The Third Sunday in Lent, Year A
March 3, 2002
Christ Church, Covington

“Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (Jo. 4:10).


We have before us in our long Gospel today an extraordinary dialogue; extraordinary not simply in its content, which is deep and multi-faceted, but in the simple fact that it ever took place. Jews and Samaritans were enemies; very close in faith, in fact, yet the very closeness leading to greater animosity between them. This makes the dialogue between Jesus the Jew and this Samaritan surprising in itself, yet when we add to it the fact that Jesus interlocutor is a woman, the conversation becomes exceptional. Samaritan women were considered by observant religious people in Jesus’ day to be perpetually unclean from their birth; contact with them made one unclean (not a good thing for a rabbi). An extraordinary dialogue, in every way.

The dialogue points toward the universal claims of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is no local message, but one addressed beyond God’s People to a larger audience. Jesus’ relevance is not simply for his own People, but for all peoples. This well is a meeting place, a cultural crossroad (as wells and watering holes were in ancient Palestine) which here has become a meeting place of faith, where faith will be passed on.

The gift of God, living water, is what Jesus offers the Samaritan woman. There is a double meaning here, and a bit of the dialogue concerns the confusion. “Living water” is flowing water in ancient parlance, in contrast to well water infiltrated from the ground, or a cistern which is simply a receptacle for water. Yet the “living water” of which Jesus speaks is not the superior flowing water, but something else, “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (Jo. 4:10). There are levels of meaning here (which is why the passage is so rich): the “living water” might be Jesus’ teaching or even the Spirit that he gives. Both are identified with water in the Old Testament, and there are good reasons to identify the water of which Jesus speaks with each.

In the end, though, it is salvation which Jesus offers the Samaritan woman. Another way of saying this is that Jesus offers her grace; the power and presence of God in her life that surprises and transforms her. It’s small wonder that the early Christians took this story to be a story about Baptism, about the Sacrament that is “living water” for the Church. In Baptism, we are given God’s grace, and are made new creatures by water and the Spirit. We are “saved” by Baptism (1 Pet. 3:20); that is, we are given salvation, the great gift of God which means for us healing and reconciliation.

Yet note that this gift of living water is not given without challenge in our story. When Jesus asks the woman to call her husband, there is a purpose which is quickly revealed by her answer. Jesus is challenging the Samaritan woman to recognize some uncomfortable truths about her unorthodox living arrangements. He is calling her to change, and calling her to a new faithfulness. Here, her own situation symbolizes and reflects that of the whole Samaritan people, who have espoused themselves not to the truth, but to a partial truth. “Salvation is from the Jews” (Jo. 4:22), as Jesus says. Samaria will be called to embrace a greater truth, which is rooted in but goes beyond the religious tradition of God’s people.

This amazing dialogue ends with a double call, to worship and to evangelism. “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him” (Jo. 4:23). Worship in spirit and truth is Christian worship, in which the true God is worshiped through the Holy Spirit that is given to Christ’s disciples through his very own gift. It isn’t something disembodied, “spiritual” in that sense, but something that is “spirited”, alive, “lively” in the best sense.

Not only worship (which we are very familiar with) but also evangelism (which so many of us are not familiar with). The Samaritan woman is a great evangelist, for she is busy immediately with spreading the word about Jesus. Jesus’ meditation with the disciples, who are rather astonished that he has been speaking to this woman, is on the great opportunity that is before them. “But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting” (Jo. 4:35). Jesus is God’s mission to the world, and Jesus’ disciples are called to share in this mission by bringing others to share in his death and resurrection, and the new life that comes with it.

The dialogue we have today is extraordinary, not only in its circumstances but also in its message. It lays down a pattern of Christian living for us, in which we share in salvation and are transformed. We go forth in mission, carrying forth the work of worship and the sharing of the Good News.

The Rev’d John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.

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