[New to our exegesis of John’s Gospel? Try starting at The Beginning — see top menu for John 1:1-2].
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
13 ἀπεκρίθη Ἰησοῦς καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῇ· Πᾶς ὁ πίνων ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος τούτου διψήσει πάλιν· 14 ὃς δ’ ἂν πίῃ ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος οὗ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ, οὐ μὴ διψήσει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, ἀλλὰ τὸ ὕδωρ ὃ δώσω αὐτῷ γενήσεται ἐν αὐτῷ πηγὴ ὕδατος ἁλλομένου εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον. 15 λέγει πρὸς αὐτὸν ἡ γυνή· Κύριε, δός μοι τοῦτο τὸ ὕδωρ, ἵνα μὴ διψῶ μηδὲ διέρχωμαι ἐνθάδε ἀντλεῖν.
16 Λέγει αὐτῇ· Ὕπαγε φώνησον τὸν ἄνδρα σου καὶ ἐλθὲ ἐνθάδε. 17 ἀπεκρίθη ἡ γυνὴ καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· Οὐκ ἔχω ἄνδρα. λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Καλῶς εἶπας ὅτι Ἄνδρα οὐκ ἔχω· 18 πέντε γὰρ ἄνδρας ἔσχες, καὶ νῦν ὃν ἔχεις οὐκ ἔστιν σου ἀνήρ· τοῦτο ἀληθὲς εἴρηκας. 19 λέγει αὐτῷ ἡ γυνή· Κύριε, θεωρῶ ὅτι προφήτης εἶ σύ. 20 οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν ἐν τῷ ὄρει τούτῳ προσεκύνησαν· καὶ ὑμεῖς λέγετε ὅτι ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις ἐστὶν ὁ τόπος ὅπου προσκυνεῖν δεῖ. 21 λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Πίστευέ μοι, γύναι, ὅτι ἔρχεται ὥρα ὅτε οὔτε ἐν τῷ ὄρει τούτῳ οὔτε ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις προσκυνήσετε τῷ πατρί. 22 ὑμεῖς προσκυνεῖτε ὃ οὐκ οἴδατε, ἡμεῖς προσκυνοῦμεν ὃ οἴδαμεν, ὅτι ἡ σωτηρία ἐκ τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἐστίν· 23 ἀλλὰ ἔρχεται ὥρα καὶ νῦν ἐστιν, ὅτε οἱ ἀληθινοὶ προσκυνηταὶ προσκυνήσουσιν τῷ πατρὶ ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ, καὶ γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ τοιούτους ζητεῖ τοὺς προσκυνοῦντας αὐτόν· 24 πνεῦμα ὁ θεός, καὶ τοὺς προσκυνοῦντας αὐτὸν ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ δεῖ προσκυνεῖν. 25 λέγει αὐτῷ ἡ γυνή· Οἶδα ὅτι Μεσσίας ἔρχεται, ὁ λεγόμενος χριστός· ὅταν ἔλθῃ ἐκεῖνος, ἀναγγελεῖ ἡμῖν ἅπαντα. 26 λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Ἐγώ εἰμι, ὁ λαλῶν σοι.
A New Wardrobe
Last week we commented on Living Water, and the week before on the Samaritan Woman’s Walk of Shame i.e. her five plus husbands. Now we find the woman feeling like she’s been exposed. Like any of us, we might be surprised by another’s knowledge of us (“I can see you are a prophet”), and also want to change the subject; she does this adeptly, bringing up a thorny theological issue between Jews and Samaritans: the rightful place of worship.
(Isn’t it interesting how theology is often a way we divert attention from the heart of faith? Switching from a personal revelation to the mind’s seat of reason can be taking a step back from the sacred moment of encounter! This is not so much an anti-theological, anti-noetic sentiment — it is good to think about God! — rather, the tendency we have to throw up the ol’ theological shield when the sharp edge of theophany pricks us).
Jesus pulls her back. This isn’t about geography. In fact, the time is coming when that won’t matter. Worshipping in Spirit and truth is more important than stone walls. The Samaritan Woman’s diversion helped her regain her composure, and she does a Deus ex machina sort of thing when she throws up her hands and says in essence, “Well on the Day of the Lord when the Messiah returns, all this will make sense.”
And it will. And the best part of this scene is what Jesus says next…it’s so good, we’ll reserve our next meditation on it alone.
But let’s end on this. Authentic worship of God is in Spirit and truth. Spirit has been all over John so far and coupled with water, and we’ve been swimming in it. Truth, here, is interesting. Of all the uses of the Greek word for truth in the New Testament — aletheia — half of them are in John’s Gospel. Where God appears, Truth is revealed! And we’ll unpack this word some more as we trek through John.
Suffice to say for now, we human beings seem so easily swayed by the shimmering glitter of fake things, ideas, endeavors, and so forth that, to really seek Truth, truly seek Truth, is a difficult task. But, just as the truth of the woman’s situation was revealed by Jesus, so with us, in the context of worship of the True God, our false selves are exposed, and, like Adam and Eve, we’re tempted to hide. But God loves us just the way we are, and our nakedness before the Almighty — our true selves — is just the beginning of securing a new wardrobe of Christ’s righteousness!
Can I get an “Amen!”?
It's Greek to Me! 