The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
February 24, 2008
Vol. 11 no. 08

Everything But...
           The Gospel according to John just does it differently. For the next three weeks John regales us with three very long stories, not like the short concise episodes found in the other three Gospels. They certainly are not boring or tedious, full of twists and turns before the final proclamation is declared. Today it begins with “the woman at the Samaritan well.”
           In every baptismal service we hear of her watery presence. Of course, water is used for more than baptisms. A human being can survive without food for many days - even the 40 days of Jesus’ wilderness stint - but barely a few without water.
           As is the case with all the Gospels, this is a travelogue. Jesus is always on the move and while we find out where he is going and where he stops, seldom do we hear why he is going there. Today’s journey might be more explainable: Jesus has been in Judea attending the Passover festival, talking at night with Nicodemus, making disciples, and he knew he had to go back home to Galilee. However, he had to go through Samaria, that terrible land of phony religious people. There was really no choice geographically, but as much as he would have preferred to hold his breath while walking through Samaria, he did have to drink some water.
           Jesus talks with the woman at the Samaritan well longer than with any other person in the Gospels. Listening in, we hear a kind of verbal fencing between them that bears repeating, but whenever it must have been first read to a congregation, there must have been a shocked silence. There wasn’t supposed to be a conversation of any kind between a rabbi and a woman, and especially a woman of such dubious reputation and dubious religiosity. Guess this is one chat to which we should listen carefully.