First meeting online worked. Will figure out more next week. The pope has asked everyone in the world to say the Our Father at noon tomorrow (7am EST). Ron
Enjoy...
The Woman at the Well (read John 4: 5-42)
1. Why is Jesus traveling through the middle of Samaria?
The safer way to go is along the Jordan River. Jesus takes this mountainous route intentionally.
2. Significance of Jacob’s well?
The Samaritans still tried to follow the Torah their own way, even though their way was corrupted. Jacob was one of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob). This adds intentional significance to the meaning of this story.
3. Give me a drink. An intrusion or an invitation?
A simple invitation to an encounter.
4. Jews – Samaritans ritually unclean
Jews would normally have to conduct a ritual cleansing if they interacted with a Samaritan.
5. Living water?
The translation can refer to running water (vs stagnant), baptism/renewal, or a nuptial connotation (the Hebrew custom before weddings required the bride to bathe in “running water” prior to the marriage ceremony).
6. Five husbands
Significance of Noon – women normally came to the well in the morning or at dusk because carrying buckets of water was hard. Nobody came in the heat of the day. Except this single woman who could probably not travel with anyone else because of her lifestyle.
7. She changes the subject; questions where to worship
Jesus says: “The time is coming when you will worship God neither in the Temple nor here” – this refers to Jesus sending the Holy Spirit to us. We will have God within us.
8. Apostles returned and are astonished at what they see
Another nuptial reference: custom was only single/virgin women came to the well to get water as part of daily tasks. If a single man was seen alone with a woman at a well, it was considered scandalous unless he was wooing her. Isaac’s wife Rebekah was found at a well. Jacob met Rachel met at a well. So did Moses ad his wife, Zipporah. Consequently, the apostles were astonished at seeing Jesus alone conversing with the Samaritan woman.
9. The harvest
Jesus is engaged in bringing back Samaritans to God. Humans are the rich harvest made for heaven. That is what he came for. He’s telling the apostles because this is what they have been chosen for.
10. Jesus stays 2 days in Samaria
Lucky them! He finds many willing followers, unlike in Jerusalem.
Further comments
1. Samaritans were essentially half Jew-half pagan. Jesus came for both! Woman is “a woman” – and a sinful one at that. Clearly, Jesus came for everyone. And he comes to each of us wherever we are.
2. Jesus start a dialogue in a mundane, almost unnoticeable ways. This is how he starts with us. He cannot violate our free will and force his way in. The woman engages – she lets him in. Everything begins to change.
3. 5 husband references: Once we let God in, He knows everything – and he likely expose everything (between you and Him; However, notice how it is not threatening at all. In fact, it wins the woman over! By Jesus coming to engage her, she is no longer an outcast. [Other 5 husband references: history of Jewish idolatry, the Church (Augustine)].
4. As we engage God in a relationship, our world changes. The woman is changed. She must go tell the townspeople. She leaves her buckets behind, noted only because it symbolizes leaving her old ways behind.
5. Nuptial reference: Since humans broke from God, God has been chasing after them to win them back. OT and NT references to the relationship God is seeking with us is not just a reunion but a wedding feast/wedding covenant. Jesus comes to invite us to the reunion/wedding. The Last Supper is a wedding ceremony. However, it was/is the beginning of the wedding, and he sent the HS – like our best man – to make sure we make it to the wedding. You could say we are living are in the “Age of Invitation.” Human free will is the only, remaining self-inflicted barrier to accepting this invitation.
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