Third Sunday of Lent – March 19, 2017
Give me a drink!
This request is what we first hear from Jesus as he meets a woman from Samaria at high noon in the town of Sychar.
With this request begins a famous dialogue that is both familiar to us and full of many-layered meanings and symbols.
Today’s Gospel story is divided into three parts: (1) the discourse on Living Water; (2) the discourse about true worship; and (3) acceptance of Jesus by the people of the town.
This is a story about faith, a story that breaks down barriers and cuts through old prejudices. Jesus is speaking with a woman as an equal, with a Samaritan, whom Jews were supposed to despise and hate, and is at the well at high noon, where such encounters were suspect.
In the dialogue Jesus moves the Samaritan woman to a new place, to a new sense of who she is, and who she is called to be. She witnesses to others about all this, and others begin to believe! This is what the Living Water that Jesus promises is all about!