Last week, we reflected on the meeting between Nicodemus and Jesus, through the imagined reflective voice of Nicodemus, pondering what their meeting and the words of Jesus might mean. The recorded conversation in John’s Gospel is short: Nicodemus speaks about 50 words, and Jesus gives a short sermon.
Today, we follow Jesus to Samaria, where he meets a Samaritan woman at a well, and a conversation opens up. In contrast with the brief conversation with Nicodemus in the previous chapter, this conversation between the Samaritan woman and Jesus is the longest that Jesus has with anyone in the Gospels. In the course of their conversation there are a number of distinct exchanges, in which they discuss everything from theological differences between Samaritans and other Jews, to the woman’s personal history. In fact there are many contrasts between the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, and Jesus and this woman.
- He is a man; she is a woman.
- Nicodemus is named; she is not.
- He is a respected Jewish leader; she is a Samaritan with whom Jewish society have little or no association.
- Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the middle of the night; Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at noon.
- The conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus takes place in Jerusalem, but this conversation with the Samaritan woman takes place on her homeland, far from the centres of Jewish power.
- Perhaps most importantly, when Nicodemus learns about “being born from above,” we know nothing of what he does next. But when the Samaritan woman learns about living water, she immediately goes and shares this news with her neighbours.
I was struck as I sat with this passage this week by the things that were initially at the forefront of my mind, and the contrasting things that, through the week, gradually emerged. Last Sunday afternoon, I thought I knew what this story was about: a sinful woman, who had married five times, and now lived with a man who was not even her husband! As a girl growing up in a Highland village, this was a shocking image with which to be confronted in church. I was taught that Jesus was open hearted enough to engage with this wicked woman, and to top it off, she was a Samaritan. And, very importantly, I knew I was not anything like her! So if Jesus forgave her, then I could feel smugly confident that anything I did was forgivable and I would be OK.
At the time, I think I probably thought that the Sunday School teachers had done a good job that day. I left feeling happy; I knew God loved me, and even those terrible people who I might read about (but please God don’t ever let me have to have anything to do with them) could be forgiven.
There are many topics and issues that Jesus and the woman address in this conversation. But one topic that doesn’t ever get mentioned is sin and forgiveness. On the other hand, issues that the conversation does address include ethnically defined societal restrictions; theology; the meaning and purpose of life; economic and social conditions in first Century Palestine; and how to live when God is revealed, and everything about life is changed.
The woman is not named by John in our Gospel, though she is named in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. She is called Photine, which means ‘the illuminated one’, and, because of her immediate response to spread the revealed truth of who Jesus is, she is celebrated as the first evangelist, and equal to the apostles. So let’s look in a bit more detail at some of the conversation between Jesus and Photine.
There are, I think, three main parts to their conversation, which starts with Jesus, tired out by his journey from Jerusalem, sitting under the midday sun by a significant ancient well, the well of Jacob. And Jesus is thirsty. Photine sees Jesus, a Jewish man, and is shocked when he breaks societal rules and asks her for a drink. She is hesitant, making sure to check first that he, a Jewish man, really wants this water from her, a Samaritan woman.
As the conversation continues, and Jesus speaks of giving her living water that will be an inner spring of water, gushing up to eternal life, she is still absolutely rooted in the mundane. She is concerned by his lack of a bucket, and by her daily reality of having to come to the well to draw water. At this point she does not appear to have any awareness of who Jesus could be. Already their meeting touches on cultural division, laws of society, and Jesus beginning to move into spiritual conversation. But Photine, at this point, is blind to the possibility of spiritual revelation within their exchange. Then Jesus tells her to call her husband. He reveals truths about her personal life, and this revelation of the truth of her marital and current family status are so compelling to Photine that she begins to realise who he may be. ‘I see that you are a prophet,’ she says.
Why is this exchange so important? As I said at the beginning of my sermon, I don’t believe Jesus is referring to the morality (or otherwise) of Photine. In fact, when Jesus refers to her “five husbands” it is very likely that he was not referring to her sexual history but rather to her economic story.
In Photine’s society, marriage was an economically driven arrangement. Girls could be married to much older men when they were as young as 11 or 12 to economically benefit their families. Girls and young women could then be forced to divorce and remarry if a better financial deal came along. The women themselves were traded like property and had little say in the matter. Aside from divorce being driven by economic gain, having several marriages wasn’t uncommon since spouses frequently died from illness, war, or injury.
Additionally, the right to marry was restricted. Enslaved people could not marry. Roman soldiers could not marry. A Roman citizen could not marry a non-citizen. So Jesus speaking of her current situation – living with a man who is not her husband – could well have been understood as referring to systems of privilege from which the woman had become excluded.
In fact, it seems much more likely, when reading this passage through a historical social lens, that her encounter with Jesus may be interpreted by Photine as him telling her, “I … see … you. I see how you’ve been controlled, forced into relationships not of your choosing, pushed to the margins of society. I see what that must have done to your heart. I see you, and I see your pain and suffering. And you can be set free.”
This freedom, this love, spreads and grows. Photine goes and tells her people about Jesus. They recognise the truth of her words. They come and listen, and also recognise Jesus, saying, ‘this is truly the Saviour of the world’. They know Jesus, and they are changed. Photine, the illuminated one, and the Samaritan people of her community have an epiphany, an enlightenment, and they experience the mystery of the inner living water, spoken of by Jesus, and now “gushing up to eternal life” within them. This encounter, that is so different from that of Nicodemus, holds at its heart the same message; you must be born anew.
The American theologian, Wendy Farley, commenting on this passage in her book The Thirst for God, writes, ‘we are not created to be forgiven, we are created to love and be loved’. In Jesus’ words in the Gospels, the focus is occasionally sin, but it is always love. We might say, Jesus is thirsty for love to be awakened in the hearts of all people. This is true. But it is also true that Jesus is the source of the living water that can quench the thirst for love that lies deep within each one of us. So come, drink from the well of living water that is our faith, and know in your hearts that you are loved. Amen