A
child is able to read the words of the bible with ease, especially with the
simplified versions on the market. It takes a lifetime to wrestle with the
words of the Bible, to wrest meaning from them as one moves in the life of
faith. Our eldest daughter contributed to a paper that considers the
hidden injuries and often invisible advantages of different status levels.
Whenever we read Scripture, the lenses of status impinge on how we read and
hear the Bible. Today, many churches are reading John 4, the meeting of Jesus
and a woman at the well. Some of the ways it is read reflect more the reader’s
preconceptions than what the text actually indicates.
When one reads John, it is helpful to keep an interpretive
rule in mind: John uses the physical as a gateway to the spiritual level; he
holds them in tension. To insist on one level is an interpretive mistake, one
that these early dialogues demonstrate.
Samaritan- Prejudice was as real as racial prejudice in our
time. Very quickly, the Northern and Southern kingdoms of David and Solomon
split. The Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom some centuries later and
exiled some and forced the immigration of other peoples, as a political attempt
to ease nationalistic fervor. The southern kingdom thought that they mixed some
other religious beliefs and practices during this time. One of the things the newly freed southern
kingdom did, before the birth of Jesus, was to destroy, allegedly, the
Samaritan sanctuary or temple.
Jewish-for many Christina readers this story serves to show
the superiority of an outsider to the religious leader Nicodemus. This is in
direct opposition to the text itself where Jesus is clear about the origin of
salvation (4:22). In a time when anti-Jewish actions and threats are on the
rise, this is a powerful warning to Christians.
Imagining the woman- I do not know how many times the woman has
been imagined, usually by male pastors, to be an ancient version of Elizabeth
Taylor’s many marriages. The potential sexuality of the woman’s many marriage
sis heightened by the meeting at a well, a venerable Biblical trope for meeting
a future spouse. The first sign of Jesus is at the wedding at Cana ,
and then we have a mention of a bridegroom at 3: 29. The bridegroom then may be
read as spiritual level of the deep bond between God and an expanded people.
Multiple divorces could only be a product of
a male determination in that legal culture. She may have been widowed
multiple times. In all likelihood, she is probably in quite an economic and social plight. As Fred Craddock notes,
“the brighter the nail polish, the darker her mascara, the shorter her skirt,
the greater the testimony to the power of the converting word.”
The woman is shown in clear juxtaposition to Nicodemus in
chapter 3. While they are both struggling in the darkness of incomprehension,
she is the more acute. In a way, she is portrayed as another Eve, but instead
of a theological discussion with the sly serpent, she is dealing with Jesus.
While Nicodemus remains in the dark and disappears from the account, the woman
becomes a witness. Already the sign of the life of Jesus is spreading in the
gospel narrative. Already boundaries are being crossed, as walls of separation
come down.
Living water could mean a spring or
fresh running water. Jesus is pointing toward a water of life redolent of the
Scriptures and of baptism itself. We will get a further clue at 7:37-39. There rivers of living
(flowing) water are line dot the gift of the outpouring of the Spirit. Her
understanding has not reached that level early in the narrative. Like anyone
ecountering John’s gospel, she is moving toward enlightenment, moving toward
greater, deeper understanding of the identity and message of Jesus.
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