March 8, 2026 – The Third Sunday in Lent
Fr. Cal Calhoun
In the Name of God, the God who loves us enough to call us to Truth: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Jesus and the Women at the Well. There are some interesting points about this encounter with Jesus. This is the longest dialogue that Jesus has with another person in all the gospels. In fact, you might have wondered if this is the longest gospel ever! Not Peter, James or John, not Nicodemus, not Pontius Pilate, but this woman, has the longest dialogue with Jesus in all the gospels. Not just a woman, but a Samaritan woman.
You go to the Church of the Good Samaritan, so I hope you know this detail, but in Jesus’ Jewish world, there was no Good Samaritan; that was an oxymoron. As is alluded to in this story, the Samaritans were Jews left behind in the Northern part of Israel when the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and led many of the Jews into exile. In those years of exile, those left behind, tried to be faithful and continued to worship Yahweh. But Jerusalem was destroyed and frankly it was a long way away. So they set up a Temple on Mt Gerazim. When the exiles returned some 75 years later and eventually rebuilt a Temple in Jerusalem, they expected those who had been left behind to shut down the temple on Mt Gerazim and fall in line and worship again in Jerusalem, because that is the right place, after all. The Samaritans said, “Nah, we’re good. Worshiping here is working just fine for us. Thank you.” Well, that made the returned Jewish religious authorities mad. And as a result, the Samaritans became some of the most hated outsiders the Jews encountered. The Gentiles were ignorant of Yahweh, and the Law, and clearly heathens, but these Samaritans, they have Jewish ancestry, they know Yahweh and the Law, they should know better.
There was no “good” Samaritan. I suspect it would be like us saying a “good” terrorist.
You may have heard that still today, in some Middle Eastern cultures, women are not allowed to walk about unaccompanied. They have to be accompanied by man: a husband, father, brother, cousin, someone has to always be with them. In like fashion, Jewish men did not speak to strange women. This point is confirmed by the disciples’ response to Jesus when they return. They are astonished, we are told. And once again Jesus’ behavior baffles not just his opponents, but his disciples as well.
So Jesus is chatting up this woman previously unknown to him. And she’s not just an unknown woman, but a hated Samaritan woman. But what else do we know about this woman. Jesus seems to know something about her past. It is safe to say that she is a woman with a reputation. As I was working on this, it occurred to me that a man can have a reputation for many things. He can have a reputation as a good business man, a reputation for integrity, or a reputation for unfair dealing. But when a woman has a reputation, it seems that means only one thing. Another one of the many ways women aren’t treated with equity in our world. This woman’s reputation is confirmed by the timing of this encounter. We are told it is about noon. That was the hottest time of the day. Typically women went early in the morning or just before sunset, at last light, to gather water. It was just too hot in the middle of the day. But this woman shows up at noon, presumably to avoid the comments, the nasty stares, the indirect and direct scorn from her community.
So, before this last bit of news, this engagement, this conversation could be considered scandalous. Strange woman, Samaritan woman, but this last bit removes all doubt. An unknown Samaritan woman with a reputation. That is who Jesus has the longest dialogue with in all the gospels. Before we even discuss what they talked about, there is a pretty strong message right there. It seems that no one is beyond Jesus’ interest or his desire to connect with. He sees and respects the dignity of every human being. There are no lost causes in Jesus’ book. No one is beyond salvation. No one.
So what do they talk about? Jesus opens the conversation by… not asking for a drink, but almost demanding a drink. She picks up on the weirdness right away. Why are you, a Jew, asking a drink of me?
Jesus answers her question in his favorite way of answering questions in the Gospel of John, Jesus changes the subject. He begins to talk about living water. And if she but knew who he was she would get this living water that would forever quench her thirst. Scholars and commentators differ on bit on whether she is jumping on board with the idea, or whether there is a bit of sarcasm in her voice as she says, “Sir, give me this living water so I don’t have to keep coming to draw water!”
A couple a weeks ago I discussed Lent as a season of truth telling. Starting with the words we hear as we receive the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday: Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. And then the truth of the wilderness, as a both a place of pain and suffering and a place of healing, a place that can reveal our strength in the face of events we would never choose. Last week, Jesus revealed some truth to Nicodemus, “God so loved the world, that God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Truth and good news. Today, Jesus gets to the truth by asking this woman to go fetch her husband. And we get some truth telling about her life, her multiple husbands and apparently, she is not actually married to the current one.
We can seldom make progress in anything real, without acknowledging the truth. Even when the truth hurts, or maybe especially when the truth hurts, and when it doesn’t make us look too good, we need to acknowledge the truth to allow us to move forward.
Jesus and the woman at the well have a meaningful and complex theological discussion about the history of the differing worship between the Jews and the Samaritans. Despite her reputation, she is a woman of learning and perspective. And in the end, Jesus sums up the conversation by saying, that where you worship is not the important thing, but that you worship in spirit and in truth. There it is again: truth.
Then something quite astonishing happens. Jesus reveals to her, who he is. She says, “I know the Messiah is coming.” Jesus says, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” Not Peter, not Nicodemus, a Pharisee and leader of the Jews whose visit to Jesus we heard about last week, but a stranger, a Samaritan, a woman with a reputation, that is the first person in the Gospel of John to whom Jesus does his truth telling, and reveals that he is the Messiah.
If we are going to be followers of Jesus, like Jesus we must be committed to the truth, truth about our own lives, and truth about the world around us. We need to listen carefully for the truth. We must be truth-tellers. We need to hold our leaders accountable to the truth. We need to hold our journalists accountable to the truth. Truth, it seems to me, is more elusive now than ever.
The disciples return, and the woman leaves. She goes into the city and begins to tell her story. She becomes the first Evangelist, the first person to draw others to Jesus. This is only chapter 4 in the Gospel of John. The disciples are still wet behind the ears. The have been to the wedding in Cana, seen Jesus go berserk in the Cleansing of the Temple, maybe been present for Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus? Their presence isn’t mentioned. That’s it. That is the extent of the disciples’ experience of Jesus this early in the gospel. This stranger, this Samaritan woman with a reputation becomes Jesus’ first evangelist.
In the Orthodox tradition, she has a name, St. Photini, which literally means the enlightened one.
For Jesus: There is one who is not worthy of respect and connection. No one is beyond salvation. No one is beyond making a difference in the Kingdom of God. And that is truth. And that is Good News. Amen.
Year A – The Third Sunday in Lent – March 8, 2026 – The Rev. Cal Calhoun
