’ Is it possible that God is wrecking havoc on the cultural insistence of gender division? To loudly proclaim, “There is no difference for those found in Christ Jesus?”

This interests me provocatively. The immediate disciples of Jesus are in awe of his interaction with this woman… maybe we should spend a little more time examining why?