3rd Sunday of Lent – 12th March 2023 – John 4,5-42
Movements of Encounter
The much-loved story of the Samaritan woman at the well is the second encounter with Jesus in the Gospel of John. The encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman can be read in three movements. The first movement is all about water. Jesus’ thirst, then the ensuing conversation with the woman, a bit cautious of him and his boundary-crossing, and then the living water gushing up to eternal life that he will offer her and for which she will ask. The second movement is the conversation about the woman’s private life, which is the moment on which the encounter takes another turn. Jesus tells her everything she has ever done and she sees him differently as a prophet and clarifies with a series of questions about worship. The third movement is the conversation about worship in Spirit and truth, which leads her to wonder about the Messiah and Jesus reveals to her that it is He.
This encounter begins with the social boundary-crossing of Jesus with a woman and a Samaritan, both disfavoured groups in His day, and culminates with the conversion of her village which happened unpredictably. While she responded by evangelizing in Jesus’ name, the villagers proclaimed Him as “the Saviour of the world.” Jesus’ time in Samaria closes with villagers believing in Jesus first upon the woman’s witness, then because of Jesus’ own word. John’s purpose of revealing “who Jesus is?” makes progression in the individual witness and punctuates with the group believing that calls for personalized experience.
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