I.Theme – Water provides life in a physical sense and in a spiritual sense (affirmation, love, hope) as well as a pathway to the divine.
“Christ and the Samaritan Woman” – Stefano Erardi (1630-1716)
The woman`s reaction of surprise is expressed by her hand placed against her chest as though in disbelief, while Christ points out a finger, not in accusation, but to communicate his innocent request for some water, with an expression of humility and compassion for the woman.
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm – Psalm 95
Epistle –Romans 5:1-11
Gospel – John 4:5-42
This lectionary readings this week address water both as a commodity and in a symbolic sense.
The people under Moses had escaped from Egypt where they had become slaves in providing the economic base for Egyptian power. But the desert to which they had come in their bid to secure freedom – trusting that God through Moses would lead them to new life – was an inhospitable place. It was arid, dusty, hot – and seemed to be endless. As a group they railed against Moses. Maybe Egypt had deprived them of dignity, but at least they had had food and water. A crisis in leadership was emerging.
There is a subtheme in obeying God. Moses did what he was told, struck the rock at Horeb and there was water. He had in the past trusted in God and not been let down. He trusted that this trust would once again not be misplaced – and the water flowed.
The Gospel pits Jesus with the Samaritan woman in drawing water. S. Michael Houdmann contrast this passage with the Nicodemus a week ago. “While Nicodemus needed to see himself as a sinner in order to understand grace, the Samaritan woman, who knew she was a sinner, needed to see herself as a person of worth and value…”Jesus’ ministering to those outcasts of the Jewish society (the Samaritans), reveals that all people are valuable to God and that Jesus desires that we demonstrate love to everyone.”
Water is more than life giving but is life transforming. She had had a difficult life with five husbands and is considered an outcast. In trusting her he uplifts her and gives her back her self-esteem. He accepts her with his conversation about this “living water.” Well water is necessary for life and is temporary. Living water is necessary for eternal life and is everlasting. This is the water of revelation, love and spirit. This water is giving is life affirming and life enhancing. In the end she is doing more than the disciples in bring the word of Christ to the many. The Samaritans flock to hear Jesus.
The Epistle doesn’t mention water directly. Paul goes into the benefits of justification by faith, including peace, hope and reconciliation with God. However, God’s love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit like water – evident in baptism into His death and rising. . We were restored to God’s favor by Christ’s death and be given eternal life (“saved”) by the risen Christ.
The Psalm is a shout toward the power of God echoed from the Epistle – as a great god above all other creator of worlds, shepherd sustaining them. There is a reference to Exodus and the conditions of lack of water with the disobedience of the people. Failure to adhere to God’s ways will have dire consequences, as it did for the Israelites during their “forty years.” In the end he sustains them physically.
II. SummaryOld Testament
Exodus Chapter 15 verse 22 to Chapter 18 verse 27 contains 10 subsections or incidents on the way from the Sea to the Mountain. The passages reflect stages on the way, stopping places, as the People of Israel took account of their circumstances and journeying. The exodus liberation promised a new beginning for the People, filled with all the promises of joy, freedom, fullness of life. But the route from Egypt to this new life takes the people through the wilderness, a place of harsh extremes and testing conditions. What is clear is that at each of the 10 stages, the People of Israel are portrayed as a fractious, rebellious people. They have had enough and are at the end of their tether.
Our passage recounts yet another bout of strife, in which the people put God to the test. There is a crisis. In the searing heat of the wilderness, there is no water. Once again, they reflect that they were better off as slaves, since at least in Egypt, they had food and water. Here in the place of desolation and desertion, they are parched, lack energy, and some even lack the will to live.
Moses has no option but to voice the complaint of the People to God. God’s response is decisive. He issues a command and a promise Moses is to act –in a manner that must have seemed ludicrous. Along with the elders he is to strike a rock of Horeb He is to seek water in the most unlikely and unyielding place.
Alongside this command, God makes a promise. I, God, shall be with you. God goes before the people in their time of desolation, anguish, isolation. As in other tests, God simply grants the people’s request, without rebuking them.
Moses obeys the command, and as the water flows so life is renewed, new life is possible.
