D. 3rd of Lent (A)
Jn 4,5-42
Today and the next two Sundays we will read from the Gospel of John: the Samaritan woman, the blind man, and the resurrection of Lazarus. The “I am” of John is repeated in the three: I am water, light, life. The story is a catechesis that invites us to follow Jesus-Life.
Samaritans were despised by the Jews as heretics. The worst insult one could make to a Jew was to call him a Samaritan. Without this key, the story cannot be understood.
Jesus is the living water, which will replace the Law and the Temple. This is the key to the whole story. The woman has no name, she represents the region of Samaria that will quench its thirst in tradition. Jesus is alone. This is about the encounter of the Messiah with Samaria, the unfaithful. The prophet Hosea from Samaria had denounced the prostitution of this land.
Jesus takes the initiative by asking the Samaritan woman for a drink. He approaches imploring help. She has what he lacks and needs, the water. It is logical the woman’s bewilderment. Jesus has just knocked down a double barrier, the one that separated Jews and Samaritans and the one that separated men from women. He recognizes that a woman can offer him something.
Jesus has asked her for a favor, but it is to reciprocate with another much greater one. Jesus shows himself above the apparently adverse circumstances. The woman knows no more water than that of the well (the law) which can only be obtained through human effort. Like the Jews, she has not discovered that there is a free and better gift of God.
The Spirit-water that Jesus gives becomes a spring that continually gives Life. That Life contains enough energy to develop each human being from their deepest personal dimension. Man receives Life deep within his being. Water must be extracted from the well, the Spirit is always deep within oneself.
Juan is an expert in the utilization of the false understanding of an assertion to insist on the explanation. Jesus speaks of Life and the Samaritan woman speaks of water to drink. The best demonstration that we maintain ambivalence is that the first reading is the passage of Exodus, where the proof that God is with the people is that he gives them water.
The meaning of the verses, which refer to husbands, must be sought in the prophetic background, which leads us to Samaria’s unfaithful relationship with God. Samaria has had five gods, and the one they have now (Yahweh) by sharing it, is not their god either.
In Jesus, the attitude of God is personified, an attitude that has not broken with Samaria, but positively seeks it. Traditional water (Law) had not managed to quench the people’s thirst. The search had led them to the multitude of husbands-lords-gods.
The Samaritan woman discovers that Jesus is a prophet. The woman’s image of the Messiah is that of a prophet similar to Moses. The woman continues to cling to the tradition of “our fathers.” She seeks the solution in the old, the only reality she knows.
For Jesus, the temple in Jerusalem is also defiled. Both alternatives are wrong. His offer is something new. It is about a radical change. Jesus himself will be the place of encounter with God. Direct relationship with God will make unity-love possible.
“God is Spirit.” We must keep in mind that ‘Spirit,’ from the Greek mindset, simply means a non-material being. From the Jewish mindset, it has a very rich range of meanings. It means that God is force, dynamism of love, Life.
Ancient worship was a humiliation before a sovereign God, emphasizing the distance. New worship elevates man and suppresses the distance. God does not need nor expect gifts from us. The heretical Samaritans are closer to God than the orthodox Jews.
Fray Marcos
English version translated with AI