Scripture Readings: Deuteronomy
11.18-28 and John 4.1-26
The woman said to him, “Sir, I
perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain; and
you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus said
to her, “Woman, believe me the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor
in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship…But the hour is coming,
and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and
truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him.” (John 4:1-26)
During my first pastorate in
Harrisburg, PA, I served on a committee that was to plan a state convention of
Christian youths from many denominations. Everything went surprisingly well as
we came to the task of concluding the conference. Unaware that the communion
rail could be a place of contention rather than unity, I proposed that we
conclude the conference with a service of Holy Communion. Immediately, one
member of the panel protested: “Out of the question.” “Why?” I wanted to know
and he answered quickly, “Because we do not all have the same concept of The
Lord’s Supper!” Still thinking this was just a misunderstanding of each other,
I said: “OK, what is your church’s understanding?” and he replied in some
detail. When he finished, however, I said: “That’s essentially what I believe...”
“Oh no, you don’t!.” And after a pause, he concluded: “We cannot come to the
communion rail together!” And we didn’t.
Upon reading John
4:1-26, I have often recalled that incident because Jesus was confronted with a
similar attitude. There were seemingly insurmountable barriers between Jews and
Samaritans and Jews seeking to travel from Judea to Galilee were confronted
with a heavy choice: they could go directly through Samaria and make the
journey in three days; or they could avoid Samaria and take a circuitous route
that would take about twice as long. So why not take the short route through
Samaria? Because of four centuries of unmitigated hostility between Jews and
Samaritans. To put it simply: their unresolved past made for an impossible
present and no hope for an improved future. Jews hated Samaritans and the
hostility was mutual---and to travelers an experience ranging from “unpleasant”
to“dangerous.”
To make things even
worse, the Samaritan who encounters Jesus the Jew at the well of Jacob is a
woman and no Jew of any virtue would converse with a woman, let alone a
Samaritan woman! And that was not all: this woman was obviously a woman of ill
repute. She could have drawn water from a well closer than this remote watering
spot. Probably she did not dare to draw water at the town well because of her
despised status among the virtuous women of the town. So when she asked Jesus,
“How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”, there were
barriers that seemed impassable.
As he often did,
Jesus turned the tables on her and said that, if she knew who he was, he could
give her “living water.”Although the well of Jacob was very deep, its source
was not running water from a spring, but water collected from the rain. So what
Jesus had to give her was the best of all waters in taste and in purity.
When she realized
that this man refused to be put off by the social and religious barriers of
Jews and Samaritans, she asks him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and
the well is deep; where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our
father Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, and his sons,
and his cattle?” (4:11,12). And Jesus replies: “Everyone who drinks of
this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give
him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a
spring of water welling up to eternal life” (4:13,14). John, the writer of
this gospel, is saying that this is the vital difference in what Jesus offers
the woman at the well and all others. The woman, a hated Samaritan, has the
opportunity to receive the living water of eternal life. If a Samaritan can be
offered that water, who can be denied? (Patience, Lord: we’ll find someone!)
This conversation—forbidden
in the minds of most Jews and Samaritans—is heady, unsettling, almost too good
to be true. So, in a very human response, she returns to the traditional
arguments between Samaritans and Jews: “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
Our father worshipped on this mountain; and you say that in Jerusalem is the
place where men ought to worship.” “This mountain” was the Samaritan mountain
of Gerizim and the mountain of worship in Jerusalem is Mount Zion. So which
mountain in the right place, the place ordained by the Lord?
The reply of Jesus
cuts through the question of my mountain or yours: “Woman, believe me, the
hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship
the Father…But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will
worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship
him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth”(4:21-24).
True and spiritual
worship is possible on, but not limited to, both your mountain and mine.
Sincere, acceptable worship is not limited to times, places, rituals, and
creeds, for the God of Jesus Christ and our Father is not limited by human
barriers, nor the egotistic pride that erects them.
Thought for the day---from Edwin Markham’s
poem, “Outwitted.”
“He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic,
rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him in!
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him in!
Prayer for today:
LORD HELP ME TODAY TO DRAW BIGGER CIRCLES!
Rev. Larry Althouse,
FUMC staff 1978-1993, retired.
