JESUS AND SAMARITAN WOMAN
        John 4:4-26    (February 21, 1994)
                    Zubeni Patton

    The Gospel of John was highly valued in ancient times as the spiritual Gospel and was perhaps the single most influential books of the New Testament.  The setting of this passage is from Jerusalem to Galilee at Sychars well, a mile North of Jacob's well.  From this very passage, it shows the hostility between the Samaritans and the Jews which traced back to the Assyrian Colonization of the land of Israel.  The Samaritans and the Jews were physically alike requiring the same food, following the same occupations, having the same hope and aspiration.  Yet, there was racial discrimination since the time of Nehemiah and Ezra.  Samaria were occupied by native Israelites peasants and the imported colonist, where the worshippers of Yahweh in Judah rejected the religious practices of the native Israelites.  The God of the Samaritans is the God of Israel, revealed only in the Pentateuch.  They honor Moses, and Mt. Gerazim is the center of the earth for them.  They looked for a 2 no... but inferior Moses who would be a prophet.  This, was the situation when Jesus Christ encounters with the Samaritan woman, the enemies of the Jews.  Coming to the passage two questions have been raised about the woman.

    1.    Samaritan woman came to draw water in the heat of mid-day, rather than in the evening.
    2.    Samaritan woman must have passed, several running streams but chose the Jacob's well.  The request for a drink by Jesus was natural since the traveler had neither the  bucket nor the rope needed for drawing water.  Water symbol the satisfaction of Human Being's highest need. 
    Jesus was very intentional about having to go to Samaria.  We are not told what her actual sin was, but are led to believe by male interpretation that she was a prostitute.  Jesus lived in a patriarchal and hierarchical Jewish society where a woman could be sent away by her husband if she did anything displeasing.  She was probably treated as an object from the 5 husbands as mentioned in the passage that was read.  The Samaritan woman was probably under the influence of the moralist of her time, that a man should not salute a woman in public place even to his own dear wife.  One of the thanksgiving in the daily service of the synagogue said "Blessed art thou I' loud who has not made me a woman."  The answer made by the woman from the Gallery was "Blessed art thou, O Lord, who has fashioned me according to thy will."  Yes, the Lord God has fashioned the Samaritan woman equal with man, with no distinction and boundaries.  In our present life situation, often times women are considered as unintelligent and illogical.  Yet, Jesus stretched out his loving hand to the outcaste Samaritan woman, and had a series of dialogue with her.  Dialogue on true worship and self dedication with sincerity without self-deception, free from false image which is idolatry. 
    The Samaritan woman was not why an alien as far as the Jews were concerned but also was poor.  For woman of affluence did not draw water in those days.  Jesus Christ confessed to her that he was the Messiah.  He could have easily confessed to one of his male disciples, but Jesus took the initiative, offering to the woman, the unspeakable gift of Himself, the well of everlasting life.  Jesus was accused by the male section of the society of being a Samaritan Himself and was possessed by a Demon.  But Jesus was above the norms of his time of sexism, racism, classism and inequality.  Just because of his meeting with the Samritan woman, Jesus was charged as a possessed by a Demon.  Jesus spoke well, of the Samaritan woman and healed her of her ailments.  Is the omniscient Lord, know all about the sufferings of the woman.  He went to the well to prove that he was above religion and racial prejudices that has de-humanizing factors and he would not compromise with such evils that de-humanized a woman.  The disciples of Jesus marveled at him because he was talking to a woman which was contrary to the Rabbinic precepts.  He had special regard for the Samaritan woman, because she was a human being, a woman, an outcaste, a sinner and a prostitute.  Her sin was made more obvious because she was a mere woman.  Jesus revealed to the woman "If you knew the gift of God and who it is, that said to you, you would have asked of Him and he would have given you living water."  Thus, Jesus gives her the deeper insights of eternal water that will never thirst again.  What Jesus supplied to the woman was not external water to satisfy, the physical need, but an eternal and internal source of unfailing, spiritual life.  He brought in light upon her darkened mind.  She willingly confesses the prophetic gift of the one who knew all about her past, and present life.  Jesus inspite of the patriarchal and hierarchical situation of his time, was willing to teach the Samaritan woman.  The theology of worship, a worship inspired by the Holy Spirit in conformity with the truth of the world.  The woman could intellectually analyze true worship, of spiritual worship and of spiritual being not only at Jerusalem or Mt. Gerizim but wherever there is a heart seeking him.  Christ had awakened her to a new and better life and such was the effect of her earnest witness that many of those Samaritans went out and came to Jesus at the well.  Profound revelations concerning Himself and His Father was revealed to none other than the Samaritan woman.  Jesus appreciated the intellectual capacity and spiritual capacity of the woman.  Jesus did not shun woman in any theological discussions. Jesus shows his compassion and interest in the neediest of human beings. Jesus always went out of his way to confront those who had reached the limit of human endurance. 
