John 4:5-42
5 So he came to a Samaritan city
called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by
the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus
said to her, "Give me a drink." 8 (His disciples had gone to the city
to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a
Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in
common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, "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." 11 The woman
said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you
get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us
the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" 13 Jesus said
to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but
those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The
water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to
eternal life." 15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so
that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."
16
Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." 17 The
woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You
are right in saying, "I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five
husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is
true!" 19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet.
20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where
people must worship is in Jerusalem." 21 Jesus said to her, "Woman,
believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this
mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what
we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now
here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for
the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who
worship him must worship in spirit and truth." 25 The woman said to him,
"I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he
comes, he will proclaim all things to us." 26 Jesus said to her, "I
am he, the one who is speaking to you."
27 Just then his disciples came.
They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said,
"What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?" 28
Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the
people, 29 "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He
cannot be the Messiah, can he?" 30 They left the city and were on their
way to him. 31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat
something." 32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do
not know about." 33 So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no
one has brought him something to eat?" 34 Jesus said to them, "My
food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you
not say, "Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look
around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is
already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower
and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, "One
sows and another reaps.' 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not
labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." 39
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's
testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done." 40 So when the
Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there
two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the
woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we
have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the
world."
A Samaritan woman came to draw water,
and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."
·
We might not think much of this
encounter if we use the way we think now. Asking for a drink of water is not a
huge thing. After all, what is a sip of water?
·
In Jesus’ time and place, things are
quite different compared to our times and places. Many of the differences are a
matter of inclusion or exclusion. Here are just a few.
·
When speaking of water in general,
Canada has plenty of water. Compared to any number of places in the world, we
are rich in water. Israel, Syria, Iraq, and even California have nowhere near
the availability of fresh water that this nation has.
·
In this case, Jesus is the outsider.
He’s a traveller, a visitor, and he has no bucket. He’s dependant on the
kindness of a stranger, as it were, to take care of his thirst. The
conversation with the Samaritan woman leads eventually to a revelation of the
grace of God.
·
Not without some misunderstanding
though. The meaning of “Living water” causes some difficulty. To the woman,
“living water” means free flowing water like that of a stream as opposed to the
water she’s used to – the water from a cistern that catches rain or ground
water. For Jesus, “living water” means the grace of God flowing from the
source, Jesus himself. So the woman would give Jesus the water he needs while
he would provide for her the “living water” she needs. This sort of double
meaning is quite common in John. Last week, we say it in the phrase “born
again.” Next week, we’ll see it in “the light of the world” and in blindness.
·
There is a further separation in this
story. Jews and Samaritans didn’t mix. The Jewish people excluded the
Samaritans and the Samaritans returned the favour. They disagreed about the
books of Scripture, about where people were to worship, about who was closest
to God. The people of Judea saw themselves as pure Israelites while calling the
Samaritans a mongrel people, made up of all sort of people settled there by the
various powers who ruled the area. The religious issues can be imagined.
·
One more separation is the
male/female one. The Samaritan woman was shocked that Jesus would speak to her,
a Samaritan and a woman. It is possible that this was included because of some
controversy in John’s Christian community over the inclusion of women in the
ranks of disciples.
·
One final division involves the woman’s
social or ethical situation. She tells Jesus she has no husband and he responds
that she has had five husbands. Whether this situation is one of multiple
remarriages or of the custom of what was known as “levirate marriage” where the
brothers of a deceased man were to give his widow children. We don’t know. What
the reading tells us is Jesus’ is aware of her situation… and accepts it.
·
In the end, the passage shows that
many of the Samaritans became disciples of Jesus, after they encountered him themselves.
They even go so far as to say that the woman’s testimony led them to encounter
Jesus and their own meeting led to faith.
·
The divisions in the story have been
overcome. The Jew/Samaritan division, the male/female division, the
righteous/unrighteous division all have been met and laid aside in the person
of Jesus, whom the Samaritans call “the Saviour of the world.”
·
It is possible that John wrote this
passage in order to teach and illuminate problems in the Christian community to
which he belonged. Exclusivity may have been the issue he was dealing with.
·
Were those Christians willing to
include those who might be considered ‘outsiders’ because of their race or
ethnic group? The Samaritan conversion in the story speaks to that.
·
Were they willing to include those
who might be considered ‘outsiders’ because of their gender? Jesus’ acceptance
of the Samaritan woman and her service as an evangelist to her own people may
have been written to address just that.
·
Was that community willing to include
people despite their lack of ethical or social righteousness in the eyes of the
community? Jesus’ talk about the woman’s numerous husbands – for whatever
reason – might have addressed this problem.
·
The nature of the church as exclusive
or inclusive becomes the question. Who is acceptable? Who is to be excluded?
What does either decision say about the community and its members?
·
This passage from John’s Gospel shows
that the early church dealt with many of the same issues the contemporary
church does. The answer for us is the same as it was for them; the only real
answer is grace.
·
John uses a symbol to show the
presence of grace in the words and deeds of Jesus. The living water that
Jesus promised the woman, symbolized in the water that Moses made come out of
the rock in Exodus 17, is God’s purifying water, the Holy Spirit (7:37-39),
which can purify our hearts of old hatreds and hostilities and form us into a
diverse people of God on earth.
·
God’s grace can overcome any obstacle
that might impede it. At its best, God’s grace can clear all those things that
we might see as trouble for the Christian community. And it can come to us in
something as simple as a cup of water.
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