Jesus and the Samaritan woman (C4: 1-42) Part 2 vv11-30
Posted on August 8th 2010 in St. John's Gospel
The conversation about the gifts that God offers attracts the attention of the Samaritan woman, who in a very practical way tells Jesus that he has no bucket, but who also asks about His identity. Could he be greater than Jacob? Jesus takes her confusion to begin to reveal that He is the living water Himself, both to the woman of history but also to the believer and reader of the Gospel. All the conversations in St John have more than one audience. This water will be a once and for all future gift that will touch the soul, and in turn become the source of the life of faith, and the access to eternal life.
The Samaritan woman now wants this water, and unconsciously Jesus Himself as the source of the water. Then Jesus begins to reveal Himself, first through a dialogue over the woman’s marital status, who by the end of the conversation perceives that He must be at least a prophet. Yet she still has not overcome her inherited prejudices about the true place to worship God. The new worship, as Jesus explains, will not focus on any place in particular, even if Jerusalem was the correct place to worship. This will be a universal worship because it is both initiated by the Father through sending His Son and directed towards Him. The true worship will be undertaken in the power of the Holy Spirit, the living water mentioned earlier. The combination of Spirit and truth has been mentioned in the Prologue, and in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. The truth is embodied in the person of Jesus who, with the Father, sends the Holy Spirit to believers. Jesus reveals Himself both as the destination of all true worship as well as providing the means for making such worship a possibility. At the time of the conversation with the Samaritan woman, this worship is something in the future, and will not be possible till His exaltation on the Cross and Resurrection (vv22-4). Their conversation concludes with both an act of hope by the woman which becomes an act of faith when Jesus reveals that He is the Christ; ‘I am He’ (v26).
The conduct of Jesus was a constant surprise to friend and foe alike. Here the disciples are shocked at His speaking to a Samaritan woman. She has now departed to bring the villagers to Jesus on the power of her testimony.