John 4.27-38 NIV courtesy of www.biblegateway.com
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
I chose to break our discussion here because the main interaction is now occuring between Jesus and his disciples who came back from town having found something to eat and are quite incapable of understanding what is going on. They are struck that Jesus is speaking to an unaccompanied woman - but no one is asking any questions.
Then Jesus seems to have no need for the very food that they have brought. Instead, Jesus once again begins to speak in abstract, metaphorical, or one could say, spiritual terms.
Let's look at what Jesus says. 'My food is to do the will of the one who sent me.' Jesus 'hungers and thirsts after righteousness' - and (my interpretation) this conversation with this inquisitive Samaritan woman has absorbed all his interest; his need for food comes secondary. But then.....????? I can't really say that I am sure of this.
However, it does appear that Jesus looks around himself and sees the potential for a great harvest of believers (and this would be among the Samaritans remember). He is calling his disciples to harvest this great crop of believers - believers who have come to God through the initial work of others long ago. Now, it is up to the disciples to bring in the harvest - to help them come to Jesus.
But who really is the evangelist going to be in this story? Notice that the woman left her pot at the well and ran into town. She in on a new mission; she has a new calling and it is to bring others to hear and see Jesus. She does not mince words, "he told me everything I'd ever done" (giving witness to his credentials as a prophet at least) and in phrasing it this way she begins her testimony in truth.
So a liturgical/theological note here: truth is how we all begin our testimony of worship and to invite others into the company of the Christ. We call it confession. When we make our confession we are speaking the truth about ourselves. It is not necessary for God's sake. God already knows. Instead it is necessary for our sake - that we enter into this relationship with God with nothing hidden even from our own eyes.
Let's look at the end of the story............ John 4.39-42
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
Notice it was her willingness to put aside her pride and privacy 'he told me everything I ever did' that enticed the others to come to the well to see and hear. Then they invited Jesus in (just think of all the barriers that invitation crossed) and listened for two days to his words. In the words of God in Jesus, they heard the call to faith, not forgetting the woman's first invitation, but not relying on it alone.
Whatever to preach on this complex and LONG story?
Clearly the preacher needs to focus on a particular theme. The theme of water links both the OT and Gospel lessons and so it is a possibility. Living water.....stagnant water. Could our baptism water have stagnated in our lives?
I introduced a theme of darkness last week with Nicodemus. What kind of darkness could we say this woman experiences? Could it be the darkness of moral and social ambiguity? An outcast even among her own?
[Although the gender restrictions she experienced could be nuanced as a form of darkness, I think it is a stretch in this particular story and misses some other important points. ]
Well, that is just what I am about to work on....so come Sunday and see where I end up.
No comments:
Post a Comment