SUNDAY, MARCH 12, 2023 | LENT (A)

Preliminary

Exodus: Seems like Moses is the only one believing in the Lord during the events - they do not turn to the Lord, but Moses. Moses is discouraged, but ultimately Lord delivers and there is water.

Romans: Through Jesus Christ, we received reconciliation..

John:

Look up background for Jacob’s well.

Power differential - Jesus is a Jewish man - powerful, she is a Samaritan woman - powerless - in the situation, Jesus is powerless in other instances

Jesus casting a subtle shade at Jacob’s well - it’s just water, but what I give...

Jesus is sassy a bit

Jesus alludes to the coming of Christianity, but probably also the fall of the temple - decentralized Judaism, synagogal

Jesus self-identifies as Christ (level of revelation in John is high)

The woman leaves and draws curious crowds - she does not believe yet

Jesus has secret snacks - disciples wonder if somebody else fed him (???)

Jesus might mean - harvest of seeds that were laid over millenia by God through various means, Jesus’ teaching is the scythe

Samaritan woman convinced people that Jesus is special…but they needed to experience him for themselves - pattern of mission: we tell ABOUT Jesus, but to believe, they need to meet him themselves.

Revised Common Lectionary 3-12-2023: Third Sunday in Lent

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.”

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Good morning church!

Let’s stretch ourselves a little bit. Better? I hope so, as, if you are like me, you may be pretty tired this morning. And well, I wonder if that makes it easier to understand that in that text, Jesus was tired. He’s been busy as we can read at the beginning of the chapter:

4 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” 2 —although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— 3 he left Judea and started back to Galilee

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Jn 4:1–3.

He may have not be baptizing himself, but let me tell you: supervising other people can be exhausting, no matter how eager and able they are. And disciples are eager, but a little bit slow to learn. I think the Greek word koptoo would allow the meaning that he was worn out by some hard work, not just the journeying.

And as he journeys, and I highly doubt it is coincidental, he stops at one of the places of Hebrew Bible significance - Jacob’s well. Not explicitly mentioned in any Bible stories in there, but it is the only well mentioned in the New Testament, so that’s important!

According to Lexham Bible Dictionary:

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Background and Source

The book of Genesis records that Jacob purchased a parcel of land in Shechem (modern Balatah) from Hamor for 100 pieces of silver; he later bequeaths it to his son Joseph (Gen 33:18–19; Josh 24:32). However, a well was not mentioned in the original purchase agreement. Historically, when an individual purchased land in Canaan, the acquisition did not include water rights. To avoid dispute, the rights to the springs would have been assigned long before Jacob’s purchase (Murphy-O’Connor, The Holy Land, 288). The land Jacob purchased was in the vicinity of several springs, which likely would have provided the major supply source for the well (Murphy-O’Connor, The Holy Land, 288).

It is said that at one time the well boasted a depth of 128 feet and unlike other Biblical places, this well’s location is without dispute - located between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. It is close to Jacob’s tomb. A church was built on top of it and today it is under Palestinian authority and open to tourism.

So he stops there and a scene like from Jacob’s story unfolds - if you remember, it is at a well that Jacob met his first wife Rachel. But this time, fortunately we are without all the questionable ethical questions such as whether Rachel consented to his first kiss at the well or whether two sisters married to the same man is a good thing. Yikes.

So Jesus meets a nameless Samaritan woman, in the Eastern Christian tradition, her baptized name is Photine (enlightened one) and there is significant power difference at play here. Jesus is a Jewish man of a certain renown and with a following, while Photine is just…a Samaritan woman at the well, not really a high societal status of any kind. So it is fully understandable her shock at Jesus even talking to her, she is probably used to be ignored, both by Samaritan and especially Jewish men. And more than that, he wouldn’t mind receiving something from her, something that she touched! Sure, he could have said “please”, but it is an important inter-cultural moment, reaching across the aisle, so to speak. Then there is an enfolding of a teaching about Jesus being the living water that makes one never to thirst again, which is something that even the water from the stone that Moses struck or Jacob’s well cannot do. It points to the wholeness that can be had for those that confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. Furthermore, Jesus is not judgmental of Photine, even though she had 5 husbands and now is essentially a co-habitating with a boyfriend of sorts.

Photine likes what she hears but worries about the differences among Samaritans and Jews - Samaritans believe to this day that a nearby Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, is the holiest of all holy sites. Jews at the time were of course all about their 2nd Jerusalem temple, a center of their worship. Again, no refutation from Jesus, but he puts a spin on it - it won’t matter soon, for the worship that matters will be in the spirit and the truth, both proverbially and theologically as the Second Jerusalem Temple will soon be destroyed. And after he self-identifies as the Messiah, Photine goes back to the city and shares with everybody, even though she herself is still making up her mind whether he is the Messiah or not. Her sharing then leads to people from that city being curious and intend to go check out that prophet of hers.

