nunblog: Meeting Jesus at Jacob's Well

The producers of the video series The Chosen did a lovely job of imagining Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well.

Over 1,000 years earlier, a sung homily by St. Romanos "the Melodian" reenacted the whole passage in a poetic way that invited the hearers to take an active part in the sermon. What struck me most in this homily were Jesus' words about the woman (who had had five husbands) not being married to the man she was now with. In fact, the one she was now with was Jesus. And since in the Bible, the well was the traditional spot for finding a spouse, we see that Jesus had come to the well of Jacob to win this woman for himself as a kind of symbol of the Church composed of people who left many false gods to join themselves to the true and living God.

The Gospel of the Samaritan woman at the well is paired at Mass today with a story from the Exodus when the people were parched with thirst (and complaining loudly!). God told Moses to take his staff and "strike the rock" in Horeb, and water would flow from it for the people to drink. The book of Exodus doesn't describe the results, but only that the elders witnessed it. Later in the journey, they would run out of water again, and this time, God told Moses to "speak" to the rock, to bring forth its waters. St Paul tells us that "the rock was Christ." He was stricken violently for us on Calvary to release the floods of living water promised at the well of Samaria and at the feast of Tabernacles (John 7). Now, those same living waters of the Holy Spirit are released simply by the sacramental actions and the spoken word.

Eastern icons of the encounter of Jesus at the well of Samaria frequently depict the well as a baptismal font, the source of "living water" that "springs up within" the person for eternal life.