The Gospel story of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well provides a master class in evangelism — sharing the Good News of salvation in Christ. Jesus asks questions to provide answers and reveals sins to lead people to repentance and forgiveness from God. He turns doubters into believers and sinners into Saints. The Samaritan Woman ar2rives at the well as a simple seeker and leaves as an enthusiastic evangelist. Continuing with the theme of the role of women in the life of Christ and the Church, we hear the story of a Samaritan woman who became the first Christian evangelist and preacher. Jesus and His disciples were traveling from Judea to Galilee. There were two routes: the longer one followed the Jordan River, and the shorter one passed through Samaria, the region north of Jerusalem. Jewish people typically took the longer route to avoid interaction with the Samaritans. Jesus intentionally chooses the shorter route to preach the Good News to them. Samaritans were treated as enemies by the Jewish people and considered heretics and unclean sinners. After the death of King Solomon (931 BC), the northern tribes separated themselves from the southern tribes and created a separate Kingdom of Israel. These were the Samaritans. Samaritans worshipped the God of Israel but only accepted the first five books of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch). Like the Jews, they were waiting for the Messiah but accepted no prophet other than Moses. They had built their own temple on Mount Gerizim — the site where Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac and where Joshua was told to build an altar to make peace offerings to God. The temple was destroyed shortly before the coming of Christ. Jesus enters the city of Sychar, at the foot of Mount Ebal, in Samaria. The disciples are sent away to a nearby village to buy food. By the plot of land the patriarch Jacob gave to his son Joseph, there was a well named after his father. Tired and thirsty, Jesus sits and waits by Jacob’s Well. At the Sixth Hour, which is Noon, a Samaritan woman comes to the well to draw water. It is then that Jesus begins his master class. Jesus begins his conversation with the woman by asking for a favor: “Give me a drink.” Jesus asks for water in order to give water. His thirst is not primarily physical but spiritual, formed by love for the Samaritan woman. In the same manner, Jesus will later say from the Cross, “I thirst” (John 19:28) for the salvation of all people. The Samaritan woman asks why a Jew would speak with a Samaritan, much less drink from the same well. Jesus responds, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” The Samaritan woman does not understand that Jesus is speaking about spiritual water. Yet, her curiosity is stirred, and she wonders if there is a deeper meaning to Christ’s words. She says, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well?” Jesus says to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” A well was a symbol of life because of the necessity of water. As physical water is an absolute necessity for human life, grace is an absolute 3necessity for spiritual life. Christ Himself is the well, and the grace of the Holy Spirit is the water. The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” Jesus seemingly ignores her request and tells her to go get her husband. She says, “I have no husband.” Jesus says, “You are right. For you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband.” The woman’s love life is an allegory for the history of the Samaritan people. During the Assyrian conquest, five foreign tribes intermingled with the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom. Each introduced its own god, Baal, which means “lord” or “husband.” If we recall, three Old Testament patriarchs — Isaac, Jacob, and Moses — met their wives at a well. Jesus’ dialogue with the woman at the well calls the Samaritans to repent and commit to Christ, the Bridegroom, and the true God. The Samaritan woman says, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and you say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” The woman is fully aware of the theological differences between Samaritans and Jews. Jesus responds, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” Jesus teaches that the worship of both Jews and Samaritans would be transformed into a truer worship. It will not take place on this mountain or that mountain, in this temple or that temple. The worship of God the Father will be inspired and empowered by the Holy Spirit, built upon and rooted in the truth of Christ — the temple not made by hands (Acts 7:48). The woman says, “I know that the Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things.” Jesus tells her, “I who speak to you am he.” Just then, the disciples arrive. They are amazed that Jesus is talking to a Samaritan, a woman, and alone. But they say nothing. Immediately, the woman leaves her water jar and runs to the city to tell everyone about Christ, the Messiah. She, who came for physical water, leaves with spiritual water. She no longer needs the jar, the well, or the spring. For she has a foretaste of the gift of grace within herself, as Jesus said. Upon entering the city, the woman does not expect the people to believe her account alone but invites them to “come and see” for themselves. True conversion is not merely accepting another’s testimony, no matter how convincing it may be. Nor is it the adoption of apologetic arguments and theological propositions. True conversion is the change that comes from a personal encounter with Christ. The Samaritan woman does not try to describe the taste of this “living water” of grace but invites them to drink the “living water” directly from the well of Christ. The people leave the city and go out to 4meet Him. Meanwhile, the disciples beg Jesus to eat. But He says to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know. My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.” Once again, the hunger and thirst of Christ are to fulfill His mission: to announce the Kingdom of God and to call all people to repentance, to defeat the powers of the evil one, and to provide the means of salvation. Jesus then tells the disciples to look and see how the fields are white for the harvest, that the world is ready to hear the Gospel and be converted. He describes how He has sent them to reap where the Holy Spirit has sown. Only God can bring about true conversion, but it is our responsibility to share the Good News and lead people to Christ. Jesus remained in Samaria for two days, and many came to believe in Him. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard ourselves, and we know that this is indeed Christ the Savior of the world.” In the Acts of the Apostles, we read how Philip later went down to Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them” (Acts 8:5) — the same people who had heard of the Messiah from the woman at the well. As Saint Augustine writes of her, “The woman first proclaimed and the Samaritans believed on the woman’s testimony. … So now it is done today with those who are outside and not yet Christian. Christ is announced through Christian friends.” The Samaritan woman is known as Saint Photini. She is called “Equal-to-the-Apostles” because she was “one sent” as a preacher and evangelist. She was also a martyr, which comes from the Greek word “witness” (μάρτυρας). Under Emperor Nero, she was martyred by being thrown down a well, demonstrating that giving one’s life is the ultimate witness and testimony of one’s commitment to Christ. We may not be asked to die for Christ, but we are all invited to live for Him. We may not be capable of preaching sermons in faraway villages, but we can all share what Christ is doing in our lives with the people we know. We can bring Christ to the world by being Christlike in the world.
