Year A, 3 Lent In today’s gospel we heard the longest conversation between Jesus and anyone—the disciples, the Pharisees, his accusers, even his own family. And from the standpoint of 1 st century Judaism, this person is the most unlikely of all for Jesus to talk with. Not only was she a Samaritan, but she was a woman; and not only a woman, but one with a questionable past, one who avoided the fellowship of women who gathered at the well in the cool of the morning and evening. The well was the local gathering place, the water cooler, the coffee shop, the tavern. John’s audience would have perceived that Jesus talks to one he shouldn’t, that he was a social radical, crossing all barriers. And just what was the problem with Samaritans? Samaritans were considered unclean by Jews, just a notch above the Gentiles. Their religion had its basis in the Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the bible. Samaritans believed that they were the true, faithful descendents of Israel, and that the Jews were wrong because they moved their center of worship from Mount Gerizim, to Shiloh, and finally to Jerusalem. Hostilities between the Jews and Samaritans had existed for centuries, and often Samaria sided with Israel’s enemies. So the fact that Jesus went though Samaria, when most Jews would go out of their way to avoid this region, is amazing. This passage offers a wealth of material, but today I’m going to focus on just verses 16-26, and see what we can learn about Jesus. As a bit of background we see Jesus traveling through Samaria on the way from Judea to Galilee. He arrives at the well, hot and tired, at noon; his disciples go off in search of food. A woman arrives, and he asks for a drink; he subsequently offers her a drink of living water, an internal spring welling up and pouring out eternal life. The woman, not really understanding, asks Jesus for this water so she won’t have to continue making the trek to the well. And so the stage is set for their discussion to continue. In an abrupt transition, Jesus asks the woman to call her husband—of course he knew the direction the conversation needed to go. Her answer was simply, “I have no husband.” This man Jesus was a complete stranger; it is unreasonable to expect the woman to reveal any more. In fact, Jesus commends her for stating the partial truth, but then indicates that he knows the whole truth: she has had five husbands and is currently living with a man to whom she is not married. Jesus is simply stating the facts, but “[t]here is little doubt that most ancient Mediterranean men would have assumed a large number of divorces to reflect badly on the woman herself, and to judge the situation in moral terms”.1 And equally scandalous to the ancient world would be that she was living with a man without benefit of marriage. Jesus’ kindness and non-erotic interest in her is all the more astounding, reflecting a new kind of love. The woman’s response to Jesus’ insight is not shock or shame, but simply: 19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet.” Jesus has spoken the truth. Divinely inspired, he knows all about her. Jesus is a prophet. Sensing the presence of a true Jewish prophet, the woman seems to have had theological questions regarding the dispute between the Jews and the Samaritans. In referring to her fathers, the woman is referring to Abraham and Jacob, but the Samaritans worshipped and sacrificed on Mt. Gerizim, which was immediately adjacent to Jacob’s well. For the Jews, Jerusalem had been the site of the temple and the center of the Jewish cult for a thousand years. They considered Jerusalem to be a holy city, the holiest place in a holy land, and the temple itself even more so. In it, in the Holy of Holies, dwelt the very presence of the One God. Jerusalem was where one was to worship. So the woman wants to know who is right, the Jews or Samaritans. Jesus reply was astounding. Something new was happening. “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you (meaning—“Samaritans) will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.” Jesus is saying that the Samaritans’ worship was in ignorance of the Jewish role in God’s plan of salvation. Salvation is truly from the Jews. While the Samaritans may be worshipping the true God, they do not understand God’s plan of salvation as being intimately connected to the history of Israel. The Jews at least understood that much. And salvation is not only from the Jews, it is from the one Jew who was absolutely faithful to his religion, and the true Israel; this Jew was standing in front of her! And he was offering salvation to her, a Samaritan woman, and to the whole world. 23 “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." This is prophetic language. “A time is coming and now has come.” The true worshipers will not be worshiping at a specific place, but they will be worshiping a specific One, the Father. And in this newly inaugurated age, the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. God is spirit in the same way that God is light and God is love (1 John 1:5, 4:16). God is spirit; this is his dynamic and life-giving character, and he seeks worshipers who will worship in spirit and in truth. “[W]orshiping in spirit and truth is related to the very character of God and the identity of Christ. It is to worship in union with the Father, who is spirit, and according to the revelation of the Son, who is the truth [John 14:6].”2 Not only is Jesus the revelation and the truth, he is also the focal point of worship. He is the temple, the sanctuary in which God’s presence, his glory, is manifested. Jesus is the “holy place.” Jesus , , , is the new object of worship. The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things." For the record, Messiah and Christ both mean “anointed one”; the former is the Hebrew word, and the latter the Greek.The woman stated and expected that when the Messiah comes “he will tell us all things.” He will make clear the place and method of worship. Little does she know how close to the truth she is, until Jesus responds, “I who speak to you am he.” The Greek literally states “I am—the one speaking to you.” “I am” echoes the Old Testament divine name, and calls to mind that God identified himself to Moses as I am that I am. While Jesus may be simply identifying himself as the Messiah, it is possible that there is a deeper level. Jesus . . . is the Messiah. We have learned three things about Jesus, and they build one each other. First of all, Jesus is a prophet, a seeer, one who knows things about us, one who reveals things about ourselves to us. 2 nd, Jesus is the focus of worship who directs us to God the Father, the one who is worthy of our praise. Finally, Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed and expected one, bringing the promised salvation, but in unexpected ways. Jesus is the One who would bring deliverance and restore Israel, the new Davidic king, who would usher in God’s final triumph. What does this passage mean for us? How does it inform our lives and our worship? First of all, we must acknowledge Jesus, not as a good man, nor even as a prophet and teacher, but as the Messiah, the Christ, the One anointed and sent by God for the salvation of the world. In our lives we are to worship him, being yielded to him in all we do. He is not only Savior, but also Lord and King. There is no other legitimate way to understand Jesus; the end of the Samaritan story of John 4 ends with the declaration by the Samaritans telling 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 indeed the Savior of the world” (4:42). He came to save, not just us individually, but the whole world. We also need to think about what we worship. Do we worship our denomination? Our Episcopalianism? Our Anglicanism? Do we worship our preconceptions about what is going on in the church? What is the mountain, the old way, to which we cling? Alternatively, what are our idols, those things we give the place of God in our lives: money, power, sex, television, alcohol, or even seemingly good things like family, friends, or food? What do we worship? In this passage, worship involves “the centrality of the Father as the object of worship who seeks true worshippers, the role of Jesus as the Father’s Revealer ( 1:18) whose mission is to gather true worshippers for the Father, and the place of the Spirit as the one who inspires . . . authentic worship of God” 3 (Lee 282). God is seeking worshipers to worship him in spirit and truth. This is the good news. Not only do we seek God, but he is seeking us. I am reminded of Hymn 689, the words of which follow: I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew Thou didst reach forth Thy hand and mine enfold; I find, I walk, I love, but oh, the whole 1 Keener, Craig S. The Gospel of John – A Commentary. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003. 2 Whitacre, Rodney A. John. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1999. 3 Lee, Dorothy. “In the Spirit of Truth: Worship and Prayer in the Gospel of John and the Early Fathers.” Vigillae Christianae 58.3 (2004): 277-297. New Testament Abstracts. 30 April 2007. http://search.ebscohost.com. |