Lent 3 (A) + He said, she said + 3.23.14

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
(Jruchi Gospels II MSS, Georgia, 12th cent.)
(commons.wikimedia.org)

M. Campbell-Langdell

All Santos, Oxnard

(Exodus 17:1-7, Ps. 95, Romans 5:1-11, John 4:4-42)

It is high noon in the dusty city of Sychar, and the man is plum tuckered out from walking the righteous road. He rests against a well that Jacob built, one of the ancestors, long ago. God’s son leans on a well built by the sturdy hands of God’s faithful people. It is, as I said, noon, the time of highest illumination, and though his body is weary this God-man radiates internal light and understanding. He stretches and sighs, and… look! Over the horizon, a woman, traipsing down the path on an errand, an errand to meet Jesus. Only maybe she doesn’t know it yet.

She has been called a seer by her people, able to discern and tell the truth, but she never knew what her life was meant for until this moment.

So, you may say, “Is that all you’re getting at? The old man meets woman at the well story? Wasn’t that how Abraham’s servant finds Rebekah as a wife for Isaac, and how Jacob met Rachel, at another well long ago (Gen. 24:10-61, Gen. 29:1-20)?” Maybe, but this Son of God’s love life seems to be all about loving all of us, with not a whit of exclusivity.

So what’s this all about?
As if on cue, he asks her for water. Now, it may not sound too romantic, but in the ancient world this might have been an acceptable way for a man to show interest in a woman, so we begin to wonder, “Is Jesus really courting this lady?”

And on top of that, how does she respond?  You might say she is quite rude. But maybe she is simply reminding him that Jews and Samaritans don’t tend to share cups.  No spreading inter-ethnic cooties, thank you.

To which he says, well that’s too bad, because I could do you one better. I am the well of Living water right here, and… do you hear it? Echoes of Jeremiah repeat across time: “for my people has committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water (Jer. 2:13).”[1] For who is the well of living water, but the one true God? That same God who had Moses draw water from the rock. The God who reminds us that, despite all evidence to the contrary, God will save?

And somehow, we who spy this marvelous conversation begin to realize, this isn’t really about water, after all. It’s about life, and truth and joy. It’s about faithfulness. It’s about God.

So she says, “sure, give me that water,” which may be her courting him a bit, but remember, this isn’t about regular water, and it sure isn’t about good old romantic love. It’s about God’s love, and she wants it. The Samaritans want this God of the living water. All their Gods have dried up and left them in the heat of the noonday sun.

So he says, “Call your husband.” He calls her religious-romantic bluff. Does she have this love already? And no sir, she does not. “I have no husband,” says she, as all the gods have fled in the parched time.

And Jesus says, “that is certainly true,” and here we hear prophets speaking because we know that the prophets always talk about Israel as if she is a wayward lady when she doesn’t remain faithful to her “hubby” God.  So yes, yes, yes Samaria. You have no husband-God. Cause you have been seen around town with this god of the foreign people, and that one and that one, and you begin to see, Jesus isn’t talking about a woman and her personal life, he is talking about Samaria and the fact that though they would like to say they follow the one true God, they have dallied here and there and everywhere with every other small “g” god in the neighborhood.

“What you have said is true!” Truth speaks to truth.

And truth-speaker sees a prophet—but she realizes—not only a prophet, but the Messiah. She began to wonder before, of course, even before the words formed on her lips, who this man was, so that when the fact is confirmed, when he speaks the astonishing Truth, it is there, whole truth in their midst, not a shock but a kiss of God left in the air, the stunning reality of the incarnation. This Messiah is going to bust open all the boundaries, going to talk to mixed-race people like her- the Samarians were the remnant left over from the exile of the Jews that mixed with other tribes. Jesus is going to talk with people who have been unfaithful to the one true God. This crazy God-man is even going to talk TRUTH with a woman! (Note this quite shocks the disciples.)

And this woman, this Samaritan who had no real God-husband, has seen the light and the truth. Like us, she was lost and faithless. But she has seen “everything” and she needs to share it. She claims her true love, who is God. She may not be in Jerusalem, but it hardly matters now, not with the Messiah coming and meeting you at this and any well, ready to meet you where you are. All that matters is to share this truth.
And off she goes, leaving the past behind, the water container that couldn’t bear the living water, in order to be the living-water-bearer, the good-news-carrier, to wander all through town.
To share the GOOD NEWS.
And off she goes. To bring those who had wandered far from their true God-love back. To meet and dwell with Jesus, God’s beloved son. To, perhaps, write this gospel, so that all may believe and drink this living water, and have eternal life.[2]

Are you gonna share it, too? This cup’s meant for you.

---

[1] Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., Oxford Annotated Bible Footnote to John 4:10.

[2] This is highly dependent on Sandra M. Schneiders’ interpretation of John 4:1-42, found in Written that You May Believe: Encountering Jesus in the Fourth Gospel (NY: Crossroad, 1999), 126-148.