“They were astonished
that he was speaking with a woman…”
Samaritans: we heard quite a
bit about them in three of our Gospel readings last summer and
fall. There is one story where Jesus’ disciples wanted to call
down fire on a Samaritan village because the villagers would not
receive Jesus as he was heading to Jerusalem. That story
indicates the type of animosity between Jew and Samaritan in
that day. In another story, Jesus miraculously cured ten lepers,
but only one of them—the one who was a Samaritan-- came back to
thank him and give praise to God. The other time we heard about
a Samaritan was in the parable about the Good Samaritan. The
hook of that Gospel story is that the loving kindness of God was
expressed from an unexpected source: An injured Jewish traveler,
wounded and bleeding on the side of the road, was ignored by
religious leaders from his own people and tended to by a
despised foreigner.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus ups the
ante over the Samaritan stories we heard last year. Now the hero
of the story is a heroine—not just a despised Samaritan,
but a Samaritan woman. The differences in how women were
treated in that time and place would seem very strange to most
of us today. In the scene described in the Gospel this morning,
there are layers of issues that escalate the social and
religious tensions regarding this encounter:
·
First, of course,
Jesus was Jewish and the woman was a Samaritan.
·
Then, by asking for
a drink of water, Jesus was implicitly agreeing to share a
drinking
vessel with a Samaritan which was against the religious
traditions of his people.
·
Also, Jesus, a
Jewish man, was speaking in public with a woman who was not a
relative.
·
In addition, both
were unmarried and there was no chaperone present.
·
Finally, Jesus was a
rabbi and there were even stricter rules about religious leaders
not
talking with a woman so that the leader would not be tempted.
So it is not a surprise that
Jesus’ disciples were astonished when they saw him
talking with the Samaritan woman. As one commentator wrote, this
was a scandalous conversation between Jesus and the
woman.
So why did Jesus initiate the
conversation? Why did God-made-human in this 1st
century Jewish man contravene the social and religious
conventions of his day? There would be a price to pay—his
disciples would become unsure of him; religious leaders would
use it as an example of why he should be opposed; and the
people-- who were just learning about him and his teaching--
would be offended by his willingness to set aside long accepted
traditions for less than clear reasons.
But Jesus did have reasons for
initiating the conversation. For one thing, Jesus was tired and
he was thirsty. In the common, everyday passing of life, Jesus
needed a drink of water and this woman had access to a well. But
that was not all. Earlier in the Gospel according to John, it is
written of Jesus that, “he himself knew what was in everyone”
(2:25b). Whether through his divinity or his gifted humanity,
Jesus had amazing discernment. Jesus knew there was something in
this woman that was special, something that would make her a
worthy and important conversation partner.
The conversation that follows is
one of the most remarkable dialogues in all of the
Gospels. Jesus has thirteen exchanges back and forth with
the woman, one of the longest recorded conversations of Jesus.
The conversation we heard last week, when Jesus talked with
Nicodemus, a highly respected teacher of Israel, has less than
half as many exchanges. What was it that Jesus saw in this woman
at the well? Let’s look a little closer.
The woman at the well may suffer
from a bad reputation in our minds because of the history of the
church’s interpretation—done by men—over the past several
centuries. One of my most eye-opening classes in seminary was
when our New Testament colloquy examined this text more
carefully without bringing in our preconceptions about the
story. We read an article by one of our professors-- and the
Associate Dean of the Candler School of Theology-- Gail O’Day.
She is a brilliant New Testament scholar who specializes in the
Gospel according to John. She has pointed out how certain
aspects of the story— such as the woman drawing water at an
unusual time of day when other women would not be around; and
Jesus’ observation about the woman having had five husbands—have
been interpreted to mean that she was an immoral woman.
But that is nowhere stated in the text-- by Jesus, the narrator
or any of the other characters present. Dean O’Day states that
this interpretation has more to say about the male interpreters
over the centuries than this woman.
So what about this woman?
What do we observe if we look only at the text? First, she is
able to engage Jesus in conversation and stand toe-to-toe with
him; she is smart, ironic and even playful, once this Jewish
rabbi breaks the social convention by speaking with her. But
what about her five husbands? Isn’t this obviously a sign of an
immoral woman? Well, let’s think about this… Can you remember
other biblical stories about a woman with multiple husbands?
Well, the first one is the story of Tamar, one of the ancestors
of Jesus according to Matthew. Her story is the first example of
levirate marriage, a practice that allowed for the
brothers of a deceased husband to marry his widow in order to
produce children in the name of the deceased. This practice was
described by the Sadducees in a story they told Jesus about a
woman who had seven husbands according to this strange
tradition. This practice of levirate marriage could very
well have been what the woman at the well was stuck in. It is
much less likely that a woman in that day and time would have
survived a series of five divorces and remarriages. But
regardless of the reasons for her five husbands, Jesus does not
condemn this woman.
