Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Then [Jesus] came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there.”
Wells and brides go together. At least in the Scriptures they do. It’s where a wife could be found if a man were in search of one. It’s where Abraham’s servant found Rebekah for Isaac (Gn. 24:10-53). It’s where Jacob discovered his true love, Rachel (Gn. 29:1-14). And, it’s the place where Moses crossed paths with his future wife, Zipporah (Ex. 2:15-21). And, today, in keeping with the good Biblical tradition, our Lord comes to Jacob’s well to find for himself a bride. Now, mind you, we’re speaking in a metaphorical and spiritual sense since Jesus never actually marries (despite what some heretical groups want to say). He comes because He is fulfilling the Father’s will to take unto Himself all who might believe in Him. He comes to find those who would worship the Father “’in Spirit and in Truth.’” He comes to Jacob’s well because, as the Evangelist indicates, it was necessary for Jesus to cut through Samaria on His way northward. The necessity may have been one conditioned by geography, but, moreso, it was necessary for the salvation of the Samaritan woman and all those Samaritans of the city, even for us.
It is an odd time of the day to be hanging out at a well. Typically, the cooler parts of the day are preferred – morning or evening. But, at high noon or thereabouts, we find our Lord going to Jacob’s well because He was wearied and thirsty from His long journey. It is there he runs into the Samaritan woman whom we know as Photini. She comes there, not out of luxury, but out of social compulsion since her reputation among the town’s folk is less than desirable. She’s not a prostitute, insofar as we know, but she certainly had multiple men in her life, serial lovers. Our Lord is thirsty, and so He knows where to go to be refreshed. But, as others have noted, our Lord is athirst for the parched and beleaguered souls like that of this woman. Despite the fact that it is high noon – the sixth hour of the day – there is utter darkness in the woman’s soul. This woman represents all, like Eve, who live like her in the light of this world’s noonday sun and yet dwell amidst deep darkness, surrounded by the pain and brokenness of life, experienced in isolation. She was alone, cast aside, shunned, her life fragmented into countless pieces, evidenced in her inability to maintain a thriving relationship with a husband.
It is to her and to all others like her that our Lord comes. He purposely comes to the world darkened by sin and death, enslaved to sin and death, long in bondage to sin, death, and the devil. “’[F]or the Son of Man has come,’” Jesus declares, “’to seek and to save that which was lost’” (Mt. 18:11; Lk. 19:10). “’Those who are well have no need of a physician,’” our Lord says, “’but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance (Mt. 9:12-13; Mk. 2:17; Lk. 5:31-32), which is indeed good news for us since “’none are righteous, no, not one’” and “all our righteousness is as filthy rags” (Ps. 13 [14]:1-3; 52 [53]:1-3; Is. 64:6; Rm. 3:10-12).
Jesus comes to the well to assuage His parched throat, that is true, but moreso He comes to satisfy His thirst for the lost and the sin-sick, death-wearied souls of this fallen creation. Photini comes to the well benighted, sick beyond her understanding (like many of us), but soon she will be illumined (just as her name means), not by the sun’s rays or the light of this world, but by the Son of God Himself Whose love overflows (Jn. 3:16-17). We thirst because of sin and death that have overthrown us from the days of The Fall. We are parched and broken creatures, you and me. Created in the image of God, we have fallen far short of that glory once ours (Rm. 3:23). We are cut-off from the very Source of Life and Light. The well of Life springing up has become occluded by the powers of sin, death, and the devil and we are forced to drink from wells of this fallen, barren world, always promising but never delivering. Jacob’s well once may have been good, but now it no longer can give that which will quench the thirst of the soul. For Something or Someone greater has appeared. For “’the people who sat in darkness saw a great Light; and to them that sat in the region and shadow of death, Light has sprung up’” (Is. 9:1-2; Mt. 4:15-16). “’But unto you that fear My Name,’” says the Lord of Hosts, “’shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings’” (Ma. 4:2; Lk. 1:78).
Seeing that Jesus had no way to retrieve water from Jacob’s well having asked her for a drink, the Samaritan woman wondered aloud. He replied, “’If thou knewest the gift of God and Who it is that saith to thee, “Give Me a drink,” thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.’” Now, the woman is drawn deeper by her conversation with her Creator sitting by the well of Jacob. “’Sir, Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence then hast Thou that living water? Art Thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well . . . .?’”
