Tuesday, May 31, 2016

MERCY AND TRUTH - Johannine Theology Part IV



 Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
Psalm 85: 10 & 11


As I have mentioned in past posts, the authors or editors of John were deliberate in both their choices of what stories to include and in the creation and the formation of said stories.  Some are familiar and found in the synoptic gospels, others are unique to the Gospel of John. The story of the Samaritan Woman and Jesus is unique to John and is metaphorical and dependent on symbolism in order to highlight the theological messages it contains.  So before taking a look at the story itself, it would be  advantageous to examine some of these elements that are tucked into this story:

JOHN 4 - The Samaritan Woman and Jesus

For the purpose of telling the story of the Samaritan woman and Jesus, the authors and editors needed to get Jesus into Samaria from Jerusalem.  Their pretext for doing so is that Jesus's disciple are baptizing more people than John the Baptist's disciples were, and, for some reason, this caught the attention of the Pharisees which, for another unknown reason, prompted Jesus to head back to his home turf in Galilee.  It doesn't make a lot sense, but possibly clues us to the likelihood that the followers of John the Baptist, in the last part of the first century, were associated with Pharisees and prone to stick with traditional Judaism or likely denied the divinity of Jesus.  As such, the editors of John are once again making the case that John the Baptist was a follower of Jesus who proclaimed him to be the only-begotten son of God,  and that John the Baptist's followers should follow John's lead and become followers of Jesus like John the Baptist.  


THE ALETHEIATOKOS - The Bearer of Truth

The role of women in John is noteworthy.  Women play a prominent role in this more than in any of the other gospels.  What I would offer for consideration is that John utilizes a very ancient and intuitive insight which portrays wisdom, anthropomorphically, as a woman - as Sophia.
So I want to use this post to consider, in part,  John's portrayal of women as an image of  wisdom which bears or reveals a subject important to the editors of John - Truth - and to suggest that the feminine presence in John is code for wisdom that apprehends and bears witness to the truth, that is personified in Jesus.  This is not about the Theotokos that is frequently associated with Jesus' mother, Mary, but rather wisdom as Aletheiatokos, the bearer of truth.  Wisdom and truth are closely linked and both are feminine constructs in the ancient world.

In this story wisdom reveals the face of truth.  Truth inevitably is something that is revealed or discerned through an encounter of some kind. I chose the icon for this post because in the ancient world; particularly the Hellenistic word, a woman carrying a water jar would not have been lost one anyone. She's the Aquarian symbol, wisdom, the bearer of truth.  Truth is fluid and can only be contained by those wise enough to bear it.  The vessel is that which pours out truth which shapes and nourishes understanding.

What this story makes an obvious point about is that truth is not only apprehended and revealed by a woman, but by a Samaritan woman, who for all practical purposes is living "in sin."  This another theme that Johannine theology stresses; that it is the the sinner, the ones who know his or her sinfulness, who are the most perceptive and receptive of truth. In John most of this type is portrayed as a woman as the symbol of the type of wisdom capable of bearing the truth.


GOD'S REALM OF CHOSEN INDIVIDUALS

This particular story, unlike others in John, depicts an inclusiveness and universality based on individual rather than cultural  or tribal worth.  This is a foundational understanding that significantly differentiates Christianity from Judaism and Islam.  In Christianity it is the individual that counts and is responsible to God alone, as opposed to the community or culture to which the individual belongs. This differentiation will be made clearer in my next post on John 5.   I would suggest this is also why the Gospel of John stresses the notion of individuals who are chosen by God to be part of this new creative order, as opposed to Pauline theology, we keeps the door open for Jews, as God's chosen people, to always be included in God's new realm.

In Johannine theology, it is not where you come from or what cultural heritage or your parentage or what your community is that matters, it is who you are, as an individual, known only by God and chosen by God to be a child of light; chosen from the nation's of the world to be God's new kingdom, a new spiritual realm.  This gives the Gospel of John it's Gnostic hue and hints at Christianity's association with ancient mystery cults; namely, one cannot tell by outward association who is or is not a child of light.  It is known only to God.  The new creation in the resurrected Christ  is composed of individuals selected from the vast array of humankind who have been given (graced with) the ability to be born(initiated) anew.  In this sense Johannine theology dovetails with Pauline theology in which "There is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave or freeman."

