THE QUANDARY OF LAZARUS - A REFLECTION

I am posting devotions that I have created for my Parish in Yankton, South Dakota because, as so many places of worship around the world have done, we have had to close our doors for the foreseeable future.  These devotions utilize elements of our parishes prayer book, portions of the lectionary assigned for the Sunday the devotion is written for.  I am offering them here, to those readers of this blog around the world.   God's blessings on all of you.  

THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT*

John 11:1-45

A HOMILETIC STUDY AND REFLECTION ON THE LESSON

By Norm Wright

+In the Name of our loving, life-giving God+

Study

The Gospel of John, like much of scripture in the Holy Bible, presents us with stories that address multiple concerns of the time in which they were written.  Consequently, they contain layers of application and meaning. While the Holy Bible appears to give us a linear history; starting with the Book of Genesis and ending with the Book of Revelation, the actual history of when the various books of the Bible were being written tells us that it does not present a historical narrative as we understand such narratives today.

As mentioned in last week’s study, the Gospel of John is presented as an in-house Gospel written for Jewish Christians who were being thrown out of their synagogues, leaving them feeling deprived of their identity and heritage as God’s Chosen People.  

Given this situation, the writers of this Gospel literally rewrite the creation story in John 1; identifying the creative power of God as the Word by which the whole of creation came into being.  In John 1’s narrative, the proclamation is made  “to all who received (Jesus), to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”  [John 1:12-13]   This proclamation literarily cuts the proverbial cord between Judaism and Christianity; serving as a declaration of independence, allowing Jewish Christians and everyone else to identify themselves solely as Christian and nothing else.

The overall purpose of the Gospel of John is to establish as a self-evident TRUTH that Jesus of Nazareth is The Word Made Flesh and The Resurrected Christ of God.  As such, it is not purpose of this Gospel to provide a historical account of Jesus’s life and ministry.  Along with the backstory of this Gospel, the author develops a new field of theology known as Christology - the study of Christ.  As a work of Christology, this Gospel can be viewed as an initiation manual for catechists; helping them to work their way through what is defined in our Eucharistic liturgy as “the Mystery of Faith.” 

Apart from the book of Revelation, also attributed to same author, this Gospel presents us with coded messaging that utilizes numerology, astrology, and other arcane literary devices associated with the mystery religions of that era, much in the same way that people who send text messages today utilize emojis as coded language.  This particular lesson serves as a transition point in which the author of this Gospel presents Jesus revealing, “I am the Resurrection and the Life” which introduces one to a deeper study of its meaning as found in Jesus’ supper discourse that begins in John 13 and extends through John 17.

This transitional lesson employs familiar characters first identified in the Gospel of Luke; Mary, Martha (See Luke 10:38-42), and Lazarus whose name pops up in one of Jesus’ parables, “The Rich Man and Lazarus.”  (See Luke 16:19-31)  It may be that Mary and Martha had a brother named Lazarus, but it is in the realm of probability that the author of John melds Jesus’ parable of the poor man named Lazarus, who dies and whose spirit ascends to the bosom of Abraham, with the story of Mary and Martha found in Luke to create this resurrection story.

The surface story in this lesson presents conundrums. Some of these conundrums are explained away; such as, why Jesus waited two days to go to Lazarus when he knew Lazarus was sick and on his deathbed.  Another conundrum is that Lazarus, in being allowed to die, is brought back to life only to face dying again in a more tragic way as suggested in John 12:10.  This conundrum places Jesus in a somewhat cruel and capricious light. 

As shocking as this suggestion may appear, caprice was used in mythic stories of that era to demonstrate the inscrutable nature and powers of the divine.  Caprice is used for the same purpose in Scripture to describe the inscrutable nature of God as notably depicted in the story of Job.  A theological conundrum that is presented in stories where someone is brought back to life is that they conflict with Hebrews 9:27 where it says, “It is appointed for man, once to die.”  

Events that pose conundrums in Scripture readily identifies those events as being parabolic; that is, using a surface story to address or describe something other than the surface story itself.  Today’s lesson, as a parabolic story about Jesus, allows one to explore its richness and various applications without having to make sense of it as a historical event and trying to wrap one’s mind around all the conundrums the surface story offers.  

