In the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in today’s Gospel, John continues his portrayal of Jesus as taking ordinary things (last week birth, this week water and food) and giving them deep spiritual significance. It is perhaps his version of the parables of the other three Gospels. In the three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) Jesus tells simple human stories to give substance to the Reign of God; in John’s Gospel, Jesus takes ordinary substances (birth, water, wine, bread) and gives them deep spiritual meaning. Here Jesus is the water of life, faith in whom gives deep spiritual life, eternal life.
That deep water of life, deep faith in Christ as the Son of God, the Son of Man, and the Messiah, is so significant that it transcends ordinary human divisions between people. Unlike last week, when the revelation of new birth comes through a conversation with a young rabbi, Jesus’ social equal in many respects, perhaps even his social superior, this week’s revelation comes through a conversation with a woman from a forbidden religious tradition, that of the Samaritans, and whose moral life is less than perfect: an all-around outcast.
Indeed, one might even speak of the encounter as a kind of holy trespass. Jesus should not be speaking with a woman alone; he should not be speaking with a Samaritan; and he should not be speaking alone with a woman with such a poor moral reputation. He has trespassed all over the place as far as the Jewish law is concerned. The Samaritan woman, too, is engaged in trespass. She should not be talking with a strange young man at the well, let alone a Jew; and moved by the conversation with him, she becomes his evangelist, another act of trespass against her tradition and customs. Because of her testimony, the Samaritans ask Jesus to stay with them. He stays two days with them, despite the traditional hostility of Jew and Samaritan, another act of holy trespass.
One traditional way of reading Scripture is to put ourselves into each of the characters and let that exercise deepen our understanding of God’s will for us. There are three people or groups of people here: the disciples, the Samaritan woman and Jesus. For a moment, let us be each of them, successively.
Imagine we are the disciples. We are good Jews; we see the Samaritans as unclean, almost like Gentiles. We don’t want to have anything to do with them. We know who our community is and it is a closed community. Yet our leader, Jesus, talks to this Samaritan woman alone. We are shocked, we disapprove, we want to get him out of there to return to the comfort of our small band. Jesus speaks to us and we are challenged.
In one way or another, all of us are a bit like the disciples. We like our comfortable groups of friends and familiar ways of doing things. We sometimes exclude others for reason of faith or lifestyle or personality. Like the disciples, we are called to realize that the deep water of eternal life transcends all human differences and we are to share that life with all the world. Eventually the disciples got the message and, after Jesus’ Resurrection, they went out into all the world, Jewish, Samaritan and Gentile.
Secondly, imagine that we are that Samaritan woman. We are all a bit like her too in one way or another: perhaps on the margins because of our gender, education, sexuality, age, birth place, health, life history or lack of acceptance by others. Like her, our self-esteem may not be so high or we may just find life difficult, unable to settle.
God knows every secret of our heart, just as Jesus discerned the Samaritan woman’s life history. God knows both our virtues and hard work but also our moral failings, our greed, our pettiness, our confusion. On the social media, Facebook has a relationship label in addition to “single” and “married” called “it’s complicated”. God sees even what is “complicated” in our lives. God also sees within us the divine image and, indeed, our vocation as evangelists for the deep water of life in Christ. We are called to accept that we are known by God, every corner of our lives, good and ill; that we are called to repentance and to go out as evangelists of the Good News, as representatives of God’s love to the world. Culturally we may find it difficult to rush back to our communities, exclaiming, “I have found the Messiah” but we should live as though we are exclaiming that every day.
Finally, we may put ourselves in the place of Jesus in the story. We may think that is sacrilegious yet we are called to live as the image of Jesus in the world, as “small Christs” to one another and the world. So putting ourselves in Jesus’ place in the story is perhaps more important than putting ourselves in the places of the disciples and the Samaritan woman.
Gradually in his self-understanding, it has dawned upon Jesus that his ministry extends beyond “the house of Israel”. Samaritans and Gentiles are compelled by his powerful teaching to come to him to beg healing and acceptance. Gradually Jesus relents and he allows his ministry to extend beyond the Jewish community of his time. Eventually he accepts these Samaritan and Gentile requests. When the Samaritans invite him to stay in this story, he accepts. He has come a long way from the Gentile woman whom he likens to a dog eating crumbs from a table.
Like Jesus, we are called to let our love extend beyond the confines of our usual comfort levels, to those different from ourselves. We are not to be afraid of a little bit of “holy trespass”. I am a shy person and do not find it easy to talk comfortably with strangers in a public place. Yet others of you are open and outgoing and have that gift. But even if we are not so forward, others may approach us, whether face-to-face or through the social media and want to talk. It is important to accept and listen and try to love with the love of Christ. And not worry about barriers of culture, politics, faith tradition, or whatever. Nor do you need my permission: just do it. And don’t be afraid of a little bit of “holy trespass” – but it must be holy.
But sometimes the barriers are very small. Today after church we are having a community meal, thanks to the social committee. This is really a very ancient tradition of the church, going back to New Testament times, the so-called agape- or love-feast that followed the Eucharist in the early church. Indeed, in 1 Corinthians Paul chided the Corinthian church for its unequal love feasts in which the rich ate all their good food first and left nothing for the poor. Ours will be a very equal love feast, without that problem. The purpose, in the early church, was to celebrate Christ’s love and to break down barriers between rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, slave and free: indeed, this might have been the only time such barriers could be broken down. So, I invite you all to stay for this love feast, which I hope we can make a regular occurrence, eventually inviting in any from our neighbourhood who would like to share in a meal with us. And like Jesus and the Samaritan woman, try to sit with a stranger, someone you do not know so well. And next time, bring a friend.
Finally, crossing boundaries, I am pleased to report that a small group from the parish welcomed and helped our Karen refugee family as they moved to Hamilton yesterday. We have a good support group drawn from both Ascension and All Saints. Despite barriers of language, experience and culture, we pray that we can be a genuine help to them.
In short, just as the disciples, the Samaritan woman and Jesus were all called away from their usual comfort levels, so that deep eternal life in Christ may be offered to all, so are we called beyond our comfort levels, indeed, even to holy trespass and unexpected directions, all for the sake of God’s love in Jesus Christ. All of this is summed up in today’s Collect:
Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ gives the water of eternal life, may we always thirst for you, the spring of life and source of goodness; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen..
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