Readings: Exodus 17.1-7; Romans 5.1-11; John 4.5-42
I hope that, having just heard our gospel, you are all now sitting down in your pews duly deeply shocked! Well, are you scandalised? What Jesus has just done is scandalous indeed! Scandalous far beyond that acknowledged in the text! In the scenario we have just heard, Jesus has broken all the taboos around women. Taboos which were profound and serious. Men did not engage in conversation with women outside the family, let alone strange women on their own! To boot, this woman, as she acknowledges herself, is a foreigner, an unclean Samaritan!
In civilisations where the inexplicable could crash through into people’s lives at any time, ‘boundaries’ and marking them became very important. Thus elaborate sacrificial rituals developed to protect those crossing boundaries, and it became important to mark out those who were insiders, inside the boundary and ‘pure’, and those who were outside and therefore ‘unclean’, those who might dangerously contaminate the purity of insiders. ‘Mixes’ of any sort were particularly frowned upon, from mixing fabric in the same garment to mixed marriages.
Samaritans fell foul of all these prohibitions. They were mixed race. In the eighth century BC Israel was defeated and her people exiled. Those who remained, usually the infirm, had intermarried with other races shipped into the Promised Land by their imperial conquerors. They continued however, to worship the God of Israel, and offered to help Ezra and Nehemiah rebuild the Temple after the return of the Judeans themselves having been exiled to Babylonia a century later. This offer was roundly refused causing great offence to the Samaritans.
To properly grasp our story we need also to understand the literary conventions of the Hebrew text. In particular the use of ‘type scenes’ where a set series of events signals to the audience what is to come next. This story has all the elements of the ‘type-scene’ which sets up a betrothal: man journeys from a foreign land, meets girl at well; girl draws water from the well, and then, rushes home to tell news of the stranger’s arrival. And we know now to expect an impending marriage!
Think for a moment about how this ‘back knowledge’ impacts on our understanding of the event! John’s Jewish audience will be severely challenged in their thinking as they hear the story of this encounter and it’s unlikely scandalous portent.
More is to come. Not all scholars agree, but the circumstances of this woman’s presence at the well in the scorching midday sun, suggests that for whatever reasons she is on the outside of her own community too. She does not mix with the other women of her village who would have gone to the well together in the cool of dawning day. Five husbands already and the last not her husband suggests a dubious history with men! Definitely not a suitable match!
Be this as it may, she is nevertheless an educated woman, she has a deep knowledge of both her history and her religion, and the confidence to engage in debate with this charismatic Jewish man on what would appear to be an equal footing with matching repartee!
Exhausted by his journey, Jesus has stopped to rest by Jacob’s well. His disciples have gone on into town to find provisions for their travels. On their own, an extraordinary conversation ensues between Jesus and the woman, one where Jesus declares himself to be the ‘living water’ which brings eternal life, declares himself none other than the Messiah! And the Samaritan woman becomes the first evangelist!
What may we learn from this extraordinary story? This morning I want to pick out just two possibilities. First, John uses the story for presenting some profound new theology! God does indeed intend an astonishing marriage! “Salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father seeks such as these to worship him” That perspective on the world which has firmly divided Jew and Gentile shall be dissolved. In spirit and in truth true worshippers shall be united. Jesus as bridegroom heralds a new and inclusive community. A new ecclesia. A new Church. Church where the least and last shall be first. Church open to receiving living water.
One of the most repeated of Jesus’ actions was to pull up the boundary markers firmly entrenched to separate those on the inside who had power, from those on the outside who could be scape-goated for the ills of society. Jesus’ actions declare “No one is ‘impure’”. All are included in the marriage of the Lamb. Here is breath-taking new teaching. Teaching which calls for radical change both personally and in social and religious order. This will not be easy but we can see in the story movement is happening. The disciples are astonished to see Jesus in conversation with this woman, but none of them will question him on his forbidden behaviour.
And secondly, what of the Samaritan woman herself? Open-minded and open to change, she moves from being the outsider, maybe, because other women don’t trust her with their men, she moves to being the very one who brings the long awaited message that Messiah is here! Her excitement and eagerness, the change within her so obvious, those who have despised her are willing at least to go and see for the themselves the man who has accomplished this!
In Lent nine years ago, there was an impending highly controversial marriage planned for shortly after Easter. Most of the nation were divided on the matter! But for one of the key figures, mother of the groom, it was a rather difficult predicament. Officially and in the press she was deeply opposed to the impending nuptials, forced to accept the inevitable. This was not however, the first time, powerful as she is, that she had had to defer to the will of others. Helen Mirren portrayed her in the film of those events.
She carries an enormous wealth of experience and wisdom. She represents continuity and stability. But the realities of royal life have also demanded that the Queen adapt and change. A committed Christian, in the grace of God she had the humility to perceive it. To recognise that she had much to learn from her first daughter-in-law, her style and her genuine interest in people. While always dignified, the Queen has been open to making the changes circumstances have required of her. And in doing so, she has grown in stature, and if you are following our Lent course, grown in lively virtue.
The same is true for us. Life, if we are to live it to the full, demands we are open to the moving of the Spirit, open to change. In our personal lives, and in our lives together. As we gaze in on the drama of this story, where are we? Where is our church, and our national Church, this Lent? Are we with the disciples, the disciples who have begun to catch the scandalous new direction in which the wind of the Spirit is blowing? Amen.