Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

Title

Transcending Boundaries with Jesus

Outline

It takes wisdom to share about our Lord with others

First, we often give answer to questions or needs the other does not feel

Second, we sometimes need to overcome natural hostility when we cross boundaries

We see this in the Acts reading, for it was natural to share “the word” with Jews, since they shared the same religious language, but at Antioch they cross the cultural and religious boundary to Gentiles. Therefore, when help was needed a bi-cultural, well-educated man was needed: Saul, or Paul

We see this phenomenon in Jesus and the Samaritan Woman, except Jesus is more trans-cultural

Jesus communicates with the woman about a need

She needed water, for she was there - perhaps they had run at at her house or a jug had spilled

He has the natural need for a drink and a normal expectation of hospitality

Except he, the Jew, crosses the boundary, for he asks for liquid from a Samaritan woman, whom Jews considered taboo (therefore the need to have the disciples absent)

Jesus uses her surprise to move the discussion to living/running water and to God (whom the woman would have acknowledged as giving water through Jacob)

Drawing water was hard work, so she was naturally interested in the idea of a spring

Jesus moves the conversation to the quality of the water: “whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Yes, that is something that the woman wants and asks for

Jesus reveals his prophetic status and at the same time that he knows and is ignoring the woman’s low status

She has lost 5 husbands, possibly through divorce by the husband, but more likely through death. She was bad news, so her present man has her as a servant, but is not sleeping with her. That is bad news in a culture in which children established a woman’s status.

Since Jesus is a Jewish prophet, the woman asks him about the main bone of contention between Jews and Samaritans: Gerazim or Jerusalem?

Jesus transcends the distinction by saying “in” neither-nor but “in spirit and in truth” - one had been destroyed the other would be destroyed, but “in spirit and in truth” could be anywhere for it has no “where”, just like God

The woman realizes that the boundary has been transcended and indirectly asks the core question for both Samaritans and Jews: “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things.” 26  Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” This is the clearest self-revelation in the gospel until the resurrection. Note that it comes at the end of the discussion.

The woman leaves to call her husband indeed, and everyone else in the town.

We might feel like the disciples returning after the drama with no clue other than that Jesus is not hungry and the woman who had run by them had left her water pot.

So Jesus says two basic things:

(1) “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.” - they were distracted by temporal issues

(2) There is a harvest already and you are not even seeing a field: “lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest.” So, get to work reaping, for I have already sown seed: “I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

Brothers and sisters, watch how Jesus shows love and acceptance within the world of the woman before transcending the world and avoiding unnecessary issues

See how the disciples were blind to the possibility of ministry there and so could not see beyond their stomachs

Let us imitate Jesus and the woman who immediately evangelized and recognize that the blindness and prejudice of the disciples could still reside in us

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Gregorian) 5-2-2021: Sunday of the Samaritan Woman or Fifth Sunday of Pascha

EPISTLE

Acts 11:19–26, 29–30

19  Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to none except Jews. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number that believed turned to the Lord. 22 News of this came to the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad; and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose; 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a large company was added to the Lord. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul; 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the Church, and taught a large company of people; and in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Christians.

29 And the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brethren who lived in Judea; 30 and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

GOSPEL

John 4:5–42

5  So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 For his disciples had gone away into 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?” For Jews have no dealings 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 nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, 14  but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15  The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 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 he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20  Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” 21  Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 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 now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks 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 (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things.” 26  Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

27 Just then his disciples came. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but none said, “What do you wish?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar, and went away into the city, and said to the people, 29  “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the city and were coming to him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples begged him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32  But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has any one brought him food?” 34  Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. 35  Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest. 36 He who reaps receives wages, and gathers 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 all that I ever did.” 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 your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Notes

Byzantine Lectionary (Gregorian) 5-2-2021: Sunday of the Samaritan Woman or Fifth Sunday of Pascha

SUNDAY, MAY 2, 2021 | PENTECOSTARION

SUNDAY OF THE SAMARITAN WOMAN OR FIFTH SUNDAY OF PASCHA

Bright Vestments

Matins Gospel John 20:1–10

Epistle Acts 11:19–26, 29–30

Gospel John 4:5–42