John 4:1-42 (woman at well)

This passage occurs in the Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, Lenten Cycle (most recently March 2023); in the narrative Lectionary, Year 4, Lenten Cycle.
 
Summary:  Chapter 3 and 4 couldn't be more opposite:  man vs woman; Pharisee Jew vs sinful non-Jew (a dig at the Samaritan people, Jews intermixed with five other tribes); night vs day.  There is fertile ground here for many sermons.  What struck me this time was the continuity in both chapters regarding the notion of salvation, and life -- it is found in Christ; it begins now here on earth. 

A question this text leaves me pondering:  How does Jesus convert her?  He says to her brutal truth:  her religion isn't complete and she is a sinner.  What converts her?  What converts all of them?  Simply his word of promise?  Actually, he is only proclaimed as savior after he stays with her.  I suggest it is also his vulnerability, his admission that she can help him and finally, his willingness to be with her and with them.  To evangelize entails meeting people where they are, but also staying where they are until they are ready to move ahead.  This passage demonstrates a profound truth about cross-cultural evangelism and listening -- it begins with acknowledging the gifts of the other, not rebuking their sin.

Low hanging fruit:
ωρα εκτη (sixth hour, 4:6)  This means noon.  Don't miss the obvious symbolism.  Nicodemus comes at night (chapter 3); the woman comes in the day (chapter 4).

γυνη Σαμαριας (Samaritan women, 4:7)  Again, don't miss the obvious symbolism.  Samaritan woman means total outsider; someone powerless in the whole system.  Obvious symbolism again:  Nicodemus gets a name; this woman doesn't.

Slightly more interesting:
εις τον αιωνα ("eternally," literally "into this age," 4:14)  This really struck me.  The word for forever or everlasting in Greek means "into this age," literally that which keeps going into this age.  In short, when we hear "forever" we assume this means "life after death," but nothing grammatically or even theologically in John's Gospel, certainly in this chapter, suggests this.  This is a continuing theme in John's Gospel:  life in Christ begins now and continues even through death.  Or another way of reading it more literally -- another era, another time has begun when we are in relationship with Christ.

ου μη (no, no - meaning never 4:14)  These two negative words together produce an emphatic "No!"  What I am curious about though is the fact that even after I've met Jesus I have encountered periods of profound "dryness" spiritually.  Times in my life in which my prayers are the prayers of lament in the Psalms.  I struggle with the idea that either a) I will not be spiritually thirty again or b) that I have some wellspring in me that will always nourish me.  I struggle with this.  Two thoughts

• Jesus is the one that gives the water, not our own efforts.
• We still need water, we just have our own pool to drink from, that Jesus has given us.

σωτερια ("salvation" in the sense of saving, preserving, delivering, 4:22; σωτηρ 4:42)  Christians again assume that salvation means heaven, specifically life after death.  The word in Greek means saving, simply delivering, including if not primarily a very earthly sense.  John's Gospel includes resurrection and this is ultimate salvation, but Jesus' ministry includes bodily life on earth.

μενω ("abide" 4:40) This is theme word in John's Gospel.  For some, it was enough to hear Jesus, or even just hear the woman's testimony.  But for many, the trust/belief only started after he abided with them.  This is a reminder that to me that the promise is truly incarnational.  In order for us to do better evangelism, we have to meet and STAY with people where they are.

κοσμος ("world" 4:42) A reminder that even though salvation comes FROM the Jews it is FOR the world...see last week's post -- http://lectionarygreek.blogspot.com/2014/01/john-31-21-nicodemeus.html  The world doesn't love God!

κεκοπιακως ("labored", 4:6 and 4:38) John describes Jesus as having labored.  First, this is interesting because it reminds us that Jesus was a human who worked and got physically tired!  Second, Jesus tells the disciples that they will harvest where others have labored (same word!).  Perhaps Jesus acknowledges here that others have gone before him in their prophetic ministry?  This passage should cause us to be more humble when people we know do convert -- we are reaping where others labored.  Also, it should comfort us when people do not convert -- we are laboring where others will reap.