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Reflections on: Women Disciples of Jesus
Part 4: The Woman of Samaria
Eleanor Lincoln, CSJ and Catherine Litecky, CSJ
Courtesy of Angar Holmberg, CSJ
“Sir, give me this water so that I may not be thirsty again.”
(Luke 4:15)
Early in the gospel of John (4:5-42) we read about an amazing woman who moves from questioning who Jesus is to calling to her fellow Samaritans, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Could he possibly be the Christ?” (4:29).
Place yourself in this woman's daily life to experience with her a life-changing encounter. You may want to picture the scene: an ordinary women in first-century Samaria performing an ordinary daily task, drawing water from the well. Then think of yourself in your ordinary circumstances today.
This Samaritan woman is one of the pillars of the gospel who, in a very short time, moves through the stages of becoming one of Jesus most faithful disciples. Hers is a remarkable story, a story sometimes misread as scandalous. But it is really the opposite; she becomes a model of discipleship for all of us.
We first see her doing her ordinary daily task and then encountering a strange man and responding to his request. She is willing to be authentic and honest about who and what she is. We can watch as she listens, questions, responds, and then acts upon what she hears.
Picture the scene: A hot noon in a desert town with a lone woman at the well, the town's source of water. A lone male stranger asks her a favor. Their encounter is in public but is very private.
This man, Jesus, is weary and thirsty as he travels through Samaria to Galilee. He makes himself vulnerable by sitting at a well (where women were always the draw-ers of water) and then asking a favor: “Give me a drink” (4:7). In the absence of his disciples whom he has sent away to buy food he is free to speak without interruption.
She asks him a forthright question: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” Because of the enmity between the Samaritans and the Jews, she does not use the respectful title, “Sir.” She reminds him of the proscriptions against a Jew speaking to a Samaritan or to a woman. This is the first of her many questions. Questioning seems to be her way of conversing.
Jesus' answer to her is a challenge: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (4:10).
She responds to him now with respect and asks him another question: “Sir, you do not have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water” (4:11).
Listen to Jesus' profound answer that he is willing to share with her: “Every one who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (4:13-14).
Hear how quickly the woman responds to this wonderful invitation about living water: “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water” (4:15).
The conversation of Jesus and the woman follows a pattern of misunderstanding, followed by understanding. Note that at this point she is thinking only of physical water. She wants this water for physical reasons, so she will not have to keep coming to the well. Of course, Jesus is talking about the living water of grace.
For what do you thirst? For you what is “living water”? How do you usually pray?
Spend some time reflecting on what you need physically and spiritually. Then pray: “Jesus, share with me daily the living water of your grace.”
The dialogue continues to be clever on both sides. Jesus has revealed something about himself (that he can give living water). Now he cleverly gets her to admit to something about herself: “Go, call your husband and come back” (4:4:16). She very quickly and honestly answers him: “I do not have a husband.”
Notice that his answer is very matter-of-fact: “You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'. For you have had five husbands, and the one have you now is not your husband. What you have said is true” (4:17-18). Jesus commends her for her honesty and lets her answer drop.
Sometimes readers of this story in John's gospel get stuck here by being scandalized and thus missing the point of this wonderful story of spiritual growth. Actually her marital situation could be for a number of reasons other than scandal. Jesus is obviously not put off by her situation whatever it is. His purpose is not to shame her but just to state a fact.
The woman appreciates his honesty and matter-of-factness, and now she believes and admires him, calling him “a prophet.” She says, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem” (4:19-20).
Now the two strangers begin to share deeply by having a deep theological conversation about worship. She is open! He reveals to her, a woman and a foreigner, the message he has come to give the world: “BELIEVE ME, WOMAN, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is NOW here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” (4:21-24)
Jesus addresses her with the title of respect, “woman,” that we have already heard him use for his mother at the wedding feast at Cana (John 2:4) and with him at the foot of cross (19:26). This title universalizes her, making her, like Mary, representative of all women. He also reveals to her in this astonishing encounter that “the hour is coming.”
Jesus has given her the message that we must worship God in spirit and in truth. With each statement of Jesus she is comes closer to the truth. She shows she is ready for the fullness of his message when she says: “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called Anointed; when he comes he will tell us everything” (4:25). What an astonishing and profound realization.
Jesus' answer to her is a new and great revelation! It is the first of the great “I am” sayings which punctuate John's gospel as Jesus gradually reveals himself to those who can hear and see:
“I AM HE, [the Messiah], the one who is speaking with you” (4:26). This is one of the most wonderful revelations of the gospel--and to a woman!
In their heart-to-heart conversation she and Jesus talk as equals and respond to one another with full concentration. Perhaps Jesus chooses her for her very qualities: courage, ready wit, inquiring mind.
She apparently has been searching for something in her life but never found fulfillment until now. From her we can learn the importance of being who we are, unafraid to encounter truth wherever we find it, and willing to worship in spirit and truth. “Truth” is the key word in her story.
Look at the story from the woman's perspective as Jesus converses with her.
Do you think Jesus wants to have a conversation with you? How would you respond?
How convenient that the disciples have been absent buying food during the astonishing conversation between Jesus and the woman. And how curious that, although they are amazed (“shocked” according to one translation) that he is talking to her, they do not question him about her. He takes the opportunity to remind them about the harvest for eternal life: a disciple's role is to reap that harvest, and this is what the woman is about to do.
As the true disciple she now is, the woman goes to share the good news, the gospel, the truth of her experience, with others!
Like the male disciples in the first chapter of John's gospel who leave their boats behind to follow Jesus, she leaves her water jar and runs to call the other Samaritans. It is as if the jar can no longer hold the water she now knows about, the living water. She wants to share with the townspeople what she has discovered (although before meeting Jesus, she seemed to avoid them).
She calls to the other Samaritans excitedly, “Come see a man who told me everything l have ever done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?” (4:29) Her “come and see” echoes the dialogue in John's gospel between the previously called disciples, Philip and Nathaniel,(in ch. 1:46) who were also told “come and see.”
The woman's story then tells us that “many Samaritans” believe in Jesus because of her testimony: “He told me everything I have done” (4:39).
The townspeople ask Jesus to stay with them, and many more of them believe because of “his word.” They say to her: “We no longer because of your word, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world” (4:42).
We may think that they are not respecting her--but actually she is functioning in the way a disciple should--bringing others to the Messiah for their own experience of Jesus. New converts must move from believing in someone else?s testimony to their own experience of Jesus. These new Samaritan disciples confess that Jesus is indeed “the savior of the world.”
Think of a moment in your life when you became intensely aware of God's truth and presence within you. How did this experience change you? How did you reach out to others after this experience? What does the woman's story say to you about your discipleship?
In this story of a woman's faith journey the gospel writer has broken all conventions of his time: Jesus has chosen a woman and a foreigner for one of his first and greatest revelations.
And she is more than a vehicle for his message; she comes across as a unique individual. Her encounter is deeply personal as is the experience of every disciple of Jesus.
You may wish to conclude with this prayer:
“Wellspring of Wisdom, hear the cry
of your faith-filled sons and daughters,
whom the sanctifying water seek to sooth and satisfy.
We hunger and thirst for that life-giving word
hidden in our tradition.
We are ready to risk all gladly
as we struggle now to worship You
in spirit and truth. Amen.
(Miriam Therese Winter, WomanWord, Crossroad, 1990, p. 110)
Now turn to Part 5: Mary of Magdala, Woman of Love |
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