The Bad Samaritan | March 4, 2018

Today, most of us will hear the gospel from John when Jesus cleanses the temple, however, the RCIA calendar uses the wonderful story of the woman at the well and I have been inspired to write about her: The “Bad” Samaritan.

Have you ever been in a crowded room and had the feeling that someone was watching you? When you scan the room, sure enough, a dear friend is just waiting for you to find their gaze and in your eye contact with one another, the crowd and the noise melt away, and you feel found. (Shout out: June Richards and I do this to each other all the time!) This happening captures a piece of the woman at the well story for me.

Jesus was waiting at noon at the Samaritan well for a very specific reason. He knew that this was the hour when the shameful people (only women went to the well) would sneak over to draw their water. The “pretty” people (only women went to the well) would never dream of going to the well in the heat of the day, that was just foolish. Jesus knew this and He sat there waiting for that someone who felt unworthy, ashamed, alone, guilty, marginalized, judged, and cast aside. Raise your hand if you would be drawing water at noon. I would. I’m sure the woman was inconveniently surprised to see not only another person at the well during her private visit, but a Jewish man! Come on! It’s like when you go to the grocery store in your ugly sweats with no make-up and you run into a long lost friend that wants to catch up on your life for the past 10 years in the ketchup aisle. Oi vey, I just wanted potato chips! Anyway, Jesus waited for this outcast to find His gaze, knowing it would be really really awkward for her, and in that finding, her world would be turned upside down.

He looked into her soul and found her vulnerability. Have you ever had a friend that could see into your soul? He used her current reality to engage, “Give me a drink.” (Emphasis on one singular drink) Of course, this exchange was forbidden in every rulebook and on every level. Jesus had a feeling that this particular woman, The Bad Samaritan, wouldn’t mind breaking the rules (He meets her where she’s at in her life). This breaking in melted her on the spot and she was compelled to respond. She sets Him up perfectly with a “how are you talking to me right now?” Walls broken down, check, coming in with the message, check, heart opened to receive, check, life changed forever, check. He makes a mysterious Jesus-type statement to get her to think more deeply about things. It engages her mind to ask what vessel He had to store this living water and Jesus tells her that she is the vessel. Bam! “Whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him/her a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” She is hooked and ready to never have to come to the well at this shaming hour again! Bring it on, Jesus! Careful what you ask for.

Now that He has her attention, the next step is conversion, and this is humiliating (or humility) part. He gently has her take a look at her life. That is really all it takes for her to understand that something must change for her to be able to have this well of eternity within her. It was no secret as to why she was at the well at noon and yet Jesus did not use shame to expose her, but rather a tenderhearted nudge to make a new life. Her shame was with her everyday and His breaking into her heart was all she needed to want to sin no more. She is so blown away by his intrusive nature that she is inspired to identify Him as Messiah, for only the Messiah could see into her soul. Ding, ding, ding! You win! The Shameful Bad Samaritan Woman at the well at noon proclaims Jesus as Messiah before his own beloved besties!!! How’s that for a plot twist that makes you dig deep?

Jesus waits for us at the well where our shame dwells. Jesus waits patiently for us to find his gaze. Jesus breaks into our souls and invites us to a relationship with him. Jesus gently addresses our vulnerability, our weakness, and our sin. Jesus offers us a better way and the promise of eternity. Jesus allows us to accept him as our Savior and Jesus sends us out changed for good. Our part is to meet his gaze even in our shame, to ask how (Prayer), to say yes to the promise, to claim him as everything, and to accept our need to change. Have a blessed day and it is well with my soul.

Reading 1 EX 17:3-7

In those days, in their thirst for water,
the people grumbled against Moses,
saying, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?
Was it just to have us die here of thirst 
with our children and our livestock?”
So Moses cried out to the LORD, 
“What shall I do with this people?
a little more and they will stone me!”
The LORD answered Moses,
“Go over there in front of the people, 
along with some of the elders of Israel, 
holding in your hand, as you go, 
the staff with which you struck the river.
I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb.
Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it 
for the people to drink.”
This Moses did, in the presence of the elders of Israel.
The place was called Massah and Meribah, 
because the Israelites quarreled there
and tested the LORD, saying,
“Is the LORD in our midst or not?”

Responsorial Psalm PS 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9.

R. (8) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
"Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works."
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Reading 2 ROM 5:1-2, 5-8

Brothers and sisters:
Since we have been justified by faith, 
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
through whom we have gained access by faith 
to this grace in which we stand, 
and we boast in hope of the glory of God.

And hope does not disappoint, 
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts 
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For Christ, while we were still helpless, 
died at the appointed time for the ungodly.
Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, 
though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.
But God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

Verse Before Gospel CF. JN 4:42, 15

Lord, you are truly the Savior of the world;
give me living water, that I may never thirst again.

Gospel JN 4:5-42 

Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, 
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob's well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
"Give me a drink."
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
"How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?"
—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
"If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, 'Give me a drink, '
you would have asked him 
and he would have given you living water."
The woman said to him, 
"Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; 
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob, 
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself 
with his children and his flocks?"
Jesus answered and said to her, 
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; 
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; 
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
The woman said to him,
"Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty 
or have to keep coming here to draw water."

Jesus said to her,
"Go call your husband and come back."
The woman answered and said to him,
"I do not have a husband."
Jesus answered her,
"You are right in saying, 'I do not have a husband.'
For you have had five husbands, 
and the one you have now is not your husband.
What you have said is true."
The woman said to him,
"Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; 
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem."
Jesus said to her,
"Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand; 
we worship what we understand, 
because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here, 
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; 
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in Spirit and truth."
The woman said to him,
"I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; 
when he comes, he will tell us everything."
Jesus said to her,
"I am he, the one speaking with you."

At that moment his disciples returned, 
and were amazed that he was talking with a woman, 
but still no one said, "What are you looking for?" 
or "Why are you talking with her?"
The woman left her water jar 
and went into the town and said to the people, 
"Come see a man who told me everything I have done.
Could he possibly be the Christ?"
They went out of the town and came to him.
Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat."
But he said to them,
"I have food to eat of which you do not know."
So the disciples said to one another, 
"Could someone have brought him something to eat?"
Jesus said to them,
"My food is to do the will of the one who sent me
and to finish his work.
Do you not say, 'In four months the harvest will be here'?
I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.
The reaper is already receiving payment 
and gathering crops for eternal life, 
so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.
For here the saying is verified that 'One sows and another reaps.'
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; 
others have done the work, 
and you are sharing the fruits of their work." 

Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him
because of the word of the woman who testified, 
"He told me everything I have done."
When the Samaritans came to him,
they invited him to stay with them; 
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word, 
and they said to the woman, 
"We no longer believe because of your word; 
for we have heard for ourselves, 
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world."