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