John 4:5-7
So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
I’m going to divide this passage up at several points a little differently than the traditional paragraph breaks in order to draw our attention to some of the details I’ve found helpful in interpreting this story. So with these verses, for instance, I want to connect the transitional verses of the first paragraph to the first interaction between Jesus and this Samaritan woman for two reasons.
First, it’s interesting that John reports that Jesus was sitting by Jacob’s well because he was “tired out by his journey.” Incredibly interesting, actually, because while it seems perfectly understandable to us that someone would be tired of walking and want to sit down to rest, John almost never, ever reports anything that would seem vulnerable or even terribly human about Jesus. Throughout John’s Gospel, in fact, Jesus expresses very little by way of emotion and pretty much no vulnerability. This is particularly true of the Passion narrative, where there is no prayer asking to remove the cup of suffering, no need for help with carrying the cross to Golgotha, and no shout of despair from the cross. Jesus is, in John’s hands, almost super-human, which makes this description unique.
Perhaps it’s simply John’s way of providing a narrative explanation as to why and how Jesus ends up sitting by Jacob’s well and has an encounter with this woman. But it also sets an interesting context for this conversation, and that context is that Jesus is in need. He needs and wants rest. He needs and wants water. Unusual in John, but important, as he will ultimately meet the needs of this woman in, from, and through both his need and his abundance.
The second detail I want to highlight is the time of day: noon. Much has been made of this detail in traditional interpretation, particularly in terms of suggesting that this woman comes at noon to avoid running into others. Noon is an unusual time to go get water, you see, because it’s at the height of the heat of the day. Early morning or evening would be better and more convenient times to carry jars and fetch water. Why then, go at noon?
Not, I’ll argue, because she is trying to avoid her neighbors or has anything to hide. As we’ll see later, our interpretation of this passage will turn significantly on how we understand this woman’s circumstances. Is she an outcast? Does she have a shady past? Has she committed some social sins that give her reason to avoid her neighbors? I don’t think so, and while I’ll explain why later, for now I want simply to suggest another possibility for why she is at the well at noon: John is a master artist and quite deft in employing literary symbols.
In John’s hands, light signifies faith while darkness implies doubt or lack of faith. Hence, in the last chapter Nicodemus comes at night full of questions and then recedes back into the shadows at the close of his encounter with Jesus, as yet unsure about this young rabbi and his teaching. This woman, however, comes at noon and, as we’ll see, demonstrates tremendous faith, not only believing herself but also leading others to their own encounters with Jesus.
So there’s more than one way to read this story, and I look forward to exploring an alternative, even minority, interpretation that I think is ultimately more sensible and, importantly, more faithful to John’s hopes…and ours.
Prayer: Dear God, let us be careful in how we judge others, whether this Samaritan women in John’s story or those we meet every day, for there is always more than one way to hear another’s story. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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