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(St. Photina)
The Samaritan Woman at the
well
(Equal-to-the-apostles)
Exodus
17:3-7 Romans 5:1-2, 5-8 John
4:4-39
To
the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered
in a church not built by human hands[2]
First reading: water from
the rock
(Ex 17:3-7)
In those days, in their thirst for water,
the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “Why did you ever make us leave
Gospel: water from the well
of Jacob
Jn 4:4-39
Alleluia,
alleluia.
A
reading from the holy Gospel according to John
Glory
to you, Lord.
Jn 4:4-9: Meeting
at the well
Jesus
and his disciples had to pass through
Jn 4:10-15: Living waters
Jesus
answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a
drink, ‘you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” The
woman said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the well is deep;
where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father
Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and
his flocks?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water
will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never
thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up
to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I
may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.
Jn 4:16-18: Five
husbands!
Jesus
said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." The woman
answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are
right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the
one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!"
Jn 4:19-24: Worship in spirit and truth
“I
can see that you are a prophet,” the woman said.” Our ancestors worshiped on this
mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in
Jn 4:25-26, 28-30, 39: Belief in Jesus
The
woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the
Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I who
speak with you am he.” At that, moment Jesus’ disciples returned, and they were
greatly surprised to find him talking with a woman. The woman then left her water jar behind and
went back to town, and said to the people there, “Come and see someone who told
me everything I have ever done! Could this not be the Messiah?” At that, they set
out from the town to meet him. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him
on the strength of the woman’s word of testimony that, `He told me everything I
ever did!’”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus
Christ.
----------------
Introduction
Water & shade at Jacob’s well
As
Jesus and the disciples were leaving
Ancestral wells runs deep with sexism
At
the ancestral well, the woman said to Jesus, “Sir, you do not have a bucket,
and the well is deep.” (Jn 4:11) Ancestral wells run deep. They run deep with the priorities and values with which
we arrange our lives. Speaking of his ancestral well a friend writes,
“I was raised in a conservative working class family in
The ancestral well in today’s gospel runs deep with
sexism. When the disciples went into town to buy
food, Jesus remained behind at the well. Suddenly a Samaritan woman with a bad
reputation in town came upon him. (In that culture, as is in all cultures, it
is only the women and not the men who have a bad reputation in town, even
though adultery or fornication takes two!) Public sinner that she was, she had
to wear a scarlet letter on her forehead. To avoid the gossip and cruelty of
other women fetching water in the cool of early morning, she came in the heat
of high noon when nobody would be around.
This lengthy gospel presents Jesus as doing what no respectable rabbi would do: he is chatting
friendly with a woman in public! This surprises the woman herself. “How can you, a Jew, ask
me, a Samaritan woman, for a cup of drink?” (Jn 4:9) Returning to the well, the apostles also are surprised to see Jesus
speaking publicly with the woman. (Jn 4:27) Where in the world did that woman
and that first college of apostles (consisting of males only) get their sexism?
Where do all cultures and colleges and religions get their sexism? Why, of
course, they imbibe it at the ancestral well.
Jesus refused to drink from that well. Instead,
he stood out in the open for all to see, and with the woman, he held the
longest private conversation of Jesus recorded in the New Testament. It runs through almost 40 scriptural verses. It is
so long that a liturgical directive allows the gospel reading for this Sunday
to be shortened for sake of the people in the pews who are anxious to get out
and get going. By speaking at great length with the Samaritan woman and not to her Jesus restored her human dignity
and recognized her right to have her spiritual needs met.
Ancestral wells run deep sectarianism
Out
of the blue, Jesus told the woman to go fetch her husband. It was a ploy to
open a discussion about her marital situation and her bad reputation in town.
When she replied that she had no husband, Jesus responded, “You’re right,
woman! You have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband!”
(Jn 4:17-18) Startled that Jesus knew so much about her past, the Samaritan
woman exclaimed, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet!” (Jn 4:19)
Out
of the blue again (that’s what makes this conversation seem so rambling), the
woman brought up a religious bone of contention between Jesus and herself. We
Samaritans, she told him, worship here on
The ancestral well in today’s gospel runs deep also with
sectarianism. Where
in the world did Samaritans get their claim that
Where
in the world did Jews get their claim that
Jesus went along with the woman’s ploy; he
changed the subject and addressed her problem. Refusing to drink from any
ancestral well, he assured her that it does
not matter where one worships, whether
on
Turning the tables
When the lengthy conversation at the well
opens, it is the woman who has cool clear water to offer, and it is the Lord
who is thirsty and asking for some to drink.
In the course of the almost rambling conversation, we find ourselves
exclaiming, “For God's sake, give the thirsty man a drink of water! He’s dying
of thirst!" Nowhere in the whole account do we read that Jesus ever received
a cup of water from the Samaritan woman. No material transaction is related.
There is only spiritual transaction in which the tables are turned. At the end
of the day, it is now Jesus who has living water to offer, and it is the woman
who is thirsty and is asking for some to drink. Jesus offers her living water. She drinks deeply of it and
is converted from her meandering life. The water of rebirth washes away the
scarlet letter from her brow, and she now walks with her head up high.
Rather
she runs with her head up high. Overwhelmed
by her encounter with Jesus, the woman takes off in such a hurry she forgets
her water jar! (Jn 4:28) She runs off to tell her people in town about Jesus
and invites them to come and see for themselves. Because of her testimony many
Samaritans come to believe in Jesus (Jn
Conclusion
St. Photina, equal-to-the-apostles.
The
Orthodox Church has a long and rich tradition about the Samaritan woman at the
well of Jacob. Sermons from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries call her
“apostle” and “evangelist,” and characterize her as “excelling the male
disciples!” (No sexism here!) At her baptism,
that unnamed Samaritan woman received the name of Photina! (Phos in Greek means light. E.g., photosynthesis comes from phos.)
Photina is “The enlightened one. “
Photina is also “The enlightener.” She took the light she received at
the well of Jacob and Jesus and ran to enlighten
her people in town. Then she went on zealous apostolic journeys to bring that
light to distant lands like
By the well of Jacob, O
holy one, thou didst find the water
of eternal and blessed life. And having partaken
thereof, O wise Photina, thou went forth proclaiming
Christ, the Anointed One and
the Light of the World.
Great Photina,
equal-to-the-Apostles,
pray to Christ for the
salvation of our souls.