John 4:5-42

Meditatio (Reflecting)

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.

Oratio (Responding)

Today’s telling is the story of the woman at the well. This story has many facets, and whole books have been written about this encounter. I am going to focus mostly on the woman’s interaction with Jesus. I believe that this converstaion is a story about the conversion of a soul.

The woman comes to the well in the middle of the day, the hottest part of the day. Women of this time, would be the ones that would fetch water, and the women would do normally do this chore at sunrise and sunset so as to avoid the heat of the day. It is believed by many scholars that because she was living in an adulterous relationship, and as such she was a pariah amongst the other women, and thus she was avoiding the other woman. There is also another poetic reference here of a person coming from the darkness of sin into the light of day, and forgiveness. I like this, but it is not a widely held belief.

So the woman comes to the well to satisfy the human need for water, and instead finds the lord Jesus and learns that He has an offer that is far more valuable. The interchange about water emphasizes this point. They are talking about the difference between the needs of the body versus the needs of the soul. The woman is seeking the former, but Jesus is offering only the later.

There conversation then moves into a discussion about marriage. The woman was in an adulterous marriage, and she had been in 5 others before that. But the 5, is also a metaphor for the what happened to the samaritan people. When the sons of Solomon split the 12 tribes up and the 10 in the north eventually fell to the Assyrians empire, the assyrians brought 5 other cultures with them. And the 10 jewish tribes eventually commingled not only their people in marriage, but also their faith with the 5 pagan cultures as well. This new culture of comingled people and religion thus became the samaritan people. They ultimatly created their own temple, and their own form of worship, and forgot the one true God, and their true jewish faith.

Jesus is telling her that this samaritan experiment of dabbling with other gods is a total failure, and that only the worship of the one true God can lead to total happiness, and freedom. What Jesus is offering here is a marriage of sorts. Jesus the bridegroom, is seeking His bride (the church), and not only are all of the jewish people called to this marriage, but all of the gentiles of the world as well. Jesus is proposing that this woman abandon all of her previous husbands, and all of that pagan worship and join Him in His new universal (aka catholic) church.

The last thing of note in this reading is that the woman left her jar, and ran to the village of samaritans, and became an evangelist for this new faith, and as a consequence converting many to the same end.

This is the story of conversion. We find ourselves in sin, avoiding all of the people that remind us of our faults, and are toiling in the hot of the day suffering simply to satisfy the most basic of human needs, and at our lowest we find Jesus, and He offers us something far greater, and proposes that you join Him in a nuptial bond forever. And if you accept, you will be forever changed, leaving everything that previously mattered behind, and you will seek out others to share the good news that you now have.

And it is the same today as it has always been. Jesus is waiting at the well for you. Are you tired enough to hear what He has to offer you. If you are ready, and accept what He is offering, so you too can be forever changed. If so, Pickup your bucket and walk to the well, it is the last time you will ever need it.

Contemplatio (Contemplating)

Take time to simply remain in the presence of God.

Resolutio (Resolving)

Oh lord, help me to take the good news that you have given me, and to share it with someone that needs it today. Amen.