THE STORY

This story begins with Jesus being thirsty.  It's the sixth hour, about noon. Since the use of numbers play a significant role in John, it is tempting to see symbolic significance in the time mentioned; as in,  it was from the sixth to the ninth hour that darkness covered the earth as Jesus' poured out his life.  This may have been in the mind of the editors, but since John's account of the crucifixion does not make much of the timing of events within the John's account of the crucifixion, I'm inclined to think the authors and editors were making the case that Jesus was merely thirsty or was using the time and hunger as a pretense or as a means to have Jesus send his disciples on an errand to get them out of the way for awhile,  So Jesus sends the disciples into the village of Sychar to find food and Jesus sits by the local well outside the village - Jacob's well to be exact.  Again, the story is making a point to John's audience, which there have always been others who have a claim to the covenant made with Abraham and his descendants.  There is an  intentionality in having Jesus wait for the woman in this story to approach.  Mercy involves patience and mercy patiently waits. Mercy is also a knowing act, a willful act.

So what does Jesus know?

Jesus knows that whoever comes to this well will, more than likely, be a Samaritan; someone despised by Jews; someone who Jesus, being  Jew, should also despise.  Jesus also knows that this Samaritan will likely be a woman.  Jesus also is aware that men don't talk to women in public and is one of the reasons he doesn't want his zealous disciples creating unnecessary waves. It's risky business after all. This is the middle east. Beyond that, Jesus will also reveal that he knows details about this woman's personal life.

One could merely assign such foreknowledge to an ancient belief that the divine always knows, is omniscient, and thus is in control or possesses the ability to manipulate  mere mortals into acting as desired. This is a possibility in John. Jesus is certainly portrayed as being very much in control of things, as the Johannine theological perspective is shaped by an apocalyptic and eschatological mindset which views reality as a paradox of all things accomplished eternally in Christ and yet unfolding on this side of life.  In other words, we currently find ourselves as living our lives indeterminately in a determined universe.

So when a Samaritan woman comes to the well, this is no surprise. What is surprising is that Jesus speaks to her at all and, even more surprising, he asks or demands a drink of water from her.  Beyond the risk Jesus takes is the even more surprising risk the Samaritan woman takes in not only responding to Jesus but also in challenging Jesus.

But this is a story.

It's not trying to make a point about proper social conduct or the rights of women in the first century middle east.  Rather, in John, the shock value is in the display of God's complete ownership of all creation in God's countermanding, at will, any and all social conventions of the time - another theme found in John.

I'm not convinced that the editors of John were thinking in those exact terms, but John and Christianity as a whole has this undercurrent running through them, and the story of the Samaritan woman exemplifies this theological position.

GOD'S RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

Beyond the highly theological perspectives that can be garnered from this story, there resides in its telling a deeply intimate and personal message that speaks to the individual listener:

"God knows you, personally; especially if you have been chosen to be part of God's realm. You are not just something that is overlooked or disregarded as unimportant by God. It matters who you are or what your situation in life is."

What we encounter is the prototype of restorative justice, as God's justice; as in, mercy seeking truth. What is perhaps most shocking about this story to the listeners of the day is that this woman is alive at all after having five husbands and living with a sixth man. Numerically speaking, or numerologically speaking, the number five is used symbolically to stand for God's grace or mercy, but the number six is used to stand for human weakness.  The suggestion of "living with a sixth man" suggests that having had five husbands was not the result of having lost five husbands due to death, but rather the misfortune of having her being divorced by them for what we might assume is her brash attitude or for her penchant for catching the eye of the "other guys" once she was married. The authors and editors of John were well aware that such a suggestion would readily come to mind of this gospel's audience without having to spell it out for them. Suggestion is part of the art of good storytelling.  [Note:  I will discuss the role of numerology in the Gospel of John in my next post.]

In the culture of the time and place she lived in she would have likely been accused of adultery at some point and put to death. When Jesus reveals the facts of her marital/sex life, however, she doesn't flinch from it but readily admits its factualness, which reveals her as the wise person or the personification of wisdom she is.

