Jesus reveals himself to a Samaritan woman

Today’s Gospel reading is about the Samaritan Woman. We have read much about the Good Samaritan, but Catholics know little about the Samaritan woman or the Samaritan people except what we already know about how the Jews disliked the Samaritans. You can read it in John 4:5-42.

[Jesus] came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon. 7 a woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her,. “Give me a drink.” 8 His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink? (for Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans)

10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”11 [The woman] said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; 14 but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water… I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand because salvation is from the Jews.

23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. 24 God is Spirit and those who worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth. 25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking with you.”

30 Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him….40 When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 Many more began to believe in him because of his word; for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is truly the saviour of the world.”

That our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to a Samaritan woman and even asked her for water tells you that he wasn’t like the rest of the Jews who hated the Samaritans. Hence the woman replied, “How can you a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” This enmity between the Jews and Samaritans can be read in the Book of Ezra 4:1-3 when the Samaritans wanted to help rebuild the temple after the Jews returned from their exile.

That act of kindness was denied by the heads of the tribes of Israel. Thus this enmity began and lasted for many centuries. Samaritans are not Jews, but a mixture of different peoples. They worshiped multiple gods and later learned to worship the God of the Jews and Moses. But to the Jews, a good Samaritan is a dead Samaritan. But everyone knows about the Parable of the Good Samaritan that our Lord Jesus Christ taught to his Apostles. He was sending them a message not to hate Samaritans, but love them.

During his conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus learned about her faith, hence he told her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” But somehow the Samaritan woman showed our Lord that she was willing to believe in him, a Jew. This is why she said, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” It was then that our Lord Jesus Christ revealed himself to her saying, “I am he, the one who is speaking with you.”

This is truly a remarkable exchange with the woman because in ancient times, women were not even supposed to know much even about faith. As we learned from this passage, Jesus and his apostles stayed with the Samaritans for two whole days because they have come to believe in his word because he spoke the truth. We Filipinos are considered Gentiles, non-Jews who believe that the Messiah is our Lord Jesus Christ. It is unfortunate that a great majority of the Jewish people failed to recognize the coming of the Messiah. Let us pray that our Jewish brethren will soon unite with the whole of Christianity.