March 23, 2014: Third Sunday of Lent

Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey,
sat down there at the well. It was about noon.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
— For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying 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 do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep;
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself
with his children and his flocks?”

Jesus answered and said to her,
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in them
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty
or have to keep coming here to draw water.

“I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”

Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand;
we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.

God is Spirit, and those who worship God
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking with you.”

Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him.
When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word,
and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.” (John 4: 5-15; 19B-26; 39A; 40-42)

Reflection

In this Gospel scene Jesus pretty much puts aside the religious traditions of his day. He, a Jew, talks with a Samaritan, a hated people. Jesus, a man, talks to a woman-stranger – another “no-no.” And Jesus even asks her to get him a drink of water using her cup. According to Jewish law such an action would make Jesus unclean.

Action

This week take to heart Jesus’ model of including everyone. Talk to the student whom others ignore. Eat lunch with a staff member you don’t normally sit with. Reach out to someone of another culture and have a conversation.