I have deliberately jumped ahead in the storyline to get at the pretext or what one might call a prequel that follows the main storyline which is aimed as depicting Jesus as God's truth.

It might be presumptuous to say that the author of this story deliberately has Jesus feigning thirst to get at the point of this story which is to depict Jesus as the living water of truth.  I would suggest that Jesus's thirst is a thirst to show mercy and be merciful so that the truth of God is revealed.

WATER, TRUTH, LIFE

Once again the image of water is used in John as a metaphor. In this case, water is a metaphor for truth. In the conversation between Jesus and this Samaritan woman, the exchange begins with the woman asking/challenging Jesus with the question why he, a Jew, would ask her, a Samaritan, for a drink.  In typical Johannine style, Jesus doesn't answer her question but responds  by telling her that if she knew who was asking her for a drink she would be asking him for a drink.  Like Nicodemus in John 3, the Samaritan woman seems puzzled by the illogical response Jesus gave - "How can you give me a drink," she asks, "You have nothing to get water with and the well is deep."  It is easy to gloss over her question as a simple observation, but being metaphorical presentation of wisdom, her comment on the depth of the well forces the listener to conjure up an image of darkness and mystery about the source of this life giving substance.

Jesus makes his point by telling that the water he has offer will become a spring, welling up inside to offer those who possess it eternal life. The woman immediately (and wisely) asks for such water. It is at this point Jesus moves to the conversation about her marital life as discussed above which, as I mentioned, serves as a pretext for revealing Jesus as the truth of God.   Jesus's exposure of her life story causes the woman to reveal that Jesus is a prophet and they enter into a conversation about worshipping God. The Samaritans have their own holy mountain and Jews have the temple. Jesus makes a rather arrogant comment about the Jews knowing what they worship and the Samaritans don't; that salvation comes from the Jews.  This seemingly arrogant/biased statement belies its deeper meaning that John's Jewish audience might have picked up.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in his recent book, "Not in God's Name," pointed out that the Jews, being God's chosen people, meant that they are given a great responsibility not only to God but to the world as the means through which God will save humanity from itself.  What these Johannine scholars are reminding the audience of their day is that the Sadducees and  Pharisees of their day had dropped the ball, became a thing into themselves, and God had placed all authority in the one faithful Jew, his only-begotten son, Jesus.

 In the story John has Jesus telling the woman that there will come a time when true worship of God will take place in neither place, but rather true worship of God will be in spirit and in truth. This is a very loaded statement that deserves deeper reflection. On the surface and for the purpose of this post, I will say the authors and editors of John employ it to affirm to their audience of the time that since the destruction of the temple, they are such worshippers, that Jesus's prediction in the story came true.

AN INTIMATE REVELATION

The woman states that she is waiting for the Messiah, and this becomes the first time in the Gospels that Jesus openly says to a person and confirms that he is the Messiah.  The shock value of this is, that until now in John, he has not admitted this to his disciples or to anyone else.  It is to this unnamed Samaritan woman who had five husbands and living with a man who he reveals the truth about himself.

This is one of the most detailed and intimate exchanges recorded in the Gospels between Jesus and another person. It is a story that employs a conversation that reveals a sensual trust - a sensual (deeply intuitive and deeply felt/perceived) relationship between the personified representations of mercy as God's righteous truth in Jesus and wisdom, the bearer of God's righteous truth in the person of the Samaritan woman.

In the story, I found it interesting and perhaps significant that the woman leaves her jar at the well as she becomes the jar, the vessel, the Aletheiatokos that bears/contains the life-giving water, the truth of Jesus to her fellow Samaritans in Sychar of whom most are receptive and accept Jesus as the Messiah.

* * * * * * * * * *

Chapter four ends with another short story about Jesus healing an official's sick son in Capernaum without going to see the son - a story that reaffirms Jesus's merciful nature and long reaching compassion for all who seek his truth. It also serves the purpose this gospel's editors practice of providing extra proof of Jesus's divine nature.  

In further chapters of John one encounters a more pedantic approach on the part of Jesus to the themes found in these first four chapters.


Until next time, stay faithful.