This incident has been about testing, challenging, doubting God. The people of Israel want guarantees – proof that God is indeed present with the people. In this God is in danger of being perceived as a means to an end.
The elders see his show of power. The parallel with Egypt continues: the “staff” (v. 5) is the same one Moses used to poison the Nile. (“Massah and Meribah”, v. 7, come from words for test and quarrel.) In giving manna, bread from heaven, earlier, and now water (from an earthly rock), God shows his mastery over creation.
As Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann notes: “Lent concern the liturgical, spiritual, socioeconomic act of leaving the guarantees of the dominant ordering of social power and coming to terms with the commands and promises of Yahweh”.
Psalm
This psalm is called Venite in liturgy (“to come” in Latin) and we typically sing this in Morning prayer. It is an invitation – a summons to the congregation to authentic worship. The central call of the psalmist is evident in verse 7b “O that today you would listen to His voice.”
The psalm has 2 stanzas.
Verses 1-7a is an invocation in the form of a hymn. It begins with an unrestrained shout – make a joyful noise. The psalm enjoins the people to praise God exuberantly, because he is a great God – above all others; He is the Creator of all worlds – an emphasis here on inclusivity, on the Universal; and He is the Shepherd – the Creator and Sustainer of the people -the God of the Covenant, an emphasis here on particularity. (“Great King” was a title of emperors in the Near East)
The psalm reminds us that human existence derives from God’s providence. In the light of the “otherness” of God we become aware of our creatureliness. We become whole people when we live in a real relationship with God as He is our Creator and King.
The second stanza – verses 7b -11 expresses a warning to the present generation. Worship without obedience is meaningless. With brief allusions, it takes us back to the wilderness experience of Exocus, of the rebellious of their ancestors. Failure to adhere to God’s ways will have dire consequences, as it did for the Israelites during their “forty years” (v. 10) . The psalm ends with a clarion call in contrast to God’s provision and care, the attitude of the people has been contemptible.
Epistle
Paul has already demonstrated that “we are justified by faith”. He says that there are three consequences of being justified (found worthy in God’s court):
“peace with God”, a state of harmony with him,
“hope” (v. 2) of sharing his power and eternal life, and
being reconciled with him.
It is through Christ that we have “access to this grace”, this blessed state of harmony. A progression of words or “leads to” follows Suffering -> Endurance->Character-> hope . God’s love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit like water – evident in baptism into His death and rising (v5). As Paul Tillich emphasises – You are accepted, accepted, accepted by God – simply accept the fact that you are accepted – and live in the light of it.
God holds a person in good standing, reckons him an acceptable partner in covenant relationship, simply on the grounds of that person’s trust.
Verses 6-11 have been called the hymn of the crucified Jesus. His death is an expression of God’s love. From it flows specific blessings – peace with God in place of hostility; a mark of salvation; hope; and a share in the risen life of Christ. Christ died for us when were neither pious nor without sin. We were restored to God’s favor by Christ’s death and be given eternal life (“saved”) by the risen Christ.
Gospel
This starts out as a simple request by Jesus to a woman for a drink around noon in a Samaritan town. The trek to draw water was usually done as a group of women. It was near a well called “Jacob’s Well” which was and remains over 100 feet deep. It’s the kind of well into which water percolates and gathers.
Jesus is crossing boundaries by speaking to the Samaritan woman . Why ?
1 He was a Jew and she was a Samaritan Jesus’ request: “Give me a drink,” was a violation of social customs. First of all, as the woman indicates, Jews would not drink out of a Samaritan cup, since they considered all Samaritans unclean
2 No one spoke to women as equals, publicly or privately
This text is about transformations — a theme that reoccurs throughout the opening chapters of John. Jesus changes water into wine. Jesus proclaims a change from the physical temple into the temple of his body. Jesus teaches that those born of the flesh must be transformed into those having been born of the Spirit. Now Jesus transforms conventional expectations and challenges the status quo.
There are three key dialogues plus shorter conversations toward the end:
Dialogue about Living Water (4:6b-15)
Jesus issues two challenges to the woman: (1) knowing whom it is who is speaking to her; and (2) asking him and he would give her living water.
