JOHN 4:5-42

Jottings on John…Lent 3… 2017 

Another over-long passage for a congregation to take in! Contrast the upright Jew, Nicodemus, in Ch.3, & the woman here, a Samaritan. For starters, Nic gets a name but the woman does not. Let’s call her Samara (Sam). We all deserve a name & a face! Jesus’ Christianity knows no gender distinctions, nor a lot of other distinctions we still choose to make.

We have a very open & down-to-earth exchange of minds & beliefs here, heighten-ed by its taking place at a well of water. The imagery is powerful. Inviting us all to drink deeply of the water of life, no matter who draws it for us. No matter how out of our comfort zone the situation may be. Being open to each other, as Jesus & Sam are here, is one of those ‘gift of God’ opportunities we need to discern & grasp! Going back to the water motif, shouldn’t everyone, everywhere, be entitled to water fit to drink? Maybe we need more Sam’s, ‘warts & all’ to provide it for them. Maybe we, too, need to join their ranks in some way?

Eugene Peterson observes¹, ‘in both stories a reputation is put at risk’, meaning Nic’s & Jesus’. Sam sounds to have already lost hers in her village. She’s maybe timed her visit to the well to be there without the other women. In our ‘village’ do we have any kind of reputation? Whom do we do our best to avoid? Why let a human reputation come between us & God? Between  us & salvation? Jesus & Sam aren’t letting that happen at our well.

Sam knows a Messiah has been promised from Scriptures shared with the Jews by her Samaritan community [DEUT 18:15+]. Jesus builds on this as He reveals His true identity to her seemingly more openly than to anyone else so early in His ministry. She may be an ‘outsider’ to faith as the Hebrews understand it, but she ‘gets’ Jesus when many don’t! This conversation here by our well is being carried on in ‘Spirit & in truth’. Would that more of our conversations were as godly, no matter where they take place! 

When the disciples come back into the picture they don’t say anything, but are no doubt shocked by what they find. By whom they find! Can’t we hear them thinking of Jesus, ‘Can’t let you out of our sight for any time at all or we’ll find you doing something inappropriate, talking to the wrong people …!’ Is Church sometimes over-concerned about what’s ‘appropriate’ & what’s not? About God crossing boundaries we don’t think it’s right to cross? Jesus sticks His neck out for Sam here, as does she with Him. Is it time we stuck our necks out a bit more? To cross a few boundaries to tell people what we’ve discovered about God in our lives as Sam does in this incident?

¹ Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, H & S, London, 2005, p.18

JOHN 3: 1-17

Jottings on  John…Lent 2…Revised 2017 

(For MT 17:1-9 see Last Epiphany)

There's so much here, we need to choose wisely. Here are some possibilities to choose from, bearing in mind personal discernment & local need. Of course there are lots more! 

Coming as he does by night, Nicodemus might imaginatively represent all those trying to fathom God & Jesus from darkness of one kind or another. He starts off here by doing his coming privately. Others do, too. They & N deserve credit for coming at all. There’s no congregation that doesn’t have its Nicodemus or two!

Both the 'anew' & 'from above' aspects of being born are positive, important, & need to be considered together. Matthew Fox somewhere quotes Meister Eckhart as preaching: “God is always the newest thing there ever is”. May our birthing & re-birthing always be renewal like that. That goes that far. Are we living anew & from above, out in our margins?

Being born of ‘water & Spirit’ isn’t necessarily to be restricted to baptism. What about the waters of birth? In context that makes good sense. Over-all, Jesus doesn't appear too fazed about baptism, unless, that is, we believe He really is personally behind MT 28:19 & not a later follower. Here in JN He's both linking & contrasting human physical birth & divine Spiritual birth in powerful imagery. Should we ponder the water from Jesus’ side, too?

Jesus’ use of the metaphor ‘wind’ here for the Spirit is a great help to our understanding of the Spirit’s role - both in the Godhead & in our lives. Let’s not shackle the Spirit with doctrinal bonds of our making. Instead, accept & rejoice in the freedom that comes with the Spirit of Jesus blowing where He/She/It will. Sometimes that will mean flying kites!

The serpent in the wilderness theme is burned deep into Jesus' psyche. It's there smouldering away throughout His Ministry; not least in His Passion, nailed up there like a dead snake on a pole! It's a potent link between God at work in old Israel raising people from spiritual if not physical death. God raising Jesus from death. God raising a new Israel we see ourselves as from death. This way, God is the Great Healer! In ways we don’t always discern. What are we most in need of healing from? 

It’s possible to quote JN 3:16 yet act as though God is more damning  than rescuing. Sure, v.18 follows v.17, & there’s no clearer contrast than that between light & darkness which follows today’s passage. But is it sometimes tempting to preach about the darkness rather than demonstrate the Light. Blake's view of the Spirit as 'the love that flows between the Father & the Son' isn’t just a Trinitarian insight. It’s a reminder of the present tense of all ‘God business’. And that where there’s love there’s also light. Could it be needing to love & be loved that leads Nicodemus off on his adventurous evening journey in the first place?