Just as the blind man in last Sunday’s lesson served as an iconic representation of the Christian Jews’ plight at being denied access to the synagogue, Lazarus dying and being raised to life serves as an iconic representation of their sense of loss.  Lazarus’ dying is also a representation of the experience a new catechist will go through as he or she transitions to new life through baptism.

Jesus makes some conflicting claims in this story; such as, “This illness does not lead to death… so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” and then clearly stating a few sentences later, “Lazarus is dead.” It is difficult what to make of these two incongruent statements.  Given the back story to John, the first statement may be a message saying that what the people in these Jewish communities are feeling (their depression and sadness) is not going to lead to their demise as communities of faith.  It may also be a way of comforting recent converts to Christianity who had experienced the loss of family and friends in their accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior by implying their loss will lead to God in Christ Jesus being glorified.  The comment “Lazarus is dead,” indicates, in both interpretive applications, that their former way of life has passed.  

The disciples in this story warn Jesus it is too dangerous to return to Judea; that returning was putting himself and, by extension, was putting them at risk.  Jesus assures them that as long as he is with them there is daylight (a reference to Jesus being the Light of the Word.)  [Note: The fear of the disciples and the concern of Mary and Martha bring to mind what one of my professors pointed out during a course on Christology; that in the Gospel of John, Jesus (metaphorically speaking) is depicted walking at least a foot above ground as Jesus is portrayed throughout this Gospel (unlike the Synoptic Gospels) as knowing when something will happen, why it will happen, and how it will happen; thus the normal concerns of others is only a concern for Jesus because he is concerned with their being concerned.] As such, Jesus constantly reassures his follower that while he is with them there is nothing to fear because daylight exists wherever he goes.

In an odd moment, Thomas (of doubting fame) says ,“Let us go that we may die with him.”  On the surface it is not exactly clear if Thomas is referring to Jesus (a foreshadowing of Jesus’s death) or Lazarus.  Regardless of who is being referenced, what this comment presents is an invitation to death; as in, death to one’s self.   In this sense Lazarus represents those who are “chosen” to die with Christ (become Christian) that they may be raised with Christ, just as Jesus chose to let Lazarus die in order to raise him to new life.

Mary and Martha serve as emblematic characters of faith in both the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of John.  The Gospel of John clearly is banking off of Luke’s depiction of them in the way they approach Jesus and in how Jesus responds to both.  Martha comes to Jesus and confronts him for having delayed his coming at their most desperate time of need.  Note that she does so reverently, acknowledging who Jesus is and accepting his decision in doing so after a small conversation about the resurrection in which Jesus proclaims, “I am the resurrection and the life… .”

Then it is Mary’s turn to approach Jesus. She also questions Jesus’ delay, but we see in their meeting the affinity between Mary and Jesus that was established in Luke.  When Mary approaches Jesus, she kneels at his feet (the posture of prayer) and is weeping along with “the Jews” (a reference that wouldn’t have been lost on the early Christian Jews) who are also weeping over their sense of loss. 

Martha presents a pragmatic faith.  She is the faithful doer; a hands-on follower of Jesus.  Give this faithful doer a cause and she will not stop until it is accomplished with grit and determination.  Mary, on the other hand, presents an intuitive faith that readily absorbs what Jesus teaches, which led Jesus, in Luke’s Gospel, to proclaim Mary as having “the better part.”  Notice how Jesus does not have to explain anything to her.  Mary exemplifies a heart-felt faith that accepts the will of God in all things, as expressed by her tears.  In turn, Jesus demonstrates a sympathetic response by weeping with her and all who weep.

It at this point that Jesus approaches the tomb (answers their questioning prayers) and demands that the stone is removed from its entrance of Lazarus’ tomb.  It is at this point the ever-pragmatic Martha points out that there will be a smell because Lazarus has been dead for four days.  The author of John is leaving no room for doubt that Lazarus is completely dead.  

Jesus offers a prayer of thanksgiving to God in which Jesus states that he personally didn’t need to pray (because in giving God glory, he is also glorifying himself) but rather that his praying is a display of showmanship done for the benefit of those around him. [Note: One of the oddest characteristics in the Gospel of John is that when people are asking a question, Jesus frequently responds by answering the question they should have asked, instead of the question being asked.]  Here Jesus is demonstrating a prayer of thanksgiving that those who are witnessing this event should be offering and suggesting they soon will be offering.  This presentation of Jesus glorifying himself was likely used to instruct a catechist to give glory and thanks to God in all things, just as Jesus did.