The woman asks how it is that Jesus as a jew asks her to draw water. Jesus responds. `”If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, `Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman says “”Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?”
Like Nicodemus’ misunderstanding in 3:1-12 when he is unable to look beyond the earthly (physical birth) to the spiritual (birth from above) and the disciples’ misunderstanding of Jesus’ references to food in 4:32-34, the woman here first understands Jesus to be referring to water from the well and asks how he will give her this without a bucket
But unlike Nicodemus, who doesn’t seem to move beyond his confusion, the woman does move. She asks for this water, realizing that it is not ordinary water but not yet understanding in what way.
On the literal level, it means running water as opposed to still water as in a cistern. This is how the woman (mis)understands the phrase. On the deeper level, there are three possible meanings:
1 The revelation that Jesus gives. In the Old Testament water is used of God’s wisdom that grants life (Pr 13:14; Is 55:1; Sir 24:21).
2. The Spirit whom Jesus gives. In John 7:37-39, a connection is made between drinking, living water, and the Spirit, which the believers will receive.
3. A reference to baptism (or immersion or birth) in water and the Spirit (4:1-3), that brings a new life and status.
Jesus makes some parallels between the well water and his living water . Well water is necessary for life and is temporary. Living water is necessary for eternal life and is everlasting.
Dialogue about True Worship (4:16-26). He asks her to call her husband and then proceeds to tell her she has had five husbands, the maximum under Samaritan law.
She is leading the life of rejection and isolation. The man she is living with could not be her husband. She is drawing water when no one else is around. Note there is no judgment or condemnation from Jesus. The dialogue creates a relationship with her. He identifies with the marginalized in society.
Jesus special knowledge of her situation, leads her to see Jesus as a prophet and asks him a serious question about worship to which he gives a serious answer. This is the only sustained conversation about worship in John. The story is about her being able to begin to see who he is, being given the gift of that truth that leads to real worship and becoming a conduit for the living water.
“The hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem”
To worship God as God wants is to worship in Spirit, presumably with the Spirit that Jesus offers from the heart, and in truth, which we will later understand to be embodied in Jesus himself (8:31-32; 14:6).
Worship, this seems to suggest, is about relationship, dwelling in the vine Jesus. The Samaritan woman, who has entered into relationship with him here, perhaps understands this. She suggests in her roundabout way that he is the coming Messiah, and for the first and only time in John, Jesus says that he is.
How does God become our Father — the one we are to worship? Last week’s text tells us that we need “to be born from above” or changing the passive to an active verb: “God becomes our father.” The transformation from being of flesh to being of spirit needs to take place for us to worship “the Father”. This is true for the Pharisee Nicodemus, other Jews, the immoral/idolatrous Samaritan woman, and for all of us.
The woman begins to recognize who Jesus is — possibly the coming Messiah. However, the Samaritans did not expect a Messiah in the sense of an anointed king of the house of David.
Discourse with the Disciples (4:27-38)
Earlier we were told that the disciples had gone into the city to buy food (4:8). This presents a little bit of a problem, considering that the only cities around them were Samaritan towns and I don’t know if a Jew would be willing to buy from a Samaritan — or a Samaritan to sell to Jews. That would be just as radical as Jesus asking the Samaritan woman for a drink. Their “shopping trip” may indicate that Jesus asks his followers to do things that are not always socially acceptable.
They are astonished at Jesus’ talking to a woman, but they don’t bother to ask him why or what they were talking about
Dialogue about Jesus’ Food (4:31-34)
The disciples are just in the dark about Jesus’ bread as the woman was about living water. Certainly no one in a Samaritan area would have brought Jesus, a Jew, bread to eat
Parabolic Proverbs of the Harvest (4:35-38)
Jesus says, “Look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.” If they took that literally and looked around, whom would they see? About then we are told that many Samaritans from the city come to Jesus. Are they the field the disciples are to be harvesting? They are ripe!
The one Samaritan woman who has just met Jesus, who misunderstands what he says, who has questions about his identity, brings more people to Jesus than the (relatively) long-time disciples do.
III. Articles for this week in WorkingPreacher:
Old Testament – Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm – Psalm 95
Romans – Romans 5:1-11
John – John 4:5-42