The Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, by Annibale Carracci 1560 – 1609.“When Jesus’ disciples returned from town, they were thunderstruck to find him conversing publically with a woman at Jacob’s well.” (Jn 4:27)
St. Photina at Jacob’s Well
March 27, 2011, 3rd Sunday of Lent
Exodus 17:3-7 Romans 5:1-2, 5-8 John 4:4-39
Ex 17:3-7 - Water from the rock
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
Glory to you, Lord.
Glory to you, Lord.
Jn 4:4-39 - Water from Jacob’s well
Jesus and his disciples had to pass through Samaria and they came to a town named Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down at the well. It was high noon. A woman of Samaria came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink of water.” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a cup of drink?” (A Jew would never use the same dish or cup that a Samaritan uses.)
Jesus answered, “If you only knew what a wonderful gift God has for you, and who I am, you would ask me for some living water!” The woman said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the well is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.“
Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!"
“I can see that you are a prophet,” the woman said.” Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans do not really know whom you worship; we Jews know whom we worship, because salvation comes from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Those are the kind of people the Father wants to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak with you am he.” When Jesus’ disciples returned from town, they were thunderstruck (ethumazon) to find him conversing publically with the woman at Jacob’s well. The woman then left her water jar behind and went back to town, and said to the people there, “Come and see someone who told me everything I have ever done! Could this not be the Messiah?” At that, they set out from the town to meet him. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him on the strength of the woman’s word of testimony that, “He told me everything I ever did!”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction
Water & shade at Jacob’s well
Introduction
Water & shade at Jacob’s well
As Jesus and the disciples were leaving Judea and were going back to Galilee they decided to go through unfriendly Samaria instead of around it. They came to a town called Sychar. Jacob’s well was there. It was high noon, and all were tired and thirsty. In Carracci’s painting a huge tree is stretching its branches over Jacob’s well, and in its heavenly shade and amid cool breezes the weary Jesus is speaking with the Samaritan woman, as the disciples are returning from buying food in town.
A rambling conversation
When the Samaritan woman comes to draw water from the well, Jesus asks her for some to drink. (Jn 4:7) After some conversation, she’s deeply impressed with Jesus, and soon the tables are turned: now she is asking Jesus for water to drink: “Sir, give me this water of yours!” (Jn 4:15) Out of the blue, Jesus tells the woman to go fetch her husband. It’s a ploy to turn the discussion toward the woman’s marital situation and her bad reputation in town. When she replies that she has no husband, Jesus responds, “You’re right, woman! You have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband!” (Jn 4:17-18) Startled that Jesus knows so much about her past, the Samaritan woman exclaims, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet!” (Jn 4:19)
It’s a rambling conversation; out of the blue again, the woman brings up a religious bone of contention between Jesus and herself. “We Samaritans,” she tells Jesus, “worship here on Mt. Gerizim, but you Jews claim one must worship in the temple in Jerusalem.” (Jn 4:20) That, too, was a ploy; she wanted to turn the discussion away from her bad reputation.
It’s a rambling conversation; out of the blue again, the woman brings up a religious bone of contention between Jesus and herself. “We Samaritans,” she tells Jesus, “worship here on Mt. Gerizim, but you Jews claim one must worship in the temple in Jerusalem.” (Jn 4:20) That, too, was a ploy; she wanted to turn the discussion away from her bad reputation.
Ancestral wells run deep.
At the ancestral well the Samaritan says to Jesus, “Sir, you do not have a bucket, and the well is deep.” (Jn 4:11) Ancestral wells run deep with the priorities and values with which we arrange our lives. Speaking of his ancestral well a friend writes, “I was raised in a conservative working class family in Cincinnati, Ohio. Being of German ancestry, I was taught from my earliest memory to challenge nothing that Holy Mother Church teaches. I was taught to respect all persons in positions of authority: teachers, parents, aunts, uncles, police, government officials, etc. I was taught to work for what I wanted and to wait until I had cash to buy it. I was taught that the Lord helps those who help themselves, and there is no excuse for being dirty because everyone can afford a bar of soap.” With such priorities and values my friend’s ancestral well ran deep.
It runs deep with sexism
Not only does Jacob’s well run deep in today’s gospel, so does the ancestral well. It runs deep with sexism. When the disciples go into town to buy food, Jesus remains behind at the well. Suddenly the Samaritan woman comes to fetch water. She comes to the well at high noon precisely because of her public shame. In order to avoid the gossip and cruelty of other women, she comes in the heat of high noon rather in the cool of early morning when many other women would be there fetching water.
At the well Jesus and the woman meet, and they launch off into a lengthy conversation. For a respectable Jewish man to speak to a woman in public was a breach of social custom. Many Jewish men wouldn’t even speak to their wives in public! To put men and women on an equal footing was shocking in the patriarchal society of Jesus’ day (and is shocking still in today’s patriarchal societies). No wonder then, when the disciples return after shopping for food in town, they are “thunderstruck to find Jesus conversing publically with the woman.” (Jn 4:27) Where in the world did that first “college of apostles” (and that Samaritan woman herself) get their sexism? Where do all cultures and religions get their sexism? Why, of course, they imbibe it at the ancestral well.
