Water and Marriage

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today you have heard about the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Like most of the vignettes in the Gospels, a great deal of ink has been spilled in attempting to tease out the meaning and significance of this account.

The structure of this account bears striking similarities to the account of Abraham's servant seeking out Rebekah for marriage to Isaac. Only here the bridegroom is not the far-off son of an unknown master, but the Great Bridegroom Himself, the very Son of God, only-begotten of His Father from all eternity. And the Bride is not just one beautiful woman, but the one most desirable to the Bridegroom – the bride whom He has washed clean and sanctified by His own blood and with His innocent suffering and death.

Today, our Lord gives us a lesson in the importance of the Church.

"We Worship Thee"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“The woman said to [Jesus], 'Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.'” The Samaritan woman at the well was astute enough to realize that Jesus was a prophet. What this meant to her is another story, but she could not but confess that the man talking to her was the messenger of the Lord sent to her. Being that Jesus had already spoken to her of her thirst and the gift of living waters, it was no surprise that she took Him to be a prophet. But her question is meant to uncover more than a mere prophet.

Something about her acknowledgment of Jesus is a little off, at least to certain ears. We cannot know her true intent, but it almost seems as though she is out to test Jesus with a “tough question”. It is like when you meet someone, and he finds out you are a Christian, so he asks you the most ridiculous, most potentially offensive question he can come up with. “Why do you hate gay people?” or “Why do you believe in a Bible so full of contradictions?” This woman's question is akin to asking, “Why should I go to your church every week?”

Living Water and True Worship

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Because of the Jews, Jesus had to leave Judea and return to Galilee, which took Him right through Samaria. In the heat of the day, our Lord found Himself at Jacob's Well, in the town of Sychar, alone.

A Samarian woman comes to the well at noon to draw her water. This is strange, because the usual time to draw water was either late in the afternoon or early in the morning, in the cool parts of the day. However, given the dubious character of this woman, she perhaps chose to come when no one would be around, so that she could avoid the piercing glares and wagging tongues of the other women in town. This is what sin does – it isolates each of us from one another. You are afraid to show your face in the marketplace because someone might know what you have been up to in the shadows. I would rather stay home because I do not want to confront those who disapprove of what I do. We avoid each other because we want to avoid condemnation.