O woman! If only you knew what you were asking and with Whom you were conversing! “’Art Thou greater than our father Jacob . . . .?’” The very God of Jacob is before you, O woman, beseeching from you whom His hand has created kindness and mercy, “’Give Me to drink,’” and you wonder, puzzled by His request. The very God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sits by the well holding forth in conversation with you, Photini. He has hidden Himself by condescending to us in the flesh that we might grope and seek for Him and find Him, “’though He is not far from each one of us’” (Ac. 17:27; Pp. 2:5-11). To be sure, Jacob’s well is before you, O woman. But, here – greater still – before you is Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour of the whole universe, the Well greater than Jacob’s, the Reservoir, the Fountain of Life itself (Ps. 35 [36]:9). Jacob’s well is deep. But, deeper still, is the well of Jesus Christ springing up unto Life Eternal, never ending, ever flowing and overflowing unto abundance upon abundance, grace upon grace (Jn. 1:16; 10:10). What He has He gladly gives to all those who hunger and thirst after righteousness (Mt. 5:6) – His righteousness – who ever seek, ever ask, and ever knock (Mt. 7:7-12). How unlike that conversation there in the primordial Garden between our mother, Eve, and the ancient serpent (Gn. 3:1-7). There the woman was led astray, far from the well-watered Eden and communion with the divine, while here the God-made-flesh, the Word incarnate Himself, deepens the woman’s thirst and increases her hunger for that which alone can satisfy (Is. 55:1-13). Why? Because, as St. Augustine once averred, we have been created by God for God and we are restless until we rest in Him (Confessions). Jacob’s well is good and has served its purpose well, but whoever drinks from it will always thirst anew, never be truly satisfied, and will always be discontented.
The Master, however, promises, “’[W]hosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into Everlasting Life.’” And, just what is this promised water springing up unto Life Everlasting? It is the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father and is worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son (Nicene Creed). And where is the well from which we may draw the Holy Spirit? Why, it is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, of course. “’If anyone thirsts,’” He declares in the middle of the feast, “’let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (Jn. 7:37-39). And, where do we find Jesus Christ? We go to the well, to the Church, the Bride of His own choosing and love (Ep. 1:22-23; 5:22-33). The Church, then, beloved, becomes the great well of divine communion and Eternal Life springing ever upward, full of the Holy Spirit, just the priest declares over the chalice as he places into it the Body of our Lord, and as the deacon prays pouring the hot water [zeon] into the chalice, “The fullness of the Holy Spirit.” “The warmth of faith full of the Holy Spirit.” Here we may always find the Lord and Lover of mankind present for us, awaiting us even before we get out of bed, eager for our salvation and sanctification, thirsting for our souls. Here, He gives to us sinners the water of Wisdom which is Christ God Himself, the Wisdom of God (Sr. 15:3; 1 Cr. 1:30; Troparion).
Hear, O beloved in the Lord, and attend for Wisdom Himself is at hand! He Who cried out from the Cross, “’I thirst!’” (Jn. 19:28), thirsts now for the soul of this woman and for us. He offers to her and to us who are restless and barren, parched and thirsting, Life-giving water, holy water, if you will, heavenly water that excels and exceeds so that all who drink deeply from His well springing up unto Everlasting Life – the Life-giving Holy Spirit – shall never again be thirsty for the enchantments of this world that entice and tantalize but never satisfy. For we were created for eternity to partake of and participate in the image of the God Who is eternal (WS 2:23). Why do we settle for the stagnant, deathly waters of this world? Why do we keep going back to the same old poisonous wells to find our answers, to have our needs satisfied? How many times do we need to drink of death and not find life? How often has this woman come to this well and now the One Who is greater than the giver of that well is here? I wonder, did she ever question, “Is this all there is to my life? Is this how it ends: failed relationships, social ostracization, doing the same thing always with the same results until the day I die? Is this what I was created for, that is, if I was created? Maybe I’m just a product of nature’s evolution with no hope of reversing my predetermined evolutionary destiny?” Bleak, indeed, if that is true!
Like many of us, it is hard for her to see beyond the confines of this decaying world. We are fallen creatures eking out an existence in a fallen world that grows ever hostile and unfriendly to God and His eternal Truth. The powers of sin, death, and the devil have deadened our souls to the impulse of life – of Divine Life that fashioned this creation with His very Word – the Word that sits on the edge of the well seeking someone to bestow mercy while He seeks to restore all souls thirsting for God as a deer pants for the waters (Ps. 41 [42]:1-5). God, beloved, is the insatiable and incorrigible Lover of mankind! Wisdom! Attend! Lest having come to the well of the God of Jacob, the Bride of Christ God, you turn away from the Gift now offered and remain in your darkness, content simply with death. The Lover of sinners traverses far and wide, north and south, east and west, coming down from Heaven so that Photini – and us who share with her in all things – might be saved and be restored to the communion of Eden. Come, let us be married to Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Saviour of the world, our true Lover Whose love is stronger than death (SS 8:6; Rv. 7:17; 21:6)!
No longer now does Photini need her waterpot from which to draw from the wells of this world. The Evangelist notes the little detail that she leaves it behind having tasted of the Gift of the Master in her soul, that it is indeed good and Life-giving. “[She] has seen the true Light. [She] has received the heavenly Spirit. [She] has found the true Faith, worshiping the undivided Trinity, Who has saved us” (Troparion).
“And the Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him that heareth say, ‘Come!’ And let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the Water of Life freely” (Rv. 22:17). Why do we wait? What holds us back? Come! Come! Come!
Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!
PROPERS:
Ac. 11:19-26, 29-30
Jn. 4:5-42