Jesus refused to drink from His Jewish ancestral well. Instead, He stood right out there in the open for all to see, and with a woman He held the longest private conversation recorded in the New Testament; it runs for 20 verses. (Jn 4:6-26) By speaking at great length with the Samaritan woman and not to her, Jesus restored her human dignity and recognized her right to have her spiritual needs met.
At the well Jesus and the woman meet, and they launch off into a lengthy conversation. For a respectable Jewish man to speak to a woman in public was a breach of social custom. Many Jewish men wouldn’t even speak to their wives in public! To put men and women on an equal footing was shocking in the patriarchal society of Jesus’ day (and is shocking still in today’s patriarchal societies). No wonder then, when the disciples return after shopping for food in town, they are “thunderstruck to find Jesus conversing publically with the woman.” (Jn 4:27) Where in the world did that first “college of apostles” (and that Samaritan woman herself) get their sexism? Where do all cultures and religions get their sexism? Why, of course, they imbibe it at the ancestral well.
Jesus refused to drink from His Jewish ancestral well. Instead, He stood right out there in the open for all to see, and with a woman He held the longest private conversation recorded in the New Testament; it runs for 20 verses. (Jn 4:6-26) By speaking at great length with the Samaritan woman and not to her, Jesus restored her human dignity and recognized her right to have her spiritual needs met.
It runs deep also with sectarianism
In today’s gospel the ancestral well runs deep also with sectarianism. Where in the world did Samaritans get their claim that Mt. Gerizim is the only right place to worship God? They imbibed it at their ancestral well. “My Samaritan ancestors have always worshipped here on this mountain,” the woman tells Jesus. (Jn 4: 20) That’s her unquestioning proof that Mt. Gerizim is the right place to worship God. -- Where in the world did Jews get their claim that Jerusalem is the only right place to worship God? They imbibed it at their ancestral well. Where in the world do Muslims get their claim that Medina and Mecca in Saudi Arabia are the only right places to worship God? They imbibe it at their ancestral well.
Refusing to drink from any ancestral well, Jesus assures the Samaritan woman that it does not matter where one worships, whether on Mt. Gerizim or in Jerusalem or in Medina and Mecca or even in St. Peter’s in Rome. What matters is how we worship God. What matters is that we “worship God in spirit and truth.”(Jn 4:21-23)
Refusing to drink from any ancestral well, Jesus assures the Samaritan woman that it does not matter where one worships, whether on Mt. Gerizim or in Jerusalem or in Medina and Mecca or even in St. Peter’s in Rome. What matters is how we worship God. What matters is that we “worship God in spirit and truth.”(Jn 4:21-23)
Turning the tables
When the lengthy conversation at the well opens, it is the woman who has cool clear water to offer, and it is the Lord who is thirsty and asking for some to drink. In the course of the rambling conversation, we find ourselves exclaiming, “For God's sake, give the thirsty Lord a drink of cool water! He’s dying of thirst!" Nowhere in the whole account do we read that Jesus ever received a cup of water from the Samaritan woman. No material transaction is related; there is only spiritual transaction in which the tables are turned. At the end of the day, it is now Jesus who has living water to offer, and it is the woman who is thirsty and is asking for some to drink.
Jesus offers her living water. She drinks deeply of it and is converted from her meandering life. Overwhelmed by her encounter with the Lord,, the woman takes off in such a hurry that she forgets to take her water jar! (Jn 4:28) She runs off to tell her people in town about Jesus, and invites them to come and see for themselves. Because of her testimony many Samaritans come to believe in Jesus. (Jn 4:39)
Jesus offers her living water. She drinks deeply of it and is converted from her meandering life. Overwhelmed by her encounter with the Lord,, the woman takes off in such a hurry that she forgets to take her water jar! (Jn 4:28) She runs off to tell her people in town about Jesus, and invites them to come and see for themselves. Because of her testimony many Samaritans come to believe in Jesus. (Jn 4:39)
Conclusion
St. Photina - equal-to-the-apostles
The Orthodox Church has a long and rich tradition about the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob. Sermons from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries call her “apostle” and “evangelist,” and characterize her as “equal-to-the-apostles!” (No sexism here.) At her baptism, that unnamed Samaritan woman received the name of Photina! `Phos ‘in Greek means light, and `Photina’ is `the enlightened one’ and `the enlightener.’ She took the light she received at the well of Jacob and at the feet of Jesus, and she ran to enlighten her people in town. Then she went on zealous apostolic journeys to bring that light to distant lands like Carthage and Smyrna in Asia Minor. On her feast day, February 28, the Orthodox Church sings this hymn to the Samaritan woman:
By the well of Jacob, O holy one,
By the well of Jacob, O holy one,
thou didst find the water of eternal and blessed life.
And having partaken thereof, O wise Photina,
thou went forth proclaiming Christ,
the Anointed One and the Light of the World.
Great Photina, equal-to-the-Apostles,
pray to Christ for the salvation of our souls.
Great Photina, equal-to-the-Apostles,
pray to Christ for the salvation of our souls.
