LENT III - A - 17 JOHN 4: 5-42
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words.
And there are some pictures or images that forever remain in our minds. When I
was young curate assigned to a larger parish in Eastern Kentucky, I was also
Priest-in-Charge of a smaller congregation nearby. Interestingly enough, the
church was named Christ Church!
It was built in the 1880s and had many beautiful
stand glass windows along the sides of the nave. But the one that stands out
most vividly in my memory was over the altar. It was a life-size depiction of
Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. I often caught myself gazing at it
as I prepared the altar for Mass.
Each time I looked at it I imagined the conversation
that occurred between Jesus and the woman; the conversation we have before us
today as our gospel lesson. Samaria is the name given to the land between
Galilee to the North and Judea to the South. It’s population was a mixed race
of people viewed by the Jews as religious apostates.
For centuries there had been religious enmity
between the two. Simply stated, Jews and Samaritans had no dealings of any kind
with each other. John tells us that Jesus and his disciples are traveling
through Samaria and at the noon hour stop near the village of Aschar. The
disciples go into the village to buy food. Jesus, wearied from the journey,
remains at the well.
Along comes a woman from the village to draw water
and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” What’s wrong with this picture? In
the culture of the time, Jewish men, much less a rabbi, would not have allowed
themselves to be alone with a woman in public or private. Even if it was
unavoidable they would not enter into conversation.
Secondly, the woman is a Samaritan. As I said,
Samaritans and Jews had no dealings with each other. They would especially not
share eating and drinking vessels with them. Yet Jesus asks her to give him a
drink! Finally as we discover, compounding the situation is the woman’s moral
character. She comes to draw water at noon because nobody else would be around.
She wouldn’t be seen or would have to see anybody. She was considered to be a
social outcast. Yet Jesus speaks to her.
Jesus’ discourse with the woman, like that of
Nicodemus in last week’s gospel, develops on two levels of meaning. The woman
thinks of water in earthly terms of necessity for man and beast, whether it
comes from wells, cisterns, fountains or streams. This was a natural concern. Water supply was
not always sufficient, much less abundant.
Jesus, however, speaks of living, that is, flowing
water as a sign of eternal life, whose source is God, whose abundance is
assured. Jesus is himself this gift of life-giving water. Of course she does
not understand what Jesus is saying. He is speaking on a heavenly level, and
she listens, as Nicodemus did, on an earthly level.
Here the conversation shifts from one of water, as a
symbol of life, to one of the religious life. Jesus asks her to go and bring
her husband. Her reply is an honest one, “I have no husband.” Jesus then
displays his divine nature by his insight into people’s hearts. He reveals her
past relationships which causes her to become uneasy, perhaps, we might even
say, a bit defensive.
She shifts the conversation by trying to get Jesus
to settle rival religious claims as a diversion away from her personal life.
Jesus, however, refuses to answer such an earthly question. He elevates the
discussion to the manner in which people ought to worship. He turns the
attention to the one we ought to worship: God himself.
The Father is worshipped in Spirit, that is, in the
Holy Spirit - and in Truth - that is in Christ himself, and according to Christ’
revelation. God is Spirit. God cannot be confined to a particular location.
True worship is in spirit and truth.
Again the woman shifts, or tries to shift the
conversation by saying that when Messiah comes he will settle it once and for
all. To which Jesus surprises her by claiming to be Messiah.
The woman departs as the disciples arrive. The
disciples are surprised that he is speaking to a woman, but say nothing. They
offer him food and Jesus responds with a teaching on the work that lies ahead
as the villagers approach. For the woman has told them she might have
discovered the Christ because of the things he has said to her. And because of
her witness, some of the villagers believe.
Others come to see and hear from themselves. And
when they have, they invite Jesus to stay and continue his teaching. He accepts
their invitation and remains, John says, two more days. Many of the Samaritans
believe in him, not because of what the woman told them, but because they have
heard it for themselves and have accepted Jesus as the Savior of the world.
What caused the woman to believe in Christ? Was it
his words about living water? Was it what he said about worshipping God in
spirit and truth? Or was it because he looked into her heart, and she knew that
he knew who she really was, and the deepest need of her soul? Her conviction
was based on her personal encounter with Christ.
Here is a woman, who, a matter of hours or so
before, had been completely trapped in a life of immorality, as a social
outcast. There was no way backward or forward for her; all she could do was to
eke out a daily existence and to make sure she went to the well when there was
no one else around. Now she had become a evangelist to her people. Through her
Jesus’ mission had reached outside Judaism.
Where do we see ourselves in this story? These
teachings of Jesus are meant to stir something within us as we listen to his
words and see the response they have on the lives of those he encounters on his
way to Jerusalem. Can we not see something of ourselves in the woman? The
disciples? The villagers?
Like the woman, when confronted and challenged by
God’s holy word, we sometimes try and change the subject away from our selves
to something different. Because of our sin and offenses we don’t like to think
that God knows who we really are. It’s easier to mask our true identities to
the world, but not to God.
God already
knows, and waits for us to confess our worse to Him. The conscience, you see,
has to be aroused in order to receive the fullness of the gift of new life God
offers in Jesus Christ.
Like the disciples, we sometimes miss the point of
our mission as Church. We over look God given opportunities to do the work we
have been given to do; that is, make disciples of all…Sometimes we reap what
others have sown. But that is all part of the task we have been given. We just
need to look around us - the field is yet ripe for harvesting.
And what about those who came to believe, can we not
see something of ourselves in them? Those whose belief was based on the woman’s
word was later confirmed by what they heard for themselves. Faith often come in
stages. Most of us would agree.
Someone introduced us to Christ, to the Church, and
or to Sunday School. But our personal conviction came through our personal
encounter with the risen Christ. He looked into our hearts, just like he looked
into that of the woman at the well, and we knew, that he knew the deepest
desire of our souls and in His Love for us, He met it.
That’ why we are here. “It is no longer because of
what someone has said that we believe, for we have heard it, and believe it for
ourselves, and we know that Jesus Christ is truly the Savior of the world.
AMEN+
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