The Samaritan Woman at the Well (with a little bit about Moses too!)
Lent 3, 2023, 1100.
Exodus 17:1-7
John 4:5-42
In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Are we nearly there, yet?” “I’m hungry!” “I’m thirsty!” “I need a wee!” How many times have you heard or asked this question, testing the patience of the leader of the expedition? Poor Moses! A fan of alliteration, this passage could be called despondent and demanding in the desert or moaning at Moses at Massah and Meribah.
Think what it must have been like to be Moses, leading the Israelites through the desert for 40 years. You risk your life to return to Egypt to rescue God’s chosen people, to take them to the Promised Land, and they are stubborn, ungrateful, demanding, quick to eschew the beliefs and practices of monotheism. The constant whining! “I’m thirsty, I need a drink!” To be honest, I would have been tempted to leave them to it. It’s good for the Abrahamic faith, therefore, that I was not Moses! “3But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?”
Thirst clearly made them extra difficult. Dehydrated we lose our ability to reason, it makes our behaviour unpredictable. Moses tells God that they are threatening to stone him! He asks God for help, and he provides. But Moses gets the last laugh in this passage, because he names the places Massah – which means testing – and Meribah – which means quarrelling. They quarrelled and tested God. Roasted! I love this, it is brilliant end to the scene.
Secondly, the woman, wisdom and the Word at the well
Our Gospel reading starts with Jesus, wearied from his journey, stops for rest and refreshment. Jesus is thirsty! It is a really sweet detail given to us by the gospel writer. Jesus sits by the well. Whether or not the well was that of Jacob’s, I think, is irrelevant, but it serves its purpose of being reminded the Exodus passage, as well as the gift of water at Beer in Numbers 21:16. But Jesus is greater than Jacob, because through him the teachings of the Torah, the Law, have been replaced. He is the living water.
In his 1931 song Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Noel Coward sang,
In tropical climes there are certain times of day
When all the citizens retire
To take their clothes off and perspire
It's one of those rules the greatest fools obey
Because the sun is far too sultry
And one must avoid its ultry-violet ray
The natives grieve when the white men leave their huts
Because they're obviously, definitely nuts!
Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun
Why would the woman be at the well at noon? It’s far too hot to be doing this job in the midday sun. The rest of the women would rise early and come to collect water when it was cool and then stop and have a bit of a chat and gossip. Why would she not come then? Clearly this woman was an outcast from her society. That Jesus stops to talk to her is even more wonderful. It is a beautiful interaction, immensely intimate, even though we are never told her name. She represents her people, anyone on the edge, those who do not conform to society’s expectations.
Why did Jews and Samaritans not get on? After the northern kingdom was invaded, many were taken to Assyria as captives, but some stayed in the land, intermarrying with foreigners brought by the Assyrians. These people who were half Jewish, half Gentile were the Samaritans. The Samaritans had their own temple, they only recognised the Pentateuch – the first 5 books of the Old Testament – so didn’t base their ideas about a Messiah on the prophecies, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, but on the promise of a prophet like Moses. You could avoid Samaria by taking a longer route, but this is a mission opportunity. He should not be eating or drinking with Samaritans, or a woman on her own. Yet he is. Go, Jesus, with his revolutionary ways!
Samaritans also did not follow the strict rules of ceremonial purification. Jesus could not touch her water pot as this would have made him ritually unclean. In his seminal commentary on John’s Gospel, Barnabas Lindars wrote, “Jesus in fact refused to allow such considerations to place a barrier between himself and the outcasts of society.” Later he adds, “he is anxious to show that the new life in Christ inevitably breaks out of its Jewish setting and is as universal as the light that enlightens everyone.” Every Jew, every Gentile, every Samaritan. Everyone.
“13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but 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.” And later, 26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” In a typical Jesus way, it is to a Samaritan woman that Jesus reveals his nature.
Another aspect of Samaritan life that Jews despised was allowing women to remarry two or three times. The way that Jesus coaxes out of her that she has had five husbands, is not married but in a relationship, is tender and compassionate. We see two things here – firstly, he does not judge her in the way others have - and secondly, he shows that he has knowledge not available to mortals. It is this part of the reading that appeals to me so much.
This is a very long gospel reading – 37 verses. We were invited to sit down for it as it is so long. I sat down because I’m standing now. I wonder how many of you decided to commit to standing up, then turned the page in your order of service and regretted your decision…?! You had your chance, you were warned!
The length of this story shows how important the gospel writer thinks it is. In the second part of the reading, whilst the disciples are questioning Jesus, “28Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city” to share her discovery with others. Does she leave her water-jar to forget her past, to show that she is prepared to leave everything to follow Jesus in the same way that the disciples did? Or is it because she realises that Jesus is the living water? Whatever the reason, it isn’t just her who is changed. Many come to believe because of her testimony.
What can we take from this incredible reading? Firstly, physical thirst is second to spiritual thirst. Jesus is the Living Water who can quench our thirst. St Augustine understood this when he wrote “our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.” It is belief in the risen Lord, the Living Water, that offers salvation.
Secondly, the Samaritan woman, the outcast of the outcast, took centre stage to share what she knew about Jesus. He was worth shouting about. By taking that risk, she brought many people to believe in him. How can we do likewise?
Thirdly, she listened to understand, not to reply. How many of us are guilty of that? I know I am. This transformed her and the other Samaritans who came to faith. Active listening is a powerful tool which we can all use to understand what God is saying to us, and those around us are trying to say.
Lastly, Jesus was not shocked by her complicated relationshiphistory, her less than perfect life, one that others said was sinful. This shows he can accept you and me with all our complications. She put down her water-jar. We can put ours down too. Amen.