Lazarus, emerging from the tomb wrapped in strips of cloth, signifies that being called by Jesus does not immediately result in completion to new life; that there is a process of stripping off one’s old self.  Just as receiving physical sight by the blind man in last Sunday’s Gospel lesson did not give him the ability to immediately recognize Jesus as the one who healed him and needed to be informed, Lazarus must be released by those who follow the commandments of Jesus.  This is a reference for the leaders of the local church to assist a catechist by releasing the catechist from her or his old self into new life with Christ.  Some early baptismal practices literally involved stripping off the old clothing a catechist wore (to the point of the catechist’s birthday suit) immediately before baptism and putting on new clothing (a white robe) once the newly baptized emerged.  As a lesson for those catechists being brought into the church, this story represents a dying to their past so that they can be resurrected and experience rebirth in Christ “by water and the Spirit” through baptism. [See John 3]

REFLECTION

This lesson provides one of the most richly crafted and cryptic stories in the New Testament.  The message that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life within the context of today’s lesson and in the context of our present world tells us that there is no amount of time, no amount of distance, and not even death itself serves as a barrier denying access to and from God in Christ Jesus.  [See Romans 8:37-39]

In this time of dealing with a pandemic we, like those early Judaic and Christian communities, are experiencing the loss of the geographical centers of our spiritual life and worship, as the doors to our houses of worship need to be locked for a time.    

Like Mary and Martha we may ask, “Where was Jesus when this virus started making people deathly ill?  Like those early Judeo-Christian communities, who witnessed the destruction of their way of life we may ask, “Why is God allowing something like this to happen?” 

This pandemic is quickly proving to be a way-of-life changer for all of us. In times of crisis, life is revealed as paradoxical, in which all things and their opposites are shown to exist and come into play simultaneously.  The answer to the ontological question, why things such as this pandemic happen is the paradoxical response given to why anything exists, “That’s life.”

This is not to say that God in Christ does not get involved in this paradoxical world of ours.  In truth, paradox is a sign of Christ’s presence.  The cross and the tomb are symbols of paradox; showing us that just as in life there is death, so life comes from death.  Things are bound to change and in every change there is an element of death that may result in feelings of loss or feelings of release.  This element of death permits us to see new life brought about by change. 

When God created the earth we live on and formed human life from its clay, God said it was very good.  In times such as these, it is beneficial to keep in mind that God has never given up on our fundamental goodness and neither should we. It is also important that we, who have faith and trust in God’s goodness, exhibit this faith by caring for one another and for all in need.

It is also beneficial to keep in mind that this pandemic is not God’s way of punishing wrongdoing, as some who call themselves Christian are likely to do, and placing blame on their perception of who is Godless and, by extension, blaming God who is the creator of all that is.  

Please, for the sake of Christ, don’t go there and don’t let others take your there.  

God in Christ Jesus made it perfectly clear that is not how God operates, as Jesus said in Matthew 5, “For (our heavenly Father) makes the sun to shine on the evil and good and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous.”  

As this imposed social fast continues, it is important to share our frustrations and feelings with Jesus; not to blame God but to seek God, and like Martha and Mary to accept the answers that we are given, even when they don’t appear to satisfy the questions being asked.  

Faith in God’s goodness through good times and in bad; through times of plenty and in times of want has proven throughout the history of the church and in the lives of people everywhere to be a source of strength and resilience that allows us to endure the changes we face and the ability to work through the conundrums life presents.    

With God’s help, we can step back and see the bigger picture in which all things, by God’s grace, work for the good of all. 

Christ Jesus, The Resurrection and the Life, is with us now and always!

So let us draw near to the Lord of Life. 

Let us look to the cross of the One who showed us that from death comes life.

Let us look to the One who came and who comes that we may have life and have it abundantly. 

Let us draw near to the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.   

Amen.

                                    

THE STORY OF A MAN BLIND FROM BIRTH - A REFLECTION

I am posting devotions that I have created for my Parish in Yankton, South Dakota because, as so many places of worship around the world have done, we have had to close our doors for the foreseeable future.  These devotions utilize elements of our parishes prayer book, portions of the lectionary assigned for the Sunday the devotion is written for.  I am offering them here, to those readers of this blog around the world.   God's blessings on all of you.  

THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT *

John 9:1-41

A HOMILETIC STUDY AND REFLECTION ON TODAY’S LESSON

By Norm Wright

+In the Name of loving God who is ever present and comes to us in our time of need+  

Amen

STUDY 

Building on last Sunday’s study regarding the story of the Samaritan Woman at the Well and the historical context in which the Gospel of John was written, we are presented in today’s lesson a story that underscores the deep division that existed between Jews who were struggling to maintain Judaism and Jewish Christians who were struggling with their religious identity after being excluded from the synagogues at the end of the first century AD.  This particular story vividly portrays that division in a visceral way, which maintains its pathos to this very day.   

Before unpacking this story, I want to make some general observations about the Gospel of John.  This is the most influential Gospel in the New Testament canon and has had the most profound impact on Christian thought, practice, and theology to the extent that it colors how we understand everything else found in the New Testament.  It is what I would call an in-house Gospel written for those of us who are Christian in order to affirm that we are the beloved chosen of God in Christ Jesus. 

The Gospel of John is a complex theological work written from a sacramental perspective. Water, bread, wine and light are significant elements in its narrative.  It employees literary devices; such as, self-identification, in the sense that Jesus is at times both the narrator and the subject of his narration; often referring to himself in the third person. [See John 3] The author of John inserts editorial comments to provide meanings not apparent in a story’s narrative to prevent the hearer or reader from getting lost in one’s own interpretation of events. 

The Gospel of John is probably the most quoted, the most loved, the most referenced, and the most misunderstood piece of Christian literature in the Holy Bible.  

For example, in today’s lesson we run into language and sentiments that are blatantly anti-Judaic.  The use of the term “the Jews” is found only in this Gospel and is language that has led Christians, both past and present, to harbor and validate anti-Semitic views.  Let me be clear, the Gospel of John does not advocate anti-semitism.  The Gospel of John was written with Christian Jews in mind.  The term “the Jews” is being employed to identify those practicing Judaism as opposed to those Jews who were practicing Christians. 

Let’s review today’s lesson:  

There is much in this story that requires definition and explanation; some of which will be found in this homily’s footnotes. Something one might not pay attention to in this story is that the blind man never asks to be healed and Jesus never asks the blind man if he wants to be healed.  Jesus just heals him.  

This lack of approach on the part of the person being healed and Jesus just healing someone without being asked to do so is a literary trait in the Gospel of John that differentiates it from the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where the ill and those in need are depicted as approaching Jesus.  For the most part, Jesus does the approaching in the Gospel of John in order to reveal who he is.

 Why is this?  

The answer is simply that the Jewish Christians who were being thrown out of the Synagogues felt that they were being deprived of their status as God’s Chosen People because of their acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah when this Gospel was being written.  The Gospel of John has Jesus assuring these Christian Jews that they are the “true” Chosen People, chosen by God Incarnate, Jesus Christ himself. 

Depicting the man as being born blind so that Jesus could heal him is an editorial comment to allow Jesus to make the theological point, “I am the light of the world.”  We need to be careful to avoid seeing this description as confirming that God caused this man to be blind or causes bad things to happen to people just so Jesus can do things to prove who he is.  God works with and through what we present and offer, including our infirmities, weaknesses, and strengths.

This story continues with Jesus, in essence, recreating this man by making a clay poultice of his own salvia and dirt (a reference to God’s method of shaping the human form from the earth) and then asking him to wash in a pool (a reference to baptism.)   The man does what Jesus instructs him to do, but Jesus is not present when his physical sight is returned.  The absence of Jesus at that moment is used to help differentiate the man gaining his physical sight from the spiritual sight he will receive later in the story.

Unique to this healing story is that when the blind man receives his sight, the people who knew him as a blind beggar do not recognize him as one who sees; implying they have become blind to who he is and what he has become (one seeking Jesus). 

The healed blind man is brought to the Pharisees (the Judaic community) to be examined.  He explains his being cured of blindness, but instead of being happy for this man, the Pharisees accuse him of receiving his sight by Jesus who they said does not “observe the Sabbath” and question whether he was ever blind.  At that point, his parents are brought in.  When they confirm that he is their son and are questioned how he can see, they defer the question to their son because they were afraid of being thrown out of the synagogue.  

