3Rd Sunday of Lent, Year A

March 22 & 23, 2014+ JMJ +

3rd Sunday of Lent, Year A

The Tough Choice

Water is a powerful symbol in all cultures, and we associate it with many fundamental human concepts. Water can symbolize destruction and chaos. In Babylonian myths, Tiamat the dragon came from the water. The recent movie Pacific Rim featured colossal monsters coming from the ocean to attack humanity. The Bible presents the Flood of Noah as a destruction of the wicked world, and the Lord destroyed the Egyptians with the Red Sea when they pursued Israel.

Water can also symbolize healing and life. Think of the old legends of the Fountain of Youth sought by Ponce de Leon. Many fictional characters use water to heal, like King Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings or Katara in Avatar. In the Bible the prophet Elisha heals Naamun the leper in the waters of the Jordan.

St. John’s Gospel especially refers to water as both a symbol and a reality used by Jesus to teach. The first miracle of Jesus in chapter two is to change water into wine. The water set aside for purification becomes wine for celebration that the messiah has arrived. In chapter three, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again. Baptism in water will be the method for rebirth—destruction of the old life and beginning of the new. In chapters five and nine, Jesus heals two men, one near the pool of Bethesda and one whom he tells to wash in the pool of Siloam. In both cases, neither men need the water. Jesus alone heals them. But still water, the symbol of healing, is in the background.

In chapter thirteen, Jesus washes the apostles’ feet in water, a humble act of service. In chapter nineteen, water and blood flow from the side of Jesus on the cross, the foundations of the healing we receive in baptism and the Eucharist. St. John’s Gospel ends with the apostle’s fishing and the resurrected Jesus meeting them on the shore where it all began.

In chapter four today, Jesus chooses to meet this woman at a well—at Jacob the patriarch’s well—to bring together all these messages of water. He offers her living water, his word and his way, which is the only way she can be reborn from her troubled past, be healed of her past injuries, have a new life and celebrate at last the arrival of the messiah.

It might look simple to us, but this was no easy choice. I am sure you have heard before of all the obstacles between Jesus and this Samaritan woman. Their races were enemies, he was a man speaking to a strange woman in public, this woman was likely an outcast because she arrive alone at midday at the well, and so on. She had to make a tough choice to become vulnerable and trust Jesus.

The people of Israel had the same choice in the first reading. They were frightened by dying of thirst without water. They were vulnerable in the desert, away from the familiar life in Egypt. Moses had asked them to trust God several times before at the Passover of the angel of death, at the crossing of the Red Sea, and when they were hungry to wait for the Manna from heaven. Each time they grumbled and doubted, but they sometimes trusted in God.

We have the same choice to make everyday. Following Jesus is tough. He does not promise us prosperity or earthly security. He does not promise us health or success. All these things belong to this fleeting world, which will be destroyed, and have no value in themselves. The blessings Jesus promises us are the same he promised to the woman at the well: rebirth, healing of soul, eternal life, and a deeper joy and celebration at his salvation won for us.

Will we make the tough choice to become vulnerable and trust Jesus, or will we grumble and doubt him?

Rev. Eric Culler