On the third Sunday of Lent we hear about the meeting of Jesus with a Samaritan woman in a Samaritan city called Sychar by Jacob’s well. The Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well. Jesus came to her and said: ”Give me a drink.”
Samaria was an important place in Israel. 800 years before Christ Assyrians conquered Samaria and made it a province of Assyria. After the occupation of the Assyrians the Jews mingled with the Assyrians. This mixed community of the Jews in Samaria was considered by the rest of the Jews as unclean. Since the Jacob’s well was in Samaria this well belonged to the Samaritans, although this place was very important for the Jews. Though the Samaritans had acknowledged the Jewish tradition, Jewish faith and the Jewish Fathers the Jews considered the Samaritans unclean. It was not thinkable that a Jew asked a Samaritan woman a drink or a food. Therefore, the Samaritan woman was surprised to see that Jesus as a Jew said to her: “Give me a drink.”
In this context of conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman Jesus reveals about the living water that quenches all kinds of thirst. The water that Jesus gives is not a normal water that quenches the physical thirst, but the living water that quenches all kinds of thirst: the spiritual, intellectual and physical etc. By the term water Jesus means the message of God, the love of God or God himself. Those who believe in God, pray to God and experience God will be able to quench all kinds of thirst. That is what Jesus meant by offering the living water.
In this conversation Jesus taught about the worship of God in truth and spirit. The Samaritan woman understood the message of Jesus and believed in Christ. She reported about her experience in her village and many people from her village came to Jesus and believed in him. It is strange to know that it is not the Jews who as a group acknowledged Jesus as Messiah first, but the Samaritans. It is also interesting to know that Jesus corected some of the Jewish understanding of worshipping God and said that one should worship God in spirit and truth. That means that we can worship God everywhere when people come together in the name of God. We are gathered together in the name of Jesus. He is in the midst of us. The words of Jesus to worship God in spirit and truth is applicable to us too.
Fr. Joseph Pandiappallil MCBS