The Woman at the Well

Ken Bailey’s lectures on Jesus Interprets His Own Cross brushed past John 4 and he made some great observations that got me thinking about social practice and typology…

The woman is clearly a loose woman. She comes alone, in the middle of the day and when she sees Jesus at the well she does not wait for him to get up and stand aside, as etiquette demanded, but comes close enough (possibly even climbing on the stones herself) that Jesus can say to her, “Give me a drink”.

She doesn’t come to the well at midday (when it’s far too hot to be working outside and the water is not as nice) because if she went at dawn the respectable women would shoo her away – yes – but also because she would be more likely to find men there and be able to ply her trade uninterrupted.

Jesus asks for water from the defiled bucket of a despised Samaritan, something a first century Jew would never do. He also cuts across Rabininc tradition and conservative social mores by speaking to a woman in public. That’s one in the eye for Islamic (and any extreme Christian) practices of gender segregation. Meeting a member of the opposite sex one-to-one in private is usually unwise, sure, but the public realm does not need fencing and hedging in order to wrap women up and mute them. Jesus ignores unhelpfully restrictive social constructions of space, privacy, ‘ownership’ of women, etc.

And here we see Israel’s King put in a position of temptation by a foreign woman. Just as Bathsheba (presumably a Hittite like her husband) bathed on the roof knowing full well that David would see her, so the Samaritan woman approaches Jesus as a potential client. And while David folded without much resistance, grasped and murdered, leading to great sorrow and more death, David’s greater Son refuses to play the game. He offers life, demonstrating costly love for a fallen human being, that leads to transformation and joy.

Chiasm in John 9

Having been alerted to chiasmus everyhere in the Old Testament (David Dorsey, The Literary Structure of the Old Testament, Peter Leithart, A House for My Name) and in chapter 1 of John’s Gospel (thanks to Tony’s time at a summer school at Regent College, Vancouver) my antennae have been up…

I spotted this one in John 9, the healing of the man born blind. Read the story first, as it’s a true gem! The numbers in brackets refer to the size of each scene/unit, and demonstrate remarkable balance in length as well as in narrative content or movement. The man himself is a major figure in A, B, A’ and B’.

A Jesus (7)

B Pharisees (10)

C Pharisees/Parents (6)

B’ Pharisees (11)

A’ Jesus (7)

B’ intensifies the hostile questioning by the Pharisees, while A’ shows Jesus seeking the man out again with even more explicit intent and with conversation that goes beyond physical healing into spiritual healing.

Right in the middle of C is the phrase, anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ (verse 22). This verse echoes the theme verse of the gospel as a whole. In John 20:31 the apostle explains why he has written: so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and by believing have life in his name.

And is it too fanciful to see a mamma chiasmus in the book of Job (along with various parallelisms of course)?

A Job lives well (righteous and blessed)

B The heavenly court (Satan comes)

C Job loses his kids and goods

A’ Job lives well (does not curse God)

B’ The heavenly court (Satan comes again)

C’ Job loses his health

A’ Job lives well (does not curse God)

D Job and his ‘comforters’ [chs 3-27]

E Where/what is wisdom? [28]

D Job and Elihu [29-37]

B’’ God replies to Job [38-41]

A’ Job lives well (righteous and more blessed) [42]

Echoes in John 4

Thoughts about two of these echoes, one in each direction…

Feeding into John 4 is Ezekiel 37:15-28, a prophecy about Judah and Ephraim [Jew and Samaritan] being joined together again. Jesus effectively announces the fulfilment of this prophecy when he contrasts the Temple-mountain split (John 4:21-24) with the spiritual worshippers [from everywhere] that the Father now seeks. The link is made closer as the worship language employed by Jesus draws on Ezekiel’s discussion of the people’s former false worship and their new fellowship with God.

The first outworking of this is in Acts 8 when the apostolic gospel comes to the Samaritans, however I want to draw attention to Ephesians 2:11-22, especially the purpose to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross (15b-16a). In Ephesians Paul was talking about Jew and Gentile, an even bigger division than Jew and Samaritan – so anything he says about that will certainly apply to the lesser fracture. Jesus makes peace in his body. Jesus reconciles enemies to God and to each other. He does this in his body.

Now look back at John 4:39-42 and a faster outworking of Ezekiel 37 even than Acts 9. Jesus stayed with them for two days! A Jew broke all the rules and actually, physically stayed in Samaritan homes – eating, drinking, sitting alongside, talking, touching, sleeping, defecating, you name it.

In his body he made them one, and in his body he yet makes us one.

17½ words about John 4

Adam used a very helpful technique to help us get inside John 4 at homegroup this week – making us summarise chunks of narrative using only 20 words, then getting us to summarise the import of the text in only 15 words. Here are a few selections (bearing in mind my comments in the previous post, can you tell which ones are mine!?)...

What’s going on? [in 20 words]

(Verses 1-15)
Jesus, his following growing, went through Samaria, addressed historic enemy female, challenged her, proclaimed living water, which she then wanted.

OR
Jesus met a Samaritan lady at Jacob’s Well. He offered her special water not from the well. She wants it.

OR
Jesus stopped by a well in Samaria, asking a Samaritan woman for water. She was surprised: he offered eternal life.

(Verses 16-26)
Jesus exposed her promiscuity with supernatural insight. Jewish worship preferable to Samaritan, but God seeks spiritual worshippers, as Messiah announces.

OR
Jesus asks woman for her husband: his knowledge amazes her. They discuss worship. She gradually realises he is the Messiah.

OR
Jesus identified her sin. She changed subject to theology. Jesus brought it back to God’s call, saying “I am Christ”.

So what? [in 15 words]

(Verses 1-15)
Old hostilities broken by Christ through compassion for marginalised. Eternal life on offer like water.

(Verses 16-26)
Now we can worship Jesus anywhere without constraint. Jesus addresses sin so we can worship.

(Verses 26-38)
Jesus is Christ. He gives us spiritual food and service opportunities in spiritual harvest fields.