As some of you know, today’s Gospel story is one of my favorites and one I have used often to show how radical Jesus’ love was. So much so, was his love radical, that he does the unthinkable of his time. A Jewish man speaks to a Samaritan Woman – a Samaritan woman who is alone at a well. However, let’s look at the picture being painted – or at least the story being told.
They say, “Seeing is believing.” If that’s the case, we’re at a disadvantage when it comes to meeting Jesus in the Scriptures. We use our ears to hear stories of his life. As we listen to Scriptures read aloud, we must engage our imaginations to picture those scenes.
Culturally speaking, these two people are very different. You can see this difference in a line from the story that the woman speaks to Jesus as soon as they meet. Jesus has just asked the woman to give him a drink of water, and she responds with astonishment: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” How she knows he is a Jew is not really elaborated on, but it most likely be his manner of dress, which would have been different from that of a Samaritan.
John provides a helpful little footnote as he explains: “Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.”
That’s a bit of an understatement. Jews and Samaritans didn’t like each other at all. Purportedly, the two nations worshiped the same God, but apart from that, they were from two completely different tribes.
Of course, there’s a better-known story of a Samaritan: Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan. An essential detail of that story — as with this one, the story of the other Samaritan — is the historic hatred between these two peoples.
Who were these Samaritans, and where did they come from? They’re the remnant of the former Northern Kingdom of Israel.
Scripture tells us that, in the days after the kingdom of David and his son, Solomon, the nation split into two, under two different kings? The Northern Kingdom was called Israel, and the Southern Kingdom, Judah. A few generations later, the Assyrians invaded and destroyed the Northern Kingdom, defeating its armies, sacking its principal cities and hauling the nation’s leaders off into exile. They set up a puppet kingdom, a colony, and made the people who lived there pay heavy “tribute” — we’d call them taxes today — to the Assyrian king.
The Southern Kingdom managed to fend off the Assyrians, but in doing so they failed to come to the aid of their cousins in the north. You can only imagine what resentment that caused! It planted seeds of hatred that continued centuries later in Jesus’ day.
A few generations after the fall of Samaria, it was the Judeans’ turn to suffer. A new empire, Babylon, defeated the Assyrians. This time, the Judeans went down to defeat. Their national leaders were carted off to exile in Babylon.
The Babylonian captivity of the Jews lasted only a few generations. The Persian King Cyrus swept in and defeated the Babylonians. He allowed the exiles in Babylon — those who wanted to go, and many stayed — to return home. They came back to a ruined nation. Their new king, Ezra, set out to rebuild the temple, restoring Judah’s ancient worship practices.
By this time, the religion of the Samaritans had evolved in a very different direction. The temple in Jerusalem — rebuilt or not — held no attraction for them. They worshiped God on the top of Mount Gerizim. That’s what the woman is referring to when she speaks this line: “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” She’s emphasizing the differences between them.
Back to the painting … the two are communicating, just not face-to-face. It’s an awkward encounter, because of the great cultural differences between them.
Of the two people in the painting, Jesus seems the most hesitant. There’s an expression of warm interest on the woman’s face. It’s Jesus who’s standoffish.
That’s true to the biblical story. True, Jesus speaks first, asking her to give him a drink. But after that, it’s the woman who takes the initiative.
This is so very different from another encounter Jesus had that John has just finished telling us about in chapter 3. It’s the encounter between Jesus and the Pharisee Nicodemus, the man to whom he famously says, “You must be born from above” (sometimes translated, “born again”).
In that story, it’s pretty much a one-sided exchange: Nicodemus seeks Jesus out, asks him a question or two, then Jesus does most of the talking. The greater part of Chapter 3 is a long discourse Jesus gives in response to Nicodemus’ questions. In fact, John never does wrap up the story. He gets all caught up in reporting that long speech, then the next thing we know, Jesus is on his way to Samaria, where he meets the woman at the well.
John’s placement of the two stories — one right after the other — is deliberate. He wants us to hold one up against the other, to compare them. On the one hand is an encounter between Jesus and a learned leader of the Jewish people. On the other is his encounter with a woman, a foreigner, a nobody.
The exchange between the Samaritan woman and Jesus is entirely different from the way he talks to the Pharisee. There’s a real give-and-take between them: a fully developed conversation rather than a one-sided lecture. It speaks of the high regard Jesus has for this woman. He’s more than happy to give her the time of day, even though the traditions of both of their cultures dictated that they should avoid each other. You can see that at the end of the story when John tells us how Jesus’ disciples were “astonished that he was speaking with a woman.” Speaking with a woman is not what’s surprising, but the kind of woman. It’s not the first time he speaks with a woman who was outcast, so why the surprise? The Apostles were hard to teach sometimes.
It’s been fashionable for us to take this detail about the woman’s marital status and blow it out of proportion. We take this fact and pair it up with the fact that she comes to the well in the middle of the day, when the sun’s blazing hot and few other villagers would ordinarily be there. Therefor we conclude, from these two facts — irregular marital history, fetching water in the heat of the day — that the woman is some sort of social outcast, shunned by her people because of her unorthodox living arrangement. We actually do not know if she was an outcast, but we do learn of her marital “scandal” from Jesus.
There’s no factual basis, though, for judging the woman to be a social outcast. In fact, at the end of the story, it’s clear that the woman at the well has plenty of friends to whom she can run and offer her testimony. It doesn’t seem like she’s living in shame, as some have concluded. She’s been busy in life, but not in shame. Samaritans would have viewed her situation a bit differently. But, her choosing to get water from the well at high-noon is a little suspect.
