Her Water Jar

“Then the woman left her water jar

and went back to the city” (John 4:28)

These words in this passage have always stuck out to me.

The woman left her water jar.

Tucked away after this metaphorical theological discourse about worship and water and things to come and things that are now is this beautiful and simple image.

An image that sums up everything that has happened in this conversation and hints to the transformation beginning to happen in the woman.

The woman left her water jar.

Getting water was the whole reason she was there in the first place. Verse seven specifically tells us she came to draw water.

Then Jesus starts talking to her. And he tells her of this living water she can get. Water that will completely quench her thirst. She only needs to drink this water once. After that she’ll have a spring of water inside her. Ever flowing.

She doesn’t quite get it at first.

But they continue talking, and eventually, she starts to wonder. Wait. Is this the guy?

And Jesus says, “Yep. Yep, I am.”

And she leaves her water jar.

She doesn’t get the water she was there for in the first place. Something bigger is happening.

Her act of leaving the water jar hints to us, the witnesses of this story, that, maybe, she’s going to drink that living water that Jesus, the Christ, is offering her. Maybe she will no longer be thirsty.

Maybe she doesn’t need the water jar anymore.

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This image holds such power, but it is easy to miss when you’re reading this story. It’s seven almost throwaway words in the middle of a verse. The writer of the gospel of John doesn’t come back to this image or have a character point it out. It’s not naturally highlighted in a reading of the passage.

But it’s there.

And it’s there for a purpose, so we should take notice.

That’s where storytelling, performance, and enactment of biblical texts are helpful.

They help us notice these small moments of simple yet deep theological power that we might otherwise miss if we were only reading it.

That’s the kind of storytelling we, Wayfolk Arts, are trying to do here.

Storytelling that helps us notice that the woman left her water jar.