Thought for the Week

 

24 February 2008 – 3rd Sunday of Lent

 

Collect:

Almighty God,

your most dear Son went not up to joy before He suffered pain,

and entered not into glory before He was crucified:

mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,

may find it none other than the way of life and peace;

through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,

Who is alive and reigns with You

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

 

Readings

Exodus 17, 1 – 7

 

Psalm 95

 

Romans 5, 1 – 11

 

John 4, 5 - 42

 

One of the extraordinary things about Jesus was, (and is), the risks he took, (and takes).  Drinking out of a vessel handled by a heretic Samaritan was utterly unthinkable for a devout Jew.  Yet here He is, accepting a drink from not only a Samaritan, but a woman at that!  To make it worse, she was apparently a woman of dubious reputation.  Five husbands, yet now living with another man may be pretty tame by the standards of Coronation Street, but it was very exceptional in the ancient world.  Strictly speaking, Jesus should have undergone a ritual bath, and a process of purification involving prayer, fasting and sacrifice after any such accidental contact; and to do it deliberately – well!

 

In our first reading today, we hear the third of three stories about the Children of Israel complaining against Moses, and against God, for bringing them out of Egypt. 

 

In the first story1, they complain that the water is bitter, and under God’s guidance, Moses, sweetens the water with wood. 

 

In the second story2, they complain that they have nothing to eat, and remember the “fleshpots of Egypt” with longing.  And God feeds them with quails and Manna.

 

Here, they are complaining that they have no water.  And so at God’s direction, Moses smites the rock with his staff, and a spring wells up.

 

In all these stories, the people are actually rejecting God’s salvation, yet He is patient and kind, and gently meets their needs, ignores their grumbling, and sends neither thunderbolt nor plague. 

 

At the burning bush, God told Moses “I am who I am”, or in Hebrew, “Jahweh”, and here in the desert, Jahweh shows himself to be the one who can, and does.  Instead of a thunderbolt, He meets their needs, turning the salty waters of tears and bitterness into sweetness, filling their bellies with food from on high, the bread of the angels, and now giving them water streaming from the rock.  The Children of Israel may have thought they were testing Jahweh, but in reality, He was testing them.  Jahweh called them to live in faith, trust and love with God and with each other, but can they live out that calling?

 

Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman takes place at a well too.  Let’s look at it a bit more closely.

 

In the first place, wells.  In the dead sea scrolls, which were written about the time of Jesus, the well symbolises the Law of God, as given to Moses.  Philo, who was held in great regard by early Christians,  was a Jewish Philosopher from Alexandria, again working at about the time of Jesus.  Philo understood the well to be a symbol of the wisdom of God.  The Law and the Wisdom were both seen as wells from which people could draw out the wonderful blessings of God.

 

Here, we see Jesus replacing both the Law and the Wisdom.  He offers not just drinking water, to keep bodies alive, nor just washing water to keep bodies clean, but living water, to keep our souls alive, and wash away our sins.  The woman asks if Jesus is greater than the Patriarch Jacob, and the answer is yes, because what Jesus has to offer is of a totally different order of magnitude.

 

In the second place, husbands.  Perhaps the woman’s five husbands and one partner were just a reflection of how the Samaritans were regarded by the Jews.  A Jewish woman might be allowed to have a second husband after divorce, and perhaps, exceptionally, even a third, but no more than that.  The Jews thought that the Samaritans were less strict, but in fact the Samaritans had much the same standards as the Jews.

 

In the Old Testament, Israel was often described as the bride of God.  But Israel was frequently unfaithful, going after other gods.  According to Josephus, the Samaritans were made up of five different nations, each having a different god.  Perhaps, just as Nicodemus coming to see Jesus by night represents the whole nation of Israel, so the Samaritan woman represents the whole nation of Samaria.  Of course, the Samaritans shared the same roots as the Children of Israel, both spiritually and genetically.  But unlike the Jews, the Samaritans had been intermarrying with foreign peoples, and combining the faith of Israel with other religions, for centuries.  Perhaps then, the woman represents Samaria, and her five husbands represent the five foreign gods of the Samaritans, while the one you now have, who is not your husband is actually the God of Israel, waiting patiently for Samaria to turn from her wicked ways, to her first love, Jahweh.

 

In the third place there is food.  We are told that the disciples have gone into the town to buy food.  That is extraordinary in itself.  They were devout Jews, and would not normally have touched any food that a Samaritan might have had anything to do with.  No doubt they just stuck to bread and vegetables, but strictly, even bread and vegetables would have been contaminated by contact with vessels used by anybody who was not themselves a Jew.

 

At the Last Supper, Jesus proclaims Himself to be the Bread of Life.  Like the Manna, He came down from heaven, and gives us his own Self for spiritual food. 

 

The calling of the Children of Israel in the desert was to:

  • listen to the voice of Jahweh,
  • do what is right in his sight
  • pay attention to his commandments
  • keep his law.

 

At Jacob’s Well, Jesus tells the Disciples that this is not just his calling, but actually his food too.  It is in obeying and serving God that we are sustained.

 

Paul’s mission and ministry to the gentiles was not a new idea – Jesus has a mission and ministry to men and women,  rich and poor, to Samaritans and Jews, Syro-Phoenicians and Romans.  There is nobody for whom Jesus is not the Saviour.  May your mission to others be to you more than food and drink, and may the living waters of God’s grace flood through your life, filling you with peqce and joy.  Amen.

 

1.  Exodus 15, 23 – 25a

2.  Exodus 16, 1 – 31

Father Charles Howard: Anglican Chaplaincy of Midi-Pyrénées & Aude

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