However, let’s move away from the supposed condemnation and let the real Judge interact with her. This woman is curious about Jesus and seems more than able to engage him in a theological discussion in the full light of the sun. Jesus, for his part — after some initial hesitation — credits her as an honest spiritual inquirer. He spends a lot more time talking with her than he does with his night-time visitor, Nicodemus.
The fact that this meeting happens at high noon symbolizes exactly that. The themes of light and darkness are very important to John. Throughout his Gospel he portrays Jesus as light pushing back darkness. Pharisees like Nicodemus are in darkness. They must come into the light. John’s Gospel is far more esoteric than the others.
This Samaritan woman — smiling back at Jesus in the golden light of midday — is already a person who knows something of the light of God. Jesus credits her with that.
Another interesting detail is that John tells us how the woman — once she fully realizes who Jesus is — leaves her water jar beside the well and goes off to tell all her neighbors: “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” An obvious indication that the Samaritans had belief in the same God, and thus same Scriptures.
But, remember, this is a Samaritan, and a woman. Her witness to Jesus is far more certain, far more bold, than anything Nicodemus says in the previous chapter. The fact that she leaves her water jar behind is a powerful symbol. Who in the Bible leaves the tools of their trade behind to go and preach? It’s Apostles who do that: Peter, James and John who leave their nets, Matthew who abandons his tax-collector books, Paul who no longer wears the distinctive hat and robe of the Pharisee. This Samaritan woman is an apostle! She proclaims Jesus as the Messiah long before any of his other disciples do.
It’s the prospect of living water that draws her in, questioning Jesus further: “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Think of how hard this woman’s life was. She’s had five different husbands. We don’t know if she had so many because she was widowed or because some of the men divorced her. Maybe both of those things happened to her, with different husbands. Another reason we should leave the judging to God, because we simply do not know what causes events in people’s lives.
Far from being a disreputable person, this woman is strong. She’s a survivor. She has triumphed over difficult circumstances. If the man she’s now living with is not her husband, Jesus doesn’t seem to judge her for that. He’s far more interested in healing her pain. If she has done wrong, he seems to trust that she will repent and do the right thing if she can get her heart right and confess to him as Lord.
We promise to serve Jesus as disciples, and he offers us living water in return. Or is it the other way around? Maybe he offers us living water first, and we serve him in gratitude. It doesn’t matter, because it’s really two sides of the same coin. There’s a constant give-and-take, a flow, between disciple and master, between each of us and the one we claim to serve.
In this Gospel passage, you can sense this dynamic exchange, this holy giving and receiving, going on forever. In the Celtic tradition, the circle — that prominent feature of every Celtic cross — is a symbol of eternity. When we enter a relationship with Jesus Christ, we do so for eternity. It’s that “spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
The same is true of our relationship with God, through Jesus Christ. Living water continues to flow at the heart of that dynamic relationship, refreshing, restoring and reviving.
Have you been feeling that your spiritual life is a little dry lately? If that’s the case, Jesus’ invitation to the Samaritan woman holds for us, as well. He continues to welcome the thirsty who are seeking the living water only he can give. Offer him, in your outstretched hands, the bowl of your servant heart. He will supply you, in exchange, with an endless supply of living water!
Let us pray.
In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us we must worship the Father in spirit and truth. As we go through Lent, we pray that we listen to his words and are guided by the Spirit to live a life dedicated to love of God and love of neighbor. We pray to the Lord.
At Jacob’s Well the Samaritan woman begs Jesus – “Give me this water so that I may not be thirsty” Let us pray for those in our world who thirst for their basic human rights and ask the Lord for the courage to play our part in supporting them and restoring their dignity. We pray to the Lord.
As we reflect on our lives during Lent, let us renew our commitment to Christ and allow the waters of baptism transform the desert of our lives into a fruitful vineyard in which God’s love and mercy flourish. We pray to the Lord.
We remember today our brothers and sisters in those regions of the world where water is scarce, and thirst is their daily experience. We pray for those agencies and those who support them who are working to give them access to this most essential human need. We pray to the Lord.
We pray for a personal awareness of the goodness and generosity of the Father, who created us, who gives us every breath we breathe and who so generously nourishes us with the food and drink which his creation of land and sea provides. We pray to the Lord.
We pray for generous donors that our small parish may continue in its mission. We pray to the Lord.
For those on our parish prayer list, that they may receive swift answers to their needs and that they may find consolation through Christ’s healing presence. We pray to the Lord.
We bow our heads and remember in silence our own personal intentions and the intentions of those who have asked for our prayers (pause). We pray to the Lord.
God of the fountain, the spring, the healing well. We come to you parched and thirsty. We know there is no well so deep that we cannot draw — by your grace — living water from it. Only you can empower us to do that. Only you can refresh our souls. And so we come to you, bowls in hand, not knowing if they are offerings of gratitude or begging bowls. In truth, they are both! We thank you for the welcome you extend to us, and for the generosity with which you offer us all we truly need in this life.
God of the Living Water, we see you speak to whomever comes on the same path as yours. Is it intentional, or merely casual, only you know. But, to be sure, nothing is by accident in your eyes. You show us today that there are no people that we should consider beyond your reach and thus equal to ourselves. We see the people who long ago separated from the People Israel, come out to meet your Son, and your Son welcomed them and showed them the Living Water – the people who long ago left from the path you paved.
May we this Lent do no less than be friendly and inviting to whomever we meet. May we know that no one is an outcast or unwelcome. We are all people on a pilgrimage to you. Let us drink that water. Let us come to you for everlasting life, by living out our faith each day and welcoming all! May we follow the radical love of Christ! We ask all these things through the Water of Life, Jesus the Christ! Amen.
God Love You +++
The Most Rev. Robert Winzens
Pastor – St. Francis Chapel
San Diego, CA.
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