So why does Jesus shift the
conversation to the woman’s five husbands? Dean O’Day observed
that Jesus shifted the conversation to something “grounded
in the woman’s own life” (NIB, IX, 567): since she had five
husbands over the course of her life, there was no issue more
central to her identity and her daily struggles. Jesus’
statement both reveals Jesus’ gift of discernment and his
interest in the woman and her real life struggles. Though Jesus
would continue a theological conversation with this unusual
woman, he also sought to make a real human connection with her
and her daily life.
The woman responds in a way that
some have interpreted as an attempt to change the subject from
her supposed immorality. Another way to see it, according to
Dean O’Day, is that she recognizes Jesus’ remarkable discernment
and acknowledges him as a prophet. Therefore, she uses this
extraordinary opportunity to ask a Jewish rabbi and prophet
about the main theological issue that divided Samaritans and
Jews—the correct location to worship God. Jesus responds in a
way that transcends the religious beliefs of their two
communities in the same way that he had transgressed their
social conventions. Jesus tells the woman that the God whom both
their people worship desires to be worshiped “in spirit and
truth.” This comment leads to the conclusion of their
conversation in which Jesus then tells the woman that he is the
Messiah, the one expected by Samaritans and Jews.
It is at this dramatic point that
the disciples return and are astonished. Who is this
woman and why is Jesus speaking with her? We get the sense that
they were embarrassed, as if they had walked in on something
inappropriate. But Jesus is not embarrassed. Despite the
disciples’ astonishment, Jesus uses this situation-- and later,
the positive response of the Samaritans to the woman’s testimony
about Jesus-- to teach the disciples. “Look around you,” Jesus
said; “see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.” What Jesus
was teaching the disciples then-- and what he wants us to
remember now—is that people are hungry to know God and to
experience God’s presence in their lives. Jesus saw that
openness in the Samaritan woman by the well. By engaging her in
conversation-- against all social and religious
conventions—Jesus and his words were able to transform not only
her life, but the lives of all those who would listen to her
testimony.
This story sets a precedent for
how God continues to work in the lives of people, despite our
religious sensibilities and social conventions. Let me give you
an example from one of my favorite heroes of the faith. C.S.
Lewis is a famous author of fiction and Christian theology,
known for such works as Mere Christianity, The Great
Divorce and The Chronicles of Narnia.
When you read about the life of
C.S. Lewis, he is the proto-typical English professor—a bachelor
scholar with a regular group of male, academic friends such as
J.R.R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield and Charles Williams. Lewis lived
in a fairly structured and secluded society.
Into this bachelor scholar’s
world, God sent someone who would astonish those in Lewis’
life—Joy Davidman. Their story is too long and rich to describe
in detail here. But the story is remarkably similar to the story
of the woman at the well and Jesus. Joy was not the type of
person that Lewis would have encountered in his social and
academic circle. She was a relatively recent convert to
Christianity and a talented poet and writer in her own right as
well as a fan of Lewis and his works. Joy was the daughter of a
non-practicing Jewish family; a former Communist; and a divorcee
with two young sons. She initiated correspondence with Lewis
that eventually led to a friendship and then a marriage of
convenience which Lewis agreed to in order to prevent Joy’s
deportation. But that marriage eventually changed both Lewis and
Joy and blossomed into a marriage full of grace and love.
Lewis-- the Christian, the
academic, the bachelor-- met a real woman, a woman with a
history but also a woman who could engage him as an equal.
Tragically, Joy developed cancer and the deep satisfaction of
their few years of marriage was blended with the sorrow that
comes from suffering and eventually from her death.
One of the main works that Lewis
wrote after Joy’s death is A Grief Observed. It is the
result of a series of journals that Lewis kept as he recorded
his profound grief after Joy’s death. I recommend it for your
reading, especially if you are struggling with grief. This book
has an authentic humanity that acknowledges the pain of the
human condition in a profound and personal way.
The lesson that we learn from
Jesus and the unnamed woman at the well-- and from C.S. Lewis
and Joy Davidman-- is a lesson available to all of us. Social
conventions, our expectations of how life should be, even our
preconceptions of who God is, are all artificial constraints
that limit our ability to trust and follow God-made-human in
Jesus Christ. At certain points in our lives, many of us may
find ourselves astonished—like Jesus’ disciples—by a
person or relationship that we did not expect. As part of our
Lenten practices, let us prepare for that astonishment by
opening our eyes and hearts to the people around us, so that
we may learn and grow and join in the work that God has
given us to do. Amen.
