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Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,' for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly." The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."
- John 4:16-26
Yesterday, we read that, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You being a Jew, ask a drink from a Samaritan woman?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says 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 have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?" Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."
Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,' for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly." The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet." My study bible says, "The woman does not yet understand the significance of what is being offered, so Jesus initiates a new direction in the dialogue. When the Lord reveals to her that He knows that her present partner, following a chain of spouses, is not her husband at all, she is prompted to think Jesus a prophet. Though the Samaritans did not accept any prophet after Moses, they did look forward to the promise of the Moses-like Prophet (Deut. 18:15-18), the Restorer, the true Teacher, the Messiah. The supernatural knowledge possessed by Jesus is manifested in many instances in John; regarding Nathanael (1:47-50); Lazarus' death (11:14); Peter's denial (13:38); what would befall Him after His arrest (18:4). By reporting these insights John underscores the divinity of the Messiah."
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"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship." My study bible points out that the Samaritan version of the Ten Commandments instructed that they worship on Mt. Gerizim. The Jews worshiped on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. It says, "The woman, thinking Jesus was a prophet, posed to Him this burning dispute between Jew and Samaritan."
Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father." My study bible tells us, "The hour that is coming is the death of the Savior on the Cross, when the sacrifice made once and for all will supplant the necessity for any temple anywhere. The idea that worship must be performed only at a specific place of revelation -- Mt. Zion or Mt. Gerizim -- will give way to His revolutionary teaching about worship in spirit and in truth."
"You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews." Jesus affirms the validity of Jewish spiritual history and its revelation. My study bible quotes St. Athanasius here: "The commonwealth of Israel was the school of the knowledge of God for all the nations." Throughout John's Gospel, Jesus' disputes are with the religious leadership, not the people themselves, and certainly not the spiritual heritage of Judaism. My study bible says, "The Messiah was prophesied within Judaism; the Incarnation took place among the Jewish people. God's universal gift of salvation arises within the context of His promises to the Jews and their religious tradition."
"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things." A note here tells us, "While the Jews and Samaritans historically argued about where true worship takes place, Jesus teaches that worship is not tied to any certain geographical place. Instead He turns to the heart of the matter: the object of worship, God Himself, and how worship takes place. The Father is worshiped in spirit -- that is, in the Holy Spirit who is given upon the completion of Christ's mission (14:26; 15:13; 20:22) -- and truth; which is Jesus Christ Himself (14:6) and His revelation. God is Spirit, that is, He possesses a spiritual nature which cannot be confined to a particular geographic location. Those who believe in the revelation of Christ and have the power of the Holy Spirit can truly worship God anywhere."
Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He." The words here in the Greek are literally "I AM" (Gr. ego eimi), who speak to you." My study bible says that "I AM" is the name of God, "its use indicates a theophany, or revelation of God (Gen. 17:1; Ex. 3:14). This is the first instance in John of Jesus' use of this formula of self-revelation (see 6:35; 8:12, 58; 11:25). Jesus reveals Himself to be more than the Mosaic Prophet and more than the Jewish Messiah; indeed, He is the Incarnate God Himself."
The great, direct revelation of God's Presence, and the Incarnation, comes to this Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. One must puzzle why this is. Why should it be revealed so far away from Jerusalem, from the central leadership, even from the Jewish people? Here it is revealed even to a woman who is from a different sort of faith, one that doesn't hold to all Jewish traditions -- even though Jesus says here that "salvation is of the Jews," and He specifically states to her that "you worship what you do not know." It's an important question to ask, and one that asks about mystery. Why this revelation? Why here? Why to her? It is the least likely place it could happen: to a woman, an enemy of the Jews, and alone here at this well. It's just another example of what we could call "the greatness of small things" -- that which has glory "not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts." Jesus teaches her about worship in spirit and truth, and He gives us a powerful example of what that means, right here in His choice to reveal Himself to this woman, before all the world. It is, in itself, an example of the power of the Spirit, that which truly blesses and brings us the presence of God. This impossible beginning, unthinkable by human standards, comes to us by way of a conversation that, by custom of the time, should never even have taken place! And all of the Gospels are full of this glorious power of small things, small beginnings, the most unlikely and impossible of scenarios, that bring us the greatest revelation, earth-shattering good news, reality that topples everything else and is to be received by the world. A pregnant young virgin, uneducated fishermen, St. Peter, their leader, who is often so full of exuberance he doesn't know what he's saying, all of these unlikely beginnings turn us to the power of God, the reality of God who is Spirit, God who is present with us no matter where we are, what we may see before us, what we may think really is. The Gospels tell us what is real, and what makes for greatness, in the wilderness where there is no food to be had, in a deserted place full of tombs and a raving demoniac, it doesn't matter what the setting, what is at hand, what we start with. That God is Spirit, and to be worshiped in spirit and in truth, is the greatest news we can have, because it means that the Kingdom is everywhere, even where two or three are gathered, even within us. Let us understand the greatness of small things, this powerful revelation spoken by one man, in a deserted place under the noon sun, with only this Samaritan woman to hear Him. Let us look, with Zechariah, to our own day of small things, and the prayer and faith, the spirit and truth, that links us with everything that glory is made of.
