Confession in Reverse

Third Sunday, Lent, Cycle A: Sullivan Park Care Center: March 23, 2014“Confession in Reverse”

Last Sunday, we talked about a man named Nicodemus.  Today we will talk about an unnamed woman.  Nicodemus and this woman may or may not have been real people since the other gospels do not mention them.  Nicodemus seems to represent the people of Judah who are Pharisees, strict observers of the law; whereas, this woman is representative of the Samaritans.  The Judeans worshiped in Jerusalem whereas the Samaritans worshiped in a place called Mt Gerizim.  I would guess that you, like me, are more familiar with the Judeans, the worshipping community from which Jesus came.  These stories follow one another in the gospel of John and are quite the opposite of each other.  Nicodemus comes to see Jesus at night, Jesus sees the woman in the middle of the day.  Several people have observed that the darkness seems to represent not believing in Jesus as the son of God, and light represents those who do believe in Jesus as the son of God. They have very different responses to Jesus.  Nicodemus seems to have a minimal belief in Jesus although later, he is actually involved in procuring spices for Jesus’ burial.  We don’t hear anything about the Samaritan woman beyond this immediate encounter with Jesus, although we are told here, that she is pretty certain that he is the Messiah, an idea that Nicodemus only vaguely accepts.

The worship of the Judeans was burdened with a group that insisted on following laws regarding purity and being set apart.  The Samaritan woman shows an intimate knowledge of the purity laws of the Jews.  Jesus’ disciples were often ridiculed for not following those laws, especially when they were disregarded on the Sabbath.  The Samaritan religion was one that allowed the worship of other gods or idols.  They frequently adopted the religions of the people they conquered.  Both groups were at odds with Jesus.  What did Jesus want?  Jesus talks to a Samaritan woman—breaking the rules again.  She, in fact, points out the differences between the Samaritans and Judeans to Jesus.  But maybe that is just the whole point after all.  We all break the rules, the commandments of God.  We like the Samaritan woman, all struggle to live our lives and manage to disappoint our own expectations as well as the expectations of those around us.  Yet despite the disappointment of this woman’s many relationships, she is willing to dive in again, once she understands that Jesus is not really talking about the water in the well, but spirituality and relationship.  How many of us would have the response of the woman after Jesus basically told her everything about her?  Isn’t this like a confession in reverse? For those of you who have ever made a confession to a priest or to another person, you soon realize a pattern.  The first few times are really difficult because you realize that this person is not God and it makes you nervous because you really don’t want this person to know the bad things about you.  After you get over that, you realize that you seem to commit the same sins over and over.  Sometimes things will be better for a while, then the same sorts of sins pop up again, like a bad dream.  You realize that what Paul said is really true: the good I want to do, I don’t; and the evil I don’t want to do, I do.  What is it about humanity that no matter what we do, we can’t escape our humanness?  Why can’t we extricate ourselves from our need for control, our need for power, our need to look good in the sight of others?  As one of my professors put it, “It is not possible to be without sin.”  We all have our dark side and we all want to hide that dark side from others because we do not want people to think poorly of us.  And yet, sometimes people see more of us than we think they do. 

I would suggest that you have heard many sermons on this passage and many times, the interpretation of the woman was that somehow she was very immoral for having had five husbands.  But what if none of those broken relationships were her fault?  There is nothing in the text before us to suggest that she had any sin to be forgiven, nor does Jesus say anything about forgiving her for her sin, either past or present.  I would suggest that Jesus is the one here who breaks the law by not only talking to a woman in public, but a Samaritan woman to boot.  Jesus does not say in this case as with the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more.”  We are not told the details, but I would suggest that if there were details, it would be more like death of husband, husband left her for another woman, and brother of husband refused to marry her, husband divorced her for something other than adultery.  Regardless of the reasons, women in that society were always dependent on males, usually husband or relatives, to be a provider.  I would suggest that her life was one of abandonment and struggle, far from being an easy one of leisure.  She has suffered many losses in her life and it was far from the stability of some whose marriages lasted a lifetime, which in those days was not all that long.  She probably figures that since Jesus spoke to her first, she will entertain the notion that she could at the very least engage Jesus in what we would term “chit chat” in which the conversation is about mundane things, like drawing water from a well.  After all, everyone needs water, especially on a particularly warm day.

Water is a life-sustaining force for all creatures of the world.  She understands that, but the conversation soon shifts to a different level and we are suddenly no longer talking about the water at the well. Jesus actually asks very little of the Samaritan woman, “Give me a drink.”  It’s like saying, “Give me an opening.”  Jesus is asking her for an entry point to engage in conversation, because immediately after that he is talking on a whole different level.  Jesus then shifts to giving to her something that is far better than the water in the well that only satisfies for a while and then you need more water.  The water Jesus gives will well up to eternal life. 

What we confess before God or another person doesn’t consist merely of a recitation of all our past sins or sins since our last confession.  We confess our struggles in life.  These are struggles that Jesus already knows about because Jesus is the Son of God and we are all made in the image of God.  We all come from God.  God knows about our struggles and accepts us anyway, just the way we are.  It doesn’t matter if we think we are not lovable or that we think we have committed some sin that is not forgivable.  God knows our concerns.  God knows everything about our lives, even all the bad things.  God knows all the good things as well.  God knows the whole bundle, the whole package that is our selves, our persons, our lives. And yet, God still accepts us and takes us in.  God’s love for us, for the whole world, is unconditional and will always be.  There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.  When we finally understand this or understand this again and again in our lives, we realize that it is good news; and it is that good news that will transform our lives into excitement.  When we realize God’s all encompassing love for us, it is exciting and we will burst over with joy, just knowing that.  The Samaritan woman is so excited by God’s love and care in Jesus, that she tells the whole village.  She is truly the first evangelist.  May we also find the strength and power of the Holy Spirit to witness as she did.  Amen.