There was a show on the radio for many years called “What d’ya know?” When the announcer would ask the question the audience would answer, “Not much. You?” I know that they have Mass in the Vatican every day. I know that the Cardinal of Chicago will urge us to go to Church on Sunday. I know that March Madness is necessary for the basketball fan. What do I know? Not much. You? The story of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman seems like a version of “What d’ya know?” The unnamed woman at the well is pretty sure she knows something. She knows that Jesus wants a drink (he told her so), that the well is deep (it’s been used for over 1,000 years), and that Jesus doesn’t have a bucket (but she does). Armed with that knowledge she feels in control of the conversation that is taking place. Jesus responds to those things that she knows by saying: “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” What do you know, Lady? Those things that you know are not what you really need to know. The rest of the conversation is Jesus and the Samaritan woman exploring what they know about water, about wedlock and about worship.
What d’ya know about water? The woman might have said, I know that I need some water every day. I know that I have to come and fetch the water at this well. I know that water is heavy to be toting around in the noonday sun. Jesus wants her to understand that the water she knows about is only a shadow, a symbol of “living water,” of water that springs up to eternal life. If our sole emphasis is on our physical needs, our bodily functions we will miss that our spiritual needs are just as essential. Jesus yearns to give her, and us, what we truly need: the living water of God’s grace to help us make through each day; the living water of God’s mercy so that the past does not haunt us; the living water of God’s love that assures us of the blessed future that we are promised. You need to know about living water as much as you know about well water to live a happy and healthy life.
What d’ya know about wedlock? The woman might have answered: I know a ton about weddings. Been married five times and got the scars to prove it. Instead of saying that when asked about her husband she dissembled, misspoke, stretched the truth. “I do not have a husband.” Jesus probed into her personal life because he wants her to look at who she is and see her life in light of the plan of God for the world. Think of the clichés we throw around. “It is what it is.” “You do your thing and I do my thing.” “Stay in your lane.” They all reflect the notion that my personal life is, well, personal, that it has nothing to do with anyone else. The reality is that we are all connected, that what we do impacts others. The pandemic has taught us what we owe to one another. The woman’s marriages, like all that we do in life, reverberate throughout the whole community.
What d’ya know about worship? The woman might have said: worship is about where you go to Church. Worship is about what denomination you belong to. Worship is about picking the correct mountain to connect with God. Jesus wants her to understand that worship is not about where or when or how. True worship is about “Spirit and Truth.” Worship is about Spirit because it is not a series of things that you do like going to Church or saying these prayers or following these rules. When you are in the Spirit you are changed from the inside out and not merely doing this, that, or the other. Worship in the Truth means that our connection with God is grounded in reality, in the way God made the world to be, in the actions which reflect the harmonious dance of creation. Worship in Spirit and Truth flows from the very core of our identity as human beings for we are made in the image and likeness of God.
The story ends with the Samaritan woman getting it, getting that what Jesus knows makes for a better, richer, fuller life than what she knows. (Contrast that with the disciples’ clueless response when Jesus says to them “I have food of which you do not know.” Did someone bring him a sandwich? They didn’t get what he was talking about.) Because the woman at the well got it, she became the first apostle, the first individual who told others about Jesus. What did she know? “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ.” “I who am speaking to you am he.” Now she knew the truth. So she spread the word, she told others, let them in on what they should know. The passage concludes with the townspeople saying “we know for ourselves that this is truly the savior of the world.” They have moved from just hearing about Jesus to coming to know him. As they got to know him they saw that he was the one who would make all things new, their lives complete.
What d’ya know? Because of Jesus I know that things like a pandemic are merely another example of the suffering that human beings go through every day in many different ways. Going out the door each morning can be a risk. But I also know that when we help each other, support each other, care for each other, carry each other that we can get through any suffering. I know that difficult and painful things provide an opportunity to deepen our life together as a community. What do YOU know?