When personally questioned a second time, the man professes his joy at being given sight and questions why they need to ask him again. He then accuses them of not listening to his message (referencing Judaism’s refusal to allow the Gospel being preached in their synagogues). When he asks his interrogators if they too want to be Jesus’s disciples, he is thrown out of the synagogue.

Apart from the man being healed and accepted by Jesus as his disciple, there is nothing happy taking place in this story. The man’s community no longer recognizes him and his parents fear that they will be kicked out of the synagogue because he was healed by Jesus. 

Notice how after the man is thrown out of the synagogue, Jesus approaches him and asks him if he believes in the Son of Man.   The healed man does not recognize Jesus by normal sight (normal understanding).  The return of man’s physical sense of sight allows him to seek Jesus (a reference, perhaps, to catechists of the early church who, as new converts, were not fully oriented in their faith or fully received into the church). When Jesus comes to the man and reveals himself through “speaking” to him, the man understands Jesus to be God Incarnate and worships Jesus as such.

This story has an odd ending in which Jesus explains this parable-like story about himself by saying that he “came into the world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”  In other words, those who are given sight to know Jesus as the Christ, the Incarnate Word are the chosen to be his followers as opposed to those who claim to have sight via the law and the prophets and remain “in their blindness” for their failure to hear  the message of the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. This differentiation between those called to be in the church and those who are not seems harsh, but as an in-house Gospel it was written to give hope and support to an early church struggling to survive and in need of “direct”validation coming from Jesus himself through its message. 

REFLECTION

Today’s lesson presents a very sad story intended to draw one towards the intimate care demonstrated by Jesus approaching this individual twice; the first time to give him sight as a means to seek Jesus and the second time to personally reveal himself as God Incarnate. The early Christian Jews for whom this Gospel was being written would have immediately recognized themselves in this story, and this man serves as an iconic figure of the struggles they faced at the time of its writing.  

For today’s Christian, it is important see and embrace the pathos this story presents in order to fully appreciate the grace of God demonstrated through it. It is important to understand the cost involved in becoming a Christian in many parts of the world today and particularly in a world that was hostile to both Jews and Christians in the early days of the church.

We are living in a time far different than those early Christian lived in.  We are living in a time when Christianity is a part of the status quo woven into the cultural fabric of most Western nations.  To a large extent we have become immunized from what the Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer described as “The Cost of Discipleship”  in his book by that title. 

The question for us today is whether Christianity, when part of the status quo, results in Christians tending to act more like the Pharisees depicted in this story rather than embracing those living on the fringe of religion and on the edge of society; those ripe for being recreated by the love of God in Christ.  

Is what we see different from what God, through the eyes of Jesus, sees?  

Are we truthfully seeing things as they are or are we seeing what we want to see and remain blind to what we need to see?  

In this lesson, Jesus is presented as coming to judge the world to prevent us from judging others like the disciples in this story did when they assumed that the cause of the man’s blindness had to be the result of some sin he or his parents committed. Jesus debunks that understanding of illness throughout all the Gospels

Jesus as the one who comes to judge the world in the end times is found throughout all the Gospels. Unfortunately this portrayal of Jesus has often been distorted and used by some as permission to condemn others in the name of God.  It is important to understand when Jesus is presented as the Judge in the New Testament, that we are not being called to take on the role of being the jurors.  The Court of God is not the court of man. God does not need a jury to discern what is true about humanity.

At a time when our world is dealing with a pandemic, it is essential that we do not engage in judgmental theories as to its cause and point to those deemed our ideological enemies or those living on the edge of society; those most vulnerable as the reason for its existence. 

To be polite, STUFF HAPPENS.  

It was never a question where this pandemic would start.  It has always been a matter of when it would occur.  Scientist (the prophets of our day) have been warning of a looming outbreak for some time.  It was bound to happen sooner or later.

Now is that time. 

Viruses don’t recognize borders, race, creed, political party, or social status but, much to our discredit and shame, some of us continue to do so.  

This pandemic underscores the fundamental truth that we are interconnected; that we are all in this together, living on the same small planet to which we are bound. This pandemic demonstrates that a threat to one is a threat to all and hopefully will prove that the accomplishments of one will be an accomplishment for all.  

