Lent 3

Lent 3 (John 4:5-42) The hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.

Jesus frequently shocked people in his words and actions. His meeting with the Samaritan woman broke two very powerful taboos in his society.

The first taboo is that a man does not speak to a woman who is not a close relative. This is true in many parts of North Africa, the Middle East and Southwest Asia today. It is a very ancient custom and it was ancient even in Jesus’ day.

The second taboo is that a Jew has nothing to do with a Samaritan.
There was a long history of animosity conflict and war between the Samaritans and the Jews. The Samaritans were descendants of the Ten Tribes of Israel that had seceded from the Unified Kingdom after Solomon’s reign.

The Ten Northern tribes re formed the Kingdom of Israel under a new dynasty. The Tribe of Judah, the Jews, held on to the old capital Jerusalem and its Temple. Only the tribes of Benjamin and Judah remained loyal to the Dynasty founded by King David.
The Northern Kingdom realized that if their citizens continued to travel to worship God in the Temple in Jerusalem they might also pledge loyalty to the kings of Judah. Under King Jeroboam, the Northern Kingdom built its own shrines and temples. While this was politically advantageous for the kings it was also contrary to the Law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets.

The call of Moses and the prophets was the call to loyalty to the One God. The Northern Kingdom compromised this loyalty and fell into the sin of syncretism. They mixed and matched the religion of Moses with the surrounding pagan religions. Eventually, they formed political alliances with the pagan kingdoms through intermarriage.

The Northern Kingdom abandoned their religion and lost their national identity. Over the course of time they lacked the dedication to God that would preserve their nation. A series of invasions from foreign nations destroyed the Northern Kingdom and either killed or deported the majority of the population.

The remaining people no longer called themselves Israelites. They called themselves Samaritans. They counted Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as their ancestors. They believed that they inherited the promises God made to the patriarchs. But, they abandoned the religion and their unique national identity.

The Jews of the Southern Kingdom, the Kingdom of Judah, viewed the Samaritans as traitors to Abraham, Moses, David and above all traitors to God. Jews considered Samaritans unclean. They would not speak with a Samaritan let alone eat with them or even travel through their territory. The Samaritans likewise hated their brethren from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

The people of the Northern Kingdom are sometimes called the Ten Lost Tribes. They were not lost in the sense that they wandered off and disappeared. They were lost in their self will and pride.

Jesus came to seek the lost. He said: I have not come to call the righteous but the unrighteous. The woman at the well lived with three levels of sin: spiritual, national, and moral.

On all three levels she had abandoned the very clear and direct commandments God had given to Moses. She participated in a culture of compromise. It is important to note that Jesus did not excuse her sin. In fact, Jesus identifies her sin as she attempts to avoid recognizing it.

The woman attempts to engage Jesus in a futile debate on matters of faith and morals. Jesus simply affirms the Law of Moses. But, he does not condemn the woman or her culture. Jesus knows they are lost. He has come to seek the lost, find the lost and to save the lost.

Of course the Lost will sin. Of course the lost will rebel against the Law of God. The lost are the righteous and the unrighteous. All too often, the righteous cannot acknowledge their condition. They believe their right action and right belief earn them a special reward from God.

Jesus corrects but does not condemn the righteous. Jesus confronts but does condemn the unrighteous.

In his conversation with the woman at the well Jesus breaks two very powerful taboos. He does this because he has come to find, seek and save the lost.
The religion of Israel taught that salvation was a matter of rewards for right action and right belief. Jesus came to show that salvation is right relationship. Right action and right belief have a place but cannot bring salvation.

Jesus identifies the root of the problem confronting the woman, the Samaritans and all people. The root of the problem is relationship. The Samaritans chose distortions in three levels of relationship: their relationship with God, their relationship to the Nation and in their personal relationships.

The fundamental distortion is in worship. The woman attempts to direct the conversation about worship into religious and cultural categories. Jesus redirects the conversation into the category of relationship.

Worship is the way human beings offer love to God and experience the love of God. Worship immerses the mind, heart and will in the infinite and eternal love of the One God in three persons. This is why Jesus says: it is the Father who seeks us and invites us to worship. It is the Father who sends the Spirit, the Holy Spirit , to invite us to worship him in truth. Truth is not a statement of fact. Truth is the fundamental pattern, plan and purpose of the Creation. Truth is a person, Jesus Christ.

True worship is Trinitarian worship. True worship is the human response to the invitation of the Holy Spirit into the total immersion of the Love the Father has for the Son and the Son has for each of us.

The woman heard Jesus with astonishment. She had expected either condemnation or indulgence. She experienced Truth. She looked at Jesus Christ and discerned he is the perfect mirror of the Divine. He recognized her sin, called it by name, then offered to transform that sin by his own unconditional love and holiness.

The woman said: I know that the Messiah is coming. In that statement she express a secret hope. Jesus recognized that hope and very simply and directly said: I am He. I am the Messiah in whom you have placed your hope.

The woman believed. The other Samaritans in her town believed. And the disciples were astonished. How could this be? How could reprobate Samaritans receive the Messiah when so many of the Chosen had rejected him?

The invitation to reunification with God is universal. Human response is personal. Salvation is a gift God offers to all people everywhere. The gift is not a place or a possession or a power. The gift of God is a person: the co-eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ.

The Samaritans rejoiced when the Messiah came to seek them out and to find them. They received the gift, much to the astonishment and confusion of the disciples.
Jesus seeks all people everywhere. He offers all people the gift of unconditional love and the gift of transforming holiness. Jesus is the Great Bridge, the Pontifex Maximus, between the Divine and the human. Jesus is the Great Physician who makes house calls to every person on this planet. Jesus actively and ceaselessly seeks the lost. He finds the lost in whatever condition of fear, self will and pride that the lost have created for ourselves. And, Jesus offers salvation to the lost by offering himself to be our one true forever friend.

Worship is the highest form of love human beings can experience. True worship reunites the lost soul to God. True worship transforms the lost soul in God. God wants all people everywhere to experience that love.

That is why Jesus told the Samaritan woman who was outside the community of Israel: The hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.