By Father Paul Nord, O.S.B.
Sunday Scripture
First Reading: Exodus 17:3-7; Responsorial: Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9; Second Reading: Romans 5:1-2, 5-8; Gospel: John 4:5-42
Today’s reading from Exodus 17 recalls how the Israelites grumbled against Moses and against the LORD, asking: “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?” It was “their thirst for water” which motivated the Israelites’ grumbling.
In response, God instructs Moses to go in front of the people and to strike the rock with his staff. When Moses does this, water flows from the rock for the people to drink. God reminds Moses that he also struck the Nile River with his staff to initiate the first plague, in which God turned the water into blood. Moses’ staff is an instrument by which God demonstrates his power, both to free the Israelites from Pharaoh and to provide water for them in the wilderness.
This event is recalled in three Psalms. First, in Psalm 81:7, God says: “I tested you at the waters of Meribah.” Second, Psalm 106:32 says: “They angered him at the waters of Meribah.” Third, Psalm 95:8 says: “Oh, that today you would hear his voice: ‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the desert.’”
This last one, Psalm 95, is our Responsorial today. After recalling Meribah and Massah (95:8), the psalm describes this incident as, “Where your fathers tempted me; they tested me though they had seen my works.” In this way, the Psalms reflect upon the events of Exodus and re-present them in the liturgical prayer (psalms) of the Israelites.
When the Israelites grumbled against God at Meribah and Massah in Exodus 17, they had very recently witnessed the Lord’s works of power by which the Lord had freed them from slavery in Egypt. The Israelites had witnessed the ten plagues (Exodus 7-12), which the Lord inflicted on Egypt as a direct challenge to Pharaoh’s stubborn refusal to let them go. They had witnessed the Lord God forcing the powerful Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to finally permit the Israelites to leave Egypt for freedom (Exodus 12). Finally, the Israelites witnessed the Lord destroying Pharaoh and his army at the Red Sea when Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued the Israelites after their departure (Exodus 15–16). This is why God says, “they had seen my works.” Despite this, at Massah and Meribah, the Israelites rebelled against God.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul states that in Christ we have “this grace in which we stand” and “hope (which) does not disappoint.” All of this is given through the Holy Spirit, which is “the love of God … poured out into our hearts.” In his crucifixion, Christ has shown God’s love for us.
Today’s Gospel (John 4) recounts Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman. Her trip to the well is unusual in at least two ways. First, she is alone. Normally, women would have come to the well in groups to assist each other. Second, the time is “about Noon,” when the sun was oppressively strong. Apparently, the Samaritan woman came alone at that time of day to avoid social interaction. Most people came to the well in the morning or evening when the temperatures were cooler.
Thus, the Samaritan woman probably was startled when Jesus said to her: “Give me a drink.” She objects to Jesus’ question: “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” Because few visitors came to the well during the strong heat of midday, Jesus and the Samaritan woman likely were alone at the well. Either one would have been vulnerable to an accusation that they mistreated the other. There would have been no witnesses. To make matters more perilous, Jews and Samaritans were often in conflict. The Samaritan woman wondered why Jesus was risking trouble by speaking.
Jesus responds to the woman’s dismay: “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.” This causes the woman to pursue two questions: First, “Who is Jesus?” She is sure that Jesus is not “greater than our father Jacob who gave us this cistern.” But Jesus convinces her that he is a prophet (John 4:19). Later, she announces to her fellow Samaritans that Jesus could be the Christ, the Messiah (4:25, 29).
Second, the woman has this question: “How can she receive the ‘living water’ which Jesus offers to her as a gift?” Jesus answers this by telling her: “The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth.” The Samaritan woman had observed that Jews and Samaritans were in conflict about the proper place to worship God. But Jesus points to a new age in which God’s Spirit is poured out powerfully upon the world. This gift of the Spirit is the “living water” which Jesus promises the Samaritan woman.
In verses 25-26, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that he is the Messiah. “At that moment Jesus’ disciples returned, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman” (v. 27). But the woman leaves and returns to her town, announcing her belief that Jesus could be the Messiah. She leaves behind her water jar. This reveals that she is now focused on bringing others to Jesus, instead of being concerned with water or earthly necessities.
Jesus says to his disciples: “I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.” Jesus uses “harvest” as a metaphor for those who will receive new life by receiving his Gospel. Verse 36 shows this: “The reaper is already … gathering crops for eternal life.”
Jesus invites his disciples to recognize that town’s Samaritans as a “harvest” for Jesus’ Gospel. Those Samaritans “began to believe in (Jesus) because of the word of the woman who testified.” Her witness bears “fruit” — a “harvest” of new life in Christ’s name for those who believe. While Jesus exhorts his disciples to reap the harvest, the Samaritan woman already reaps.