A Tale of Two Love
Stories
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95:6-11
Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42
Tim
Christoffersen
St. Anselm’s
Third Sunday in Lent
March 3, 2002
Does
anybody remember the story of the patriarch Jacob meeting Rachel at the well?
It is not surprising that few today remember that story. In the first generations
after Jesus’ death and resurrection, virtually everyone would be familiar
with the stories of the patriarchs from the book of Genesis.
The first hearers of the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman we just heard
would have immediately thought about the story of Jacob meeting Rachel at
the well and would have had, perhaps, an understanding we would likely miss
today. Both stories at one level are about ‘boy meets girl at well.’
Let’s start with the setting of the stories. It is midday and a stranger
approaches the well. The stranger is a man from a foreign land. Jesus is going
through Samaria, which is an area that used to be the Northern Kingdom of
Israel. After the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom, the land was occupied
by a diverse group of people. They were perpetually at odds with the Jewish
people, in part, because they were closely related. Some of the Samaritans
were descendents of the Hebrew people who were crushed by the Assyrians. They
had the first five books of what we know as the Old Testament as their Scripture
but they also worshipped other gods.
In the second story, Jacob had gone back to Paddam Aram, which was the land
from which his grandfather Abraham had left. Jacob’s mother, Rebekeh,
wife of Isaac, Abraham’s son, wanted Jacob to take a wife from his own
people. Isaac gave Jacob his blessing and sent him off to Paddam Aram in search
of a wife from the house of Laban who was Rebekah’s brother.
Jacob arrives at the well in his grandfather Abraham’s homeland at midday.
There are flocks of sheep around the well. A large stone covers the well during
the day. Jacob inquires of the shepherds whether they know Laban. They do
and tell Jacob he is well. At that point Rachel arrives with her father’s
sheep. Let me read the words from Genesis:
When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and
Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth
of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and
began to weep aloud. He told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and
a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father."
This love story does not have an immediate happy ending. Jacob asks Laban
for Rachel’s hand in marriage. But Leah is the older sister and Jacob
must marry Leah first and work for seven years for Laban. Eventually, Jacob
also marries Rachel. Joseph, who we know from the stories about how he saved
the Jewish people from starvation in Egypt, is one of the two sons of Jacob
and Rachel.
John’s story of the encounter between the Samaritan woman and Jesus is
told on multiple levels. At the first level Jesus comes to this well in a
foreign land and meets girl. Initially, there are echoes of Jacob meeting
Rachel at the well. But fairly quickly, the story opens up additional levels.
It is important to our understanding to remember how unusual this encounter
was in many ways. The Jewish people did not associate with Samaritans. Men
did not talk alone with women. The mores of Jesus day were much closer to
the chador or veil that covers the face of some Muslim women today than our
culture of open communication between boy and girl.
Jesus asks the woman for water because he is thirsty. She is taken aback because
he is Jewish and a man asking a Samaritan woman for water. In a wonderful
touch of irony, John tells us Jesus replied by saying, "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."
She completely misses the second level of meaning in Jesus’ words and
responds that Jesus has no bucket and the well is deep.
At this point they are on two entirely different levels and no communication
is taking place. In the next exchange she comes much closer to understanding
what Jesus is saying to her. In response to Jesus words that "the
water I give will become…a spring of water gushing up to eternal life,"
she boldly says, "give me this water…"
In the next exchange they are communicating on the same level. When she responds
to Jesus that she has no husband and Jesus tells her she has had five husbands
and now lives with a man who is not her husband, she knows what is going on
and who Jesus is. She runs to tell others in the village.
The whole story of the Good News is encapsulated in this wonderful story.
Like the story of Jacob and Rachel, it is a love story. But in this case,
it is about spiritual love. About God’s unconditional love. About love
for all of us including those outside the ‘acceptable circles.’
The Samaritan woman symbolizes the gentiles, the poor, the oppressed, the
sick, all those persons who often have no standing in human communities. Who
are those people today?
The Samaritan woman was justified by her faith that Jesus was the Messiah.
Paul assures us that through our faith God’s love is poured into our
hearts through the Holy Spirit.
John’s words from 3:16 come to mind: For God so loved the world that
he gave his only Son, that all who believe in him shall not perish but have
everlasting life.
Like John’s story there are two levels. On the first level we are not
Samaritans, but symbolically the Samaritans are gentiles and we are gentiles.
But on another level we are the Samaritan woman. And like her the choice to
believe is ours.
AMEN.
