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
No comments:
Post a Comment