"Weep"

Weep, he said to her, but weep she could not,

Driven by despair to nevermore care,

Weep? She just would not.

She would not weep for her dead child,

For she feared if she did she could not stop,

So deep, so lost, so wild.

She would not weep for her wedded groom,

Who tried to help a thousand ways but no,

She gave him no room.

She would not weep for herself, whom she scorned,

As if she were another, a ghost apart,

Foretold, foreknown, forewarned.

Why would she weep for this man, they said, of God?

What could he know of her anguished grief?

For him? That would be odd.

And yet he told her, weep my daughter, sister, child,

And hearing this the dam inside her shifted,

Then leaked a tear defiled.

The waters came a-gushing out, ran red as blood can be,

The pent-up rage, the swirling shock, and awful whys,

Her flood of misery.

Falling down upon the ground, the man of God fell, too,

She looked at him, but could not see,

What he was bound to do.

He caught her face, his grip of grace,

Said now your fears will change, and nevermore a crying chore,

But fuel to run the race.

The broken hearts whose tears are darts piercing the darkest night,

The morning comes and with them runs,

The darkness from the light.

“Those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again…” (John 4:14, NLT)

The woman in the poem and the woman Jesus talked to by the well in Sychar could have been the same. Both had a history that defined them. Both knew something, but not enough to be healed. Jesus offered the Samaritan woman something no man, though she’d had a few, had offered her- living water. The water of life, the fresh, thirst-quenching, bubbling spring of the Holy Spirit which flows from within, John said, like a river. Jesus offered this to someone who was not fit, not holy, and not even part of the chosen people of Israel. And though she was sarcastic at first, and tried to distract Jesus with religious arguments, He never lost focus with her. She was dying of thirst and He knew it. “Here, have some Spirit and truth,” He said, and she ran back to her village saying she had found the Messiah. They first believed because of her, but then because they met Jesus for themselves. Weep. Drink. Be made new, in Jesus’ name.

Lord, give us the water that alone can quench our thirst, in Jesus’ name.

Art by Jack Sorenson, jacksorensonfineart.com. Used by permission. Thanks, Jack, and God bless you.