Tonight the instructor began the class by having us present the ideas for our papers: Up front where everyone could see us ... it was tough! I knew it was coming though, and managed to do it without too much anxiety. Although I am attracted to the story of the Woman at the Well because it seems to have plenty to talk about, I didn’t have much time to put my thoughts together. Prior to class I underlined some of my notes and focused on those to explain my plan, which is a bit weak at the moment. Still the instructor and the class seemed to think it would be OK.
About three other students are planning to write on the Woman at the Well and surprisingly, all of our papers will be quite a bit different. One person is planning to write about Nickodemus, and another person is planning to do his paper on signs and symbols. Another one is planning to write about the struggles in her family and one will write about how this introduction to the Gospel of John has changed her life. One of our fellow students is going to take a very different approach. She plans to focus her paper on the good guys and bad guys, with the established leaders, those with power and in control of the Temple and Jerusalem, as the good guys. Jesus, on the other hand will the bad guy, the outsider, the one causing all this trouble, leading the people astray by trying to convince anyone willing to listen that he is the Son of God.
After our break we returned to the story of the Woman at the Well, in which the symbol of religious power was shifting. Neither the temple nor Mount Gerizim was for true worship, which was also being shifted to Spirit and Truth. Only in Jesus could true worship be celebrated. The cleansing of the temple, the dwelling place of God, was to help us understand that Jesus as the true dwelling place of God. The distinctions between Jews and gentiles, and men and women were no longer important. There is a very distinct progression of faith found in the story. In v9 she simply calls him a Jew, in v11 she uses a title for respect, in v2 she identified him as greater than Jacob, in v19 she calls him a prophet, in v26 He identifies himself as I Am, in v29 she says come and see the Christ, and in v42 the people call him the savior of the world. This is the first time that John uses the words I Am for Jesus’ name, although it’s not the last time in this Gospel.
After Samaria was concurred by the Assyrians they were unfaithful to the covenant, worshiping false gods that now dominated region. Some scholars argue that the Samaritan’s husbands are symbolic, and that her five husbands shouldn’t be taken literally. One interpretation focuses this part of the story on her relationship with God. The husband she now has, a pagan god (not her actual husband) is not real and Jesus insists that salvation is from the Jews. Jesus says that the woman has no real husband, “The one you have now is not your husband”, denouncing both the worship of false gods and the false worship of an entire nation. In fact, since she has no real husband she is available to be espoused to Jesus. She is a Samarian, an outcast who is lost and separated from true love and true worship. Jesus purposely comes to Jacob’s Well because he wants this nation back; and this is why he comes to us!
Remember that Jesus is the bridegroom and the woman goes beyond the boundaries of being a mother, teacher, laborer, missionary, and evangelist, in a dialog like that of a lover courting his beloved: An entire nation. The story may have nothing to do with her private life, but instead is a reflection on the covenant life of the community. Of course it can be interpreted on a literal level even if the symbolic interpretation trys to go deeper. The woman left her water jar, abandoning her daily concerns because of more important concerns. The evangelization of en entire nation was now in the hands of this woman, and this woman alone. It’s important to note that she is the first person and the only person presented in the public life of Jesus through which a whole group of people are brought to believe. In this story is a pattern of faith development that we all must progress through.
Don’t be confused by those who might claim that the townspeople were not converted by the woman. Some try to ignore her role claiming that the townspeople were converted by the words of Jesus himself, but this argument is ignorant of the way faith is developed. In the Gospel of John all people are brought to Jesus by someone and come to full faith by the Words of Jesus. All are bound to Him by his own words, but there is always someone in between; who brings them to Jesus. This is the same role given to the disciples on the night He died, to bring others to the Light of Christ.
This Gospel is attemping to bring a reader confronted by ancient divisions, corrupted by the worship by foreign tribes, and suffering from unhealed divisions, into a reality characterized by inclusiveness and integrated into a new convenient where no one is excluded and offered the Living Water of Jesus. Because it isn’t found in the original Greek manuscripts, some suggest that the story about the Woman at the Well may have been deliberately added to the Gospel to counter the Synoptic Gospel’s warning to the Disciples “not to enter Samaria". This would have been done to give legitimacy to the evangelization of all people which is so much a part of John’s Gospel.
The fact that Jesus was like us in all things, except sin, means that his understanding of his mission changed as He grew wiser. As he progressed in life He would also have grown in an understanding of who he was. The contrast between the woman, who was marginalized at best, and Nickodemus, a high ranking Pharisee, represent the wide spectrum of believers that we see today. John’s Gospel expresses the same thoughts as Saint Paul regarding faith and baptism, the fact that we are all are one in Christ Jesus.
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