Meanwhile, the returned disciples are totally oblivious to it all, and want Jesus to eat something. In response, we learn that Jesus obviously keeps a secret stash of snacks and that his primary concern is to do God’s work and complete what God started. God’s truth and beauty was sown all around and Jesus taps into that and employs the disciples as reapers-evangelists. Sure enough, the Samaritans arrive and urged him to stay for two days. His teachings then led to many Samaritans to believe. The Samaritans then said to Photine, their initial evangelist: ““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.” (John 4:42)

A looot to mine here, but let’s begin with lens number one - inclusion and acceptance. There is little doubt that Jesus is inclusive and actually treats the Samaritan woman, Photine, as a fellow human. He doesn’t just talk AT her, but actually talks TO her. She is treated with dignity and compassion, even though she is leagues below Jesus’ social status and in the society of times, pretty much a complete nobody. I think it is really important to stress that as right now, there is so much xenophobia and hate towards those that are different from what is expected or desired. What is happening in Tennessee right now is an example of that - restricting “adult cabaret performances” in public or in the presence of children and banning transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming care like puberty blockers, hormones, and surgery. Adult cabaret performances are used in a very broad way, including “male and female impersonators,” so some argue that it can, with proper motivation, lead to criminalization of being transgender, as if they weren’t excluded and marginalized as is. I have participated in LGBTQIA+ events such as pride parades and let me tell you, they have been very wholesome and inclusive, a far cry from the images painted by fearmongering politicians . And as for transgender minors not being able to receive gender affirming care - such care is considered safe, effective, and medically necessary by most major MEDICAL organizations. Once again, populist quasi-Christian ideology tries to rule over medical and societal reality - being transgender is not a whim or fancy, but an identity and its bearers of all ages and backgrounds need the support, societal and medical, to do what they need to be whole as the unique individuals they are. Similar efforts are popping up in North Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, Nebraska, and South Carolina.

What they are doing is the exact opposite of what Jesus did - he interacted, dined, and walked with those different from him - tax collectors, prostitutes, Samaritans, the poor, and the list could go on. He did not sanitize reality according to his ideology, trying to hide and erase the bits that did not suit him - as far as we know, he did not disappear a single Roman soldier or politician. Instead he understood that the beauty of God’s creation lies in its diversity and variety, that IS often unstreamlined, kinda messy, and requiring patience and compassion to truly understand and appreciate it all.

Our second lens is missional - this text has a lot to say about how to do mission among and with people. We already covered what Jesus did, but mission has a domino effect - Jesus rocked Photine’s world and in turn, she decided to tell others about it. What made her witness to others powerful was that she extended a simple, gracious invitation to the people she knew (Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!) and she was honest about her own doubts (He cannot be the Messiah, can he?}. There are evangelists that want to convert people to their religion by embellishing and upselling the promises of their religion, while, at the same time, hiding behind a wall of cocksure confidence without any doubts. The truth is, many cults and pyramid schemes do it as well and many people will not find out they are trapped in a cult structure or bound by a lot of debt before it is too late.

The Samaritans only had a connection to Photine, so it was important they got to know Jesus as well communally with others. And I think that is another important missional point - mission, just like the sowing, growing, and harvest Jesus often connects it to, takes time and cooperation to bring forth fruit of this labor. If only Photine told them about what she experienced and nothing else happened, they might find it interesting, but it wouldn’t convert them. It was through an encounter with Jesus, every one of them and yet in a community, that their beliefs were set and cemented, allowing them to profess that Jesus is “truly the Savior of the world.” They needed to experience the goodness and inclusivity of Jesus for themselves to come to faith. It was important that Photine made the initial invitation as an evangelist, but ultimately they needed to grasp their own faith by listening and observing Jesus.

This text is an invitation in itself - once more, it invites us to take in the actions of Jesus and do our best to adapt it for our lives and our lives to it. As Gordon Lathrop writes “God’s dominion has no outsiders” and Jesus exemplifies that - he talked to Photine in gracious way, which then led to her witness to others, who then came to faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior through their own experience of Jesus. I don’t think any of it would happen without inclusion, compassion, and love out of this world. Nobody was forced to change or conform, like we can see populists today want to do to those they do not like and/or understand (such as transgender people, refugees, or people of other ethnicities and cultures), they were graciously and openly invited, with no secret agenda or a trick. This invitation extends to all of us, just as we are, we are all invited into God’s gracious and loving embrace. Let’s pass this inclusivity on - let us worry about people being loved and cared for and leave the transformation to God to whom they are invited, too. Let’s allow God to transform our hearts and minds to become more like Jesus. And let’s not give more power to those that seek to exclude and oppress, suppressing the rich beauty of God’s creation. Amen.