3rd Sunday in Lent

Jesus and the Samaritan

Woman
 3 Sunday in Lent
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1. Water is the most crucial ingredient of life, and lack of water is a huge problem in some
parts of the world.
Palestine, the area where Jesus lived, is prone to severe droughts. Back in patriarchal times, in periods
of drought, nomadic tribes to migrated to Egypt, only a couple of hundred miles away. Egypt had a
steady supply of water from the river Nile, was rarely affected by drought, and had a highly developed
system of irrigation.
Other areas in the Middle East that get rain only occasionally are subject to flash floods. So the people
who lived there would channel water from flash floods into underground cisterns, and save it. Cistern
water was used for drinking, washing and irrigating their crops. However, cistern water could get
contaminated and cause diseases.
Those who had access to river water or spring water were lucky and called their water living water.
In the Rabbinical tradition, Torah, the word of God from the Bible is often compared to living water . Just as
water is used to quench the thirst, cleanse, and bring life to the dry ground, so the word of God from the
Bible satisfies our spiritual thirst, washes the spirit and makes spiritual life grow
Jesus, in this episode uses 3 metaphors: 1) water to explain the impact of the grace of God he brought to
the world, 2) food to explain his desire to do Gods will, and 3) the harvest to explain the job his disciples
will have to do. Lets take this episode one step at the time:
2. The meeting with the Samaritan woman.
The land of Israel was subdivided in 3 main regions: Galilee in the North, Judea in the South, and Samaria in
the middle of the country.
7 centuries BC the Assyrians invaded Samaria, destroyed the city, and deported its leading citizens. Then,
they repopulated the region of Samaria with people who had been exiled from other countries.
Over time these populations from different nations and different religions intermarried. As a result, the
Samaritans became a population that was ethnically and culturally mixed.
The culture and the religion of the Samaritans included Jewish believes and traditions, but also some
believes from other religions and traditions from other cultures. The Jews did not consider the Samaritans
truly Jewish, and despised them as half breeds.
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3. At the time of Jesus, the two groups were openly hostile and hated each other. They saw each
other as the enemy next door.
Think about the tension in modern Israel between Jews and Palestinian Arabs. That will give you a pretty
good idea of the tension between Jews and Samaritans in ancient times
As Jesus and his disciples approached a Samaritan village, the disciples went looking for food somewhere
else, because Samaritans would not have sold food to Jews. A Jewish Rabbi would never start a
conversation with a woman, especially a Samaritan woman, but Jesus did.
Jesus was no ordinary Rabbi. He reached out to the outsiders, letting them know that God loved them.
So he first asked the Samaritan woman to draw some water for him from the well. She was shocked that
he, a Jew would ask a Samaritan for a drink of water. But that was just the opening for Jesus. He wanted
to talk to her about the gift of God he called living water,
By it he meant being reconciled with God and receiving Gods grace. The Gospel of John uses the
expression living water as a metaphor for the water of Baptism that gives us eternal life.
The Samaritan woman did not understand the metaphor, and took Jesus words literally. Where could
this man get living water? There were no springs or rivers nearby. However, if he did have water that
quenched thirst once and for all, she would love to have it, so she would not have to come to draw water
from the well every day.
To get through to this woman Jesus asked her to call her husband. She said that she had no husband.
Jesus reminded her that she had been married 5 times and the guy she was living with was not her
husband. When Jesus told her that, she realized that this man had to be some kind of a prophet, and
tried to avoid further personal questions by changing the subject.
Jews and Samaritans worshipped God in different temples: the Jews in Jerusalem, and the Samaritans on
Mt. Gerizim. Where was the right place to worship God? Jesus told her that it didnt matter where God
was worshiped, as long as people worshiped God in spirit and truth.
The woman then asked him about the Messiah that everyone expected. Jesus answered, I am the
Messiah. Interestingly enough, Jesus had been steadily refusing to be publicly called Messiah among
Jews, possibly because the title had so many political implications, but he had no problem telling this
Samaritan woman that he was the Messiah.
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4. At this point the disciples returned and were shocked to see him talking with a Samaritan
woman. But, they knew better than to challenge him. The woman took off and went to tell
everyone in town about this man who knew the most personal details of her life. Could he be
the real Messiah?
The disciples had bought food and offered it to Jesus. Jesus, just as he used water as a metaphor with the
Samaritan woman, now used food as a metaphor for his disciples. His food was to do Gods will. He had
just made a convert and was about to convert a whole village. That was his food.
He reminded the disciples that preaching the Gospel and converting people would be their mission too.
Using another metaphor he compared their future missionary work to harvesting. He was sowing the word
of God, and they would soon be harvesting. In Palestine the time lag between sowing and harvesting was
4 months. This was a way of letting them know that their time would come soon.
The Samaritans came from the village to meet Jesus and invited him to stay. They were initially intrigued
by what they had heard from the woman but, after hearing Jesus, they became convinced by his words,
and became believers
5.Let me made a couple of observations about this episode :
We live in a time of heightened tensions both nationally and internationally. People of different political
persuasion are no longer seen as the opposition, but as the enemy. All Muslims are viewed as potential
terrorists, immigrants are targeted for deportation. Countries that have been our allies for a long time,
now wonder what we are up to.
Samaritans were the enemy next door, but Jesus did not accept the standard prejudice. By going to a
Samaritan town, Jesus went into enemy territory.. God is not just the God of the Jews but also the God of
foreigners. God doesnt just bless America, but all the people of the world, even those we see as enemies.
. Jesus mission was to bring all the sheep into the fold. Todays Gospel is a warning that Christianity is
about inclusion, not exclusion.
We are like the Samaritan woman, all of us, standing before the Lord with the baggage of our sins, our
shortcomings, and feeling like outsiders. Lets listen to his words. They are directed to each of us. No one
is rejected. He is the savior of the whole world .