***
By a show of hands, how many women present today have a purse?
It’s like your alter ego, isn’t it?
Seldom, if ever, will a woman part with her purse.
It holds most things she needs for the day. Her wallet, keys, makeup, credit cards, iPhone, spare change, hand sanitizer, tissues, and maybe a snack.
I have to admit, I’m a bit jealous.
Men don’t seem to have the same option.
I’ve tried sporting a fanny pack – and even made an attempt at a “murse,” also known as a “man purse,” but I stick out like a sore thumb.
Most men have two acceptable options: stuff everything into their pockets as I do…or pack their belongings in their wife’s purse.
***
In Jesus’ time, women didn’t use purses. They didn’t need to carry around credit cards, iPhones, makeup, or their husband’s belongings.
But they did need to carry water.
That was considered among the most important tasks a woman would do all day – gather water from the local well for her family. Without it, everyone went thirsty.
And just as women distinguish themselves by their purses today, so women in Jesus’ time distinguished themselves by their water jars – the size, the color, the design, the quality.
Like a purse, it was both practical and fashionable. It may not have been Louis Vuitton, Coach, or Chanel, but the water jar was a status symbol of that time.
The costlier the jar, the more coveted it was.
***
In today’s Gospel, we hear of a woman gathering water at a well; an ordinary day. And as expected, she’s carrying her water jar.
But after her encounter with Christ, she leaves her water jar at the well, rushing to tell everyone in town about the person she’s met, Jesus, the Messiah.
That’s a critical, often overlooked, detail: this woman leaves her water jar at the well! That’d be like a woman today leaving her purse at the checkout counter.
On purpose.
It sounds absurd; without your purse, or without your water jar, something of your identity is missing. Your alter ego’s gone!
And that’s the point.
In the Gospels, small details often hold deep, symbolic meaning. In this case, the woman leaves her jar – and symbolically, her former self – behind, embracing a new way of life.
***
Consider another detail.
She goes to the well at noon. Noon was one of the hottest times of day, which is why most women went to the well in the morning.
It was not only cooler outside; they could also travel in groups. Gathering water was a social activity.
The fact that this woman is at the well at noon reveals she’s avoiding her peers; she has no friends because she’s caught in a shameful state in life.
She’s been married and divorced not once, not twice, but five times, and is now associated with a sixth man!
The other women in town must’ve considered her to be immoral, her life scandalous, and possibly threat to their own marriages, to say the least.
But after her encounter with Jesus, her heart is changed. Her past is forgiven. Her future is bright.
Leaving her water jar – and her old self – behind, she rushes back into town to tell the very same people she avoided earlier in the day that she has found God.
And with God, a new beginning.
***
That’s true for all of us. Whenever we encounter Christ, something within us changes for the better. We leave parts of our old selves behind.
So where do I need a fresh start? What do I need to leave at the well?
***
Perhaps a particular vice, part of my past, a poor attitude, or memories that lead me into temptation.
Maybe my fears, the masks I wear in different circles, or a heavy, unforgiving heart.
Like this woman, what do I need to leave at the well?
***
This image of the woman at the well is the perfect image of a fruitful Lent.
She encounters Jesus. She confesses her sins. She leaves her old self behind and shares the news of her new beginning with others, in fact the same people she avoided in her previous life.
But this type of change is much easier said than done.
***
Just as a woman would find it terribly difficult to leave her purse at the checkout counter – or a man his wallet – so it can be incredibly difficult to part with our past, in particular, our sins.
Too often we become attached to them; we lean on them. They’re crutches supporting our weaker selves.
But remember what the woman at the well teaches us. We can do, “all things through Christ who strengthens us” (Philippians 4:13).
Drop what we must at the well. Carry on with Christ.
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