    The woman with the issue of blood making her a social outcaste for 12 years, the woman whose back was bent for 18 years.  All these desperate woman Jesus did not singled out because he knows that women are important as Human with dignity and respect.  Jesus saw in her the ... feeling of sadness that others did not see.  The pain, agony and despair that she was undergoing.  Jesus saw in her, a woman in need of help.  The society disregards her because she was a woman, helpless, rejected, divorced and put out of the house by 5 husbands.  All her pains and sufferings were revealed to Jesus.  He knew her pain that she was undergoing at that well.  He reached out to her, the first word of acceptance that hs had heart for a long, long time.  Jesus Christ said, "Woman, I know all about you, your 5 husbands and your present pathetic condition" which compartmentalizes and curtails her potential and human relations.  Jesus wanted her to be spiritual and to be walking freely in the spirit of God and to make her experience the total freedom, to challenge for human dignity, freedom and a new life of love.
    Spirituality is her struggle for Justice, her pursuit of peace, her longing for total participation in her intrinsic wholeness in all areas of her calling in collaboration with the spirit.  The Samaritan woman knew that God had chosen her despite her lowliness and it was her liberative spirit that manifold itself in its fullness making the symbol of liberation of women in the generation to come.  "I am He" Jesus revealed to her something he had not revealed to anyone else.  He treated her as equal, worthy in every way to receive his deepest truths.  Jesus was changing the world of women to a better place through the Samaritan woman.  She was no longer the rejected and the oppressed one.  She was accepted, loved, forgiven, lifted up, magnified and considered her as worthy to be praised.  Her whole life has been changed to wholeness and fullness and abundance.  Jesus affirmed and accepted her an
evangelist, testifying her witness was valid and approved.  The Gospel record no instance where Jesus turned a woman away when ... only? come seeking His favor.  Jesus goes out of his way to make even the most disreputable woman felt loved and wanted and liberated.  Jesus sees woman as the victims of male oriented, male dominated religion.  Like the woman at the well, the period and loneliness and rejection may be also a time of creative newness, forced to search new relationship and new resources.  Every oppressed woman like the Samaritan woman desire the fountain of eternal life.  Just when it seems that all is lost and there is no light at the end of the tunnel, the Lord melts the woman at the well and said, "I know, I understand" you woman.  This morning, I am not trying to challenge you, can we say the same thing as Jesus said, "I know yu, I understand you, and I want to help you, out from the long unending tunnel of darkness." 
    Participating as men and women in the God and that in Jesus a new age, has begun which broke down the old enslaving hierarchical system.  Jesus did not consider the Samaritan woman as an object of purchase illogical, or irrational, hyper sentimental, hysterical and unindependent and unintellectual.  But Jesus showed to the Samaritan that God is spirit, who is active, alive and purposively equal to one and all.  Jesus Christ did not impose the Samaritan woman with the Jewish culture of male structure, but gave her the full participation, make her to be discovered, awakened to the meaning of life and womanhood.
    Now, the Samaritan woman who no longer the old self but a woman who can received justice, love, empowerment, healing, and restoring her life to the rest of the Human beings.  As Jesus said, "I have come that all may have life and have it to the full."
    Let no all come together in the spirit of love and unity.  Let us not shun our women, mothers, sisters and baby girl-child as they seek and crave for life ... unsolving? from all forms of oppressions.  Their will thirst had to be satisfied. Our vision must transcend all obstacles and oppressive structures on the society.  Finding our true identity and a strengthening of will to commit ourselves and be renewed and empowered with a new spirit, a living water and a new ways and new vision.  Amen.