Third Sunday of Lent

 Lectionary: 28

A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”

Jesus and his charming new friend overstep any number of boundaries with their conversation. First, like many Americans, neither should speak to a stranger; and this couple are certainly estranged. They are set apart by gender, religion, and nationality; not to mention the infinite superiority of the Son of God to a non-believing gentile.

But the man is thirsty and humans cannot long survive without water. Certain needs like thirst, hunger, sickness, pain, and homelessness often ignore our standard boundaries. No one should die of hunger or thirst because society says they shouldn’t ask for help.

Nonetheless, when Jesus speaks to her, she knows he’s not dying of thirst. His disciples have gone into the village to buy food and drink. He’ll be okay.

And he knows she didn't just happen to be there at the village well at noon. She might have come anytime and seeing a solitary man there should have stopped her from coming. The situation is perfect for a noonday tryst between two attractive people, but it must begin with careful circumspection and coy flirtation. And so it does with the gentleman's abrupt demand, "Woman, give me a drink!"

For a stranger in a foreign place, with no apparent claim on her or her people, he's very rude. She can meet his rudeness with silence, refusal, or a go-to-hell; but why waste the opportunity she has set up? And so she counters, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”

There's no obvious need to remind him of their differences -- Jew and Samaritan, male and female -- but the game is on and they’re both game for it. Their tabooed conversation will continue through startling discoveries. Her reputation is exposed; his identity revealed. A Samaritan La Traviata longs for vindication; a Jewish Messiah only wants to be loved.

Saint John's has been called the most sacramental of the four gospels. Within its mysteries, we learn of Baptism, Eucharist, Healing, Forgiveness, Priesthood, Confirmation in the Holy Spirit, and the passionate love of God for his betrothed people. The Wedding Feast of Cana is laced with dry humor and intoxicated joy; the tryst by the well of Jacob is all about flirtation, disclosure, and discovery.

This story is about God's consuming love for his people. Their betrothal entered human history as the LORD marched Abraham’s children out of Egypt and into a honeymoon of forty years in a hot sun and dry sand. It was defined by the troubled marriage of Hosea and Gomer, and clarified by Ezekiel's fuming about Israel, God’s unfaithful wife. Jeremiah also complained about her infidelity, and Isaiah remembered God's unfailing fidelity.

Saint Paul spiced this story as he described the affectionate husband with an erotic image -- the Lord cleanses her body by the bath of water and the word.

Christians should not discipline their imagination so far as to ignore God's passionate, jealous, demanding desire for his people. His laws are like those of any devoted husband or wife; he will not tolerate wandering thoughts, words, or deeds. A true husband sees attractive women only as opportunities to prove his worthiness to his wife. And she ignores invitations and spurns the advances of coworkers, acquaintances, and strangers.

I knew one man who met every lewd suggestion with, “I’ll discuss this with my wife and she’ll get back to you.”

A devoted husband and wife are no more interested in adultery than a sated sybarite after a Thanksgiving dinner.

As God loves the Church, so does the faithful Church respond with purity of heart, mind, and soul. In God's eyes, sinners that we are, we are still immaculate and desirable virgins. Our marriage to God is not a matter of convenience. It is not about observing boundaries for it will surpass every proper expectation. It will go the extra mile, lend both jacket and shirt, and dismiss unpayable debts. We find our worth not in self-esteem but in the sparkling, amorous eyes of our Beloved. We can still turn God’s head! We'll not play the fool for anyone or anything less than God.