Meditating on the Woman at the Well

 “This well is deep. Where do you intend to get this flowing water?” (John 4:11).

In his painting, Insight, German priest-artist Sieger Köder (1925-2015) places us at the bottom of a deep, dank well, looking up toward the distant light. A small, roughly painted image of a woman peers down toward us. In between, dark, uneven stones etched with moss form a tower. Stagnant air seems to exude from the scene.

 

Köder’s art, with bold colors, clearly outlined shapes, and frequent allusions to Old Testament themes and images, recalls that of Chagall. As an artist, Köder had much in his own life to draw from, having been a prisoner of war, but also a silversmith, painter and high school art teacher before beginning theological studies at age 41. After ordination, he served as a parish priest and continued to paint and create stained glass, altarpieces, and murals.  Köder’s figures express powerful emotions, and his scenes often contain hidden reflected images. We find a prime example of this in the deep waters of Samaria.

 

There is something strange about the water in this deep well. The surface is rippled, as if it were “living water” in the usual first-century meaning of the term: not stagnant or still (like well water), but fresh flowing water from a stream or fountain. And in that flowing water we find two faces, not one, reflected. The woman’s features are clearer here in the rippled water than in the open air. And beside her is Another. 

 

When the whole image is turned upside down, she seems to be standing with Jesus. Together they reread her past in the light of God: no longer a succession of sorrows, it is radiant with hope. Having met Jesus, she was transformed and set free, able to run into the town and gather a crowd who would come and see for themselves that “this is truly the Savior of the world” (Jn 4:42).

Read the whole story of Jesus and the woman at the well: John 4: 1-42