It is important to recognize that God is at work through the work we do and the care we give to one another.  Such work has taken on a new meaning at a time when many of us are keeping ourselves physically distanced from others.  Nevertheless, we can still give care and socialize through phone calls or the use of social media.  As it turns out, there is a blessing in our ability to socialize through technology.

This Gospel lesson and other stories in the Gospels demonstrates that God in Christ is ever present and approaches in times of need. 

Today’s lesson takes on a prophetic hue at this time when it says, “We must work the works of him who sent (Jesus) while it is day for the night comes when no one can work.” Things are looking dark at this time, but with the light of Christ there is always daylight and it is at such times as this that we should let the light of Christ shine in our lives.

This Season of Lent provides all of us a time to pause and examine the thoughts and desires of our hearts and how they impact our behavior.  This is a time to be vigilant in our thinking, in our speaking, and in our doing. 

This is a time to consider:   

Are we being receptive to the grace God offers us in Christ Jesus at this present moment; to do what we are being directed to do for our benefit, as the blind man in today’s lesson did?  

Are we able to see the presence of Christ Jesus in our lives?  

Are we seeing it in the lives of those around us?  

Are we continuing to thank and praise God for the blessing of life?

May God’s faith in us strengthen our faith in God and in one another.   

May God’s hope in us strengthen us to hope in a time of fear.  

May God’s love for us, strengthen us in our love of God and strengthen us to love and treat our neighbors are ourselves.

AMEN

        Hymn

JESUS AND A SAMARITAN WOMAN - A REFLECTION

I am suspending my posts on "A true reformation" for the present time.  Instead I am posting devotions that I have created for my Parish in Yankton, South Dakota because, as so many places of worship around the world have done, we have had to close our doors for the foreseeable future.  These devotions utilize elements of our parishes prayer book, portions of the lectionary assigned for the Sunday the devotion is written for.  I am offering them here, to those readers of this blog around the world.   God's blessings on all of you.  

THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT*

A reading from the Gospel according to John:   

Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.  There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.(For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

A HOMILETIC STUDY AND REFLECTION ON TODAY’S READING FROM THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN

By Norm Wright

+In the Name of our loving, life-giving God+  

The Gospel of John is a very different Gospel from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The Gospel of John is a Gospel that explains who Jesus is in Jesus’s own voice.  

It is important to keep this in mind when reading the Gospel of John because every story told in John; every minute detail and facet found in a story and every conversation Jesus has with others throughout this Gospel presents  us with a sort of biblical code that serves the purpose of economizing the use of language in revealing Jesus as the Christ.  It also important to keep in mind that from the very first verse of the first chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus is presented as the very Word of God Incarnate through whom all things came to be and it is this cosmological presentation of Jesus who is talking throughout John.  

So when we come to the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, it is important to take note of what’s involved, because details are significant.  The well in this story is a fount of nourishment created by the common ancestor of both Jews and Samaritans. Water is always a symbol of baptism in John, and a woman coming to bear water reflects an ancient (astronomical/aquarian) portrayal of truth as a woman (the symbol of wisdom - sophia in Greek) caring a jug of water that she pours out. 

There are more things to explore in this story than a short homiletic study can convey.  For the purpose of this homily we will focus on the setting of this story and its purpose in being told at the time the Gospel of John was written.  

The Jewish landscape of Roman Palestine was divided into two parts, Judea in the South and Galilee in the North. Sandwiched in between these two areas was Samaria.  Jews from the North; from Galilee, had to travel through Samaria, a sort of lawless and dangerous no-man’s land, in order to get to Jerusalem.

There was a long history of animosity, if not hatred, between Jews and Samaritans even though they shared a common lineage. Samaritans traced their ancestors back to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh that went back to Jacob from which the tribe of Judah descended from also. Orthodox Jews considered Samaritans a defiled ethnic group practicing an impure religion.  

Biblical scholars place the date of the writing of the Gospel of John at the end of first century or the beginning of the second century AD.  This was a time when Christianity was coming into its own as a religion; separate from its Judaic roots.  

This division was largely sparked by the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD by the Romans.   In its aftermath, Jews practicing Judaism (mostly associated with the Pharisaical Judaism of Jesus’s time) were struggling to keep their religion alive and pure.   

