So, he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. ”The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
John 4:5-26
Sunlight! That is the first impression of this painting: the contrast of the sand reflecting blindingly white light in subtle variations of color and the cool periwinkle shadow that the figures are anchored in. From this shadow, Jesus emerges, His head and shoulders illuminated by the blinding bright landscape, almost like a halo. The dark colors in His clothing are balanced by the shade-giving weather-worn tree defying the heat in the background. The woman is almost barely discernible at first, in colors that match the surroundings, intimately connected with this place where she gathers water every day. It really does look to be “about noon” in this painting.
This is one of the most loved stories in the Bible of someone meeting Jesus for the first time, and for good reason. The fact that Jesus is even talking to a woman, and a Samaritan, is culturally shocking. The woman herself ignites our imagination, with the references to her colorful past and the detail in her responses. We can easily imagine all the emotions swirling through her as she encounters this strange man and, in the course of a conversation, comes to realize He is the Messiah. And the rich metaphor that Christ uses – He is the fountain of living water – is so beautiful in the context of all of scripture. All through the Old Testament, God calls Himself living water (“They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water” (Jeremiah 2:13), “Come, all who are thirsty!” (Isaiah 55:1), “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation!” (Isaiah 12:3), and in Revelation, the literal spring and river of living water is described so beautifully. This living water is also His Spirit. And that is how He directs this woman to think differently – to not think in terms of worshipping on this mountain or that one (referring to the disagreements of the Jews and Samaritans), but in spirit and in truth. He shows her that He knows her heart. And that His spirit – living water, can well up in the heart of any who come to him to drink and become a very fountain.
All this depth and spiritual beauty is delivered during the hottest part of the day, the sun high and blazing, to a very thirsty woman there to get water. It is just so perfect – the metaphor is magnified by the specific context of the place and setting that Jesus delivers it! He contrasts physical water (which our bodies were created to need so desperately) with spiritual water (which our souls were created to need even more so). This painting emphasizes that context- the desert, the heat, the well, the shade, and the ordinariness of the woman.
The artist, Bato Dugarzhapov, is a neo-Impressionist. Like the Impressionists of 19th-century fame, he believes in painting in plein air, quickly recording immediate ‘impressions’ for specific and beautiful color, and a proper relationship between the whole and its parts, sometimes sacrificing detail for the sake of the big picture and its sense of space and atmosphere. So, while abstract, the paintings have an incredible sense of believability and specificity, which fits so well with this scene. Jesus came to one specific person in one specific place to open His heart to pour out these beautiful truths for all of mankind. And because of the emphasis on the sunlight and the convincing sense of time and space achieved through color, through this painting, the viewer can really feel that specific moment: the heat, the thirst, and the radical realization that sitting right there is the source of living water.
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