John 4:1-42 (woman at well)

This passage occurs in the Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, Lenten Cycle (most recently March 2026); 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.

Δός, from δίδωμι (give!, 4:7)  Jesus today asks -- commands -- the woman to give her water.  In an age of deep tribalism, when we assume the stranger has nothing to offer, Jesus comes along and acknowledges that the other, the stranger, the foreigner, the non-Jew, has something to offer him.  This is a profound orientation for mission!

Slightly more interesting:
αἰώνιον ("eternally," 4:14)  This really struck me.  The word for forever or everlasting in Greek means "of the eons."  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 word definitely has the sense of that which has no end, but it also has a sense of that which has no beginning.  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.

John 4:46-52

This passage occurs in the Narrative Lectionary, Year 4, Lenten cycle, most recently Feb 9, 2014.

Summary:  Did the faith produce the healing?  Well, the Greek suggests that belief in Jesus' word only comes after the boy has been healed.  In this way, the word produced both the healing and the faith.  On the otherhand, the father demonstrates his faith by going to Jesus in the first place.  I don't think this story solves this age old conundrum.  I don't think it is meant to be solved.  What I find more interesting is that Jesus never proclaims the son healed; rather he says the son is alive.  I think there are many cases where are ministry isn't about offering people the healing they want, but giving them life, amid grief and illness.

Lastly, I cannot figure out why "go down" appears three times in this passage.

Key words:

βασιλικος ("royal", 4.46)  This adjective is related to the word for king.  The NET Bible claims this official must have been related to or working for King Herod.  The suggests that the person going to Jesus is willing to engage in risky business.  While Herod has not set out against Jesus, Jesus has already upset the temple in Jerusalem and shortly will have people coming after him to kill him.

ζη ("live", 4:50, 51, 53, present tense for of ζαω)  I don't know how the translators mess this one up.  Every single time the verb is in the present tense:  You son is alive.  There is nothing future about it.  Jesus says and it is so.  This is really important because it shows that the healing is not based on the faith of the person.  When is the healing accomplished.  When Jesus says so.  Why?  This question is not answered here.

ηρωτα ("ask" imperfect form of ερωταω, 4:47)  The man continually is asking for Jesus help here; a sign of faith or despiration?

ιασηται ("heal" aorist form of ιαομαι, 4:47)  This verb is not as common as I expected in the Gospels, a few times here and there, mostly in Luke and only once in Mark.  It comes into English as psychiatry. I think it is a deep question:  Is it our mission, or Jesus' mission, to offer healing?  Healing is almost always thrust upon Jesus, the only exception being his command that the disciples go and heal (Luke 9.2).  Even here it comes after the proclamation of the Word.  To put it another way, healing (and the sick) will come with the proclamation of the Word.  The words intnetion is not healing as we see it, but life.  I think this opens up more doors -- what is living?  How can be sick still have life?  In fact, the text next says he was healed of all his problems, just that the fever left him, he was better and he was living.

πιστευω ("believe", throughout this section, including 4:50)  This verb means trusting.  In this case, trust doesn't produce following Jesus, it creates a situation in which someone can walk away from Jesus.  Again, most times we think of trust as creating a situation of moving closer to Jesus, but in this case, the faith creates a situation of letting go, letting go of his anxiety about his son, letting go of his need to be next to Jesus.

καταβαινω ("come down," 4:47,49, 51)  Okay, I cannot figure it out.  This word appears three times in this story.  It appears big time in John 6 (the true bread from heaven).  And then it stops.  It is as if the incarnation reaches its high point in John's Holy Communion story (chapter 6) and then he is done going down.  I'd like some more thoughts on this.