As a result, Jewish Christians found themselves being excluded from synagogues and were faced with an identity crisis.  If they were no longer accepted by their Jewish brethren as practicing Jews who were they?   More importantly, questions started arise about Jesus, if he was truly the Messiah? Why didn’t he save Jerusalem and the Temple?   This is a theme that is addressed in the Synoptic Gospels as well, most of which were written after the destruction of the Temple.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is depicted as passing through Samaria, traversing a divided landscape on his way back to Galilee after having been in Judea.  It is here that he and his disciple are taking a break to find food and water.  Jesus approaches a woman at a public well.  

To drive the message John is trying to convey home, the writer has Jesus talking to a Samaritan, and not just any Samaritan but to a Samaritan woman who we are led to believe in a full reading of this story was leading a less than a stellar life.  Middle Eastern men rarely took time to talk to women in public; much less, a Jewish man speaking to a Samaritan woman in a public place like a community well.  

Jesus is depicted demanding this woman to give”him a drink, but the woman diminishes the demand to a request, “How is that you, a Jew asks a drink of me, a woman of Samaria.”  The tone of the story suddenly changes and Jesus responds by saying if she knew “the gift”(the grace) that the Incarnate Word of God was standing in front of her, she would be the one asking for water, and he would give her a drink of living water.

Notice the woman’s response to Jesus softens, as she reminds Jesus that the well they are conversing as was dug by “our” (common) ancestor,” Jacob - a reference to Jewish Christians and Judaic Jews also share the same heritage.  Her description of the well is that its waters run deep and accessible only if one has the right tools, which can be understood as a metaphor for right religious practices in her understanding; a point of contention between Jews and Samaritans and a point of contention between Jews practicing Judaism and Jews who are Christian.  

Jesus doesn’t deny the claim to common ancestry nor does he take issue with her religious practice.  Instead, he makes the point that the living water he gives is a spring that gushes up inside of the person and will ensure the person eternal life. The apostle Paul (and early Christians) would describe this well-spring as faith.

The woman responds that she wants this living water so that she is not tied down by having to come back to the same old well; in other words, no longer feeling obligated to practice the same old religious habits in order to sustain her spiritual vitality, a point the early Christian community’s would have pick up on as well.

What an early Jewish-Christian community would have likely heard in this story is that, like the Samaritan woman, they found themselves on the outer fringe of a common religion.  They felt relegated to a religious no man’s land, like her, by the very community they were considered themselves part of.  They longed to drink from the well of their Jewish identity; their synagogues.  So Jesus comes to them, as presented in this story, to inform them that they have what they need to stay spiritually hydrated and vital; the faith that was instilled in them at their baptism.  

They possess the living water that Jesus offers.

A Reflection

Thirst is a such a powerful feeling, a feeling that drives us to seek life-giving water in whatever form it comes in.  Physically, we know that we cannot live without water for very long.

But what about spiritual thirst?

Spiritual thirst often flies under the radar of most people because when things are going well in the world, we might not feel the thirst or the hunger that brings us to the well of God’s grace in Christ. Yet, without the life-giving water found in faith, we face spiritual starvation, which can be just as deadly as physical starvation.  As Christians, spiritual thirst brings us to the well of faith that is symbolized by the baptismal fount.

The Gospel of John’s telling of this story serves as a parable about Jesus.  It is a story that depicts Jesus’s righteous ambivalence with regard to who his followers are; where they come from or what their personal history is.  This is signified in this story by Jesus bringing his thirst for redemption of the world to a Samaritan woman, who will become a bearer of his truth and will pour it out on her part of the world.

At this time of social separation imposed on us by the Coronavirus, we have a heightened awareness of our extreme vulnerability demonstrated by a microscopic virus which has the power to bring our world to a halt. In some paradoxical way, however, this need to socially isolate is bringing us together in common cause and purpose. 

That this critical situation is taking place during this season of Lent; making it a necessity to put on hold gathering for worship services can serve as a spiritual fast in order to reflect on our spiritual needs and experience a deeper spiritual thirst for the living water found in Christ Jesus, just as this Samaritan woman did. 

May God grant us such a spiritual thirst that we may be ever aware of that spring of living water within each of us.  AMEN

• King James Version

Stay safe.    Norm