Tonight, we practised Bible Study. We read the Sunday Gospel again. Deacon Chau and Deacon Yung were in our group. Candidate Charles Chu was the group leader. Bartha (wife of Candidate SaiLing) and I were group members. I was very much impressed by the views of Deacon Chau.
Bartha read the whole passage once for us. Charles put us in the roles of Jesus and the Samaritan woman to explore their feelings and reactions in the scene.
In our imagining, Jesus was passing through Samaria with his disciples. He had travelled for quite some time and was tired. He was sitting at the Jacob's Well. It was noon. Jesus must be hot and thirsty but he had no instrument to draw water from the well (John 4:6). Just then, a Samaritan woman appeared. She came at this hour to draw water in order to avoid meeting people. However, a Jewish man was sitting at the well. The Samaritan woman must be feeling very uneasy. How inconvenient! What was running through the mind of Jesus? and the woman's? After some verbal exchanges between Jesus and the woman, Jesus told the woman her private life: she had had five husbands and she was now living with another man who was not her husband (John 4:16-18).
The woman must have been unpopular or even infamous for her private life so that she came out at noon to draw water in order to avoid meeting her neighbour. That she had had five husbands before does not necessarily imply that she had an immoral/questionable personality. Each time, she might have obtained a divorce letter from her husband so that she was perfectly free and legal to marry another man. Of course, according to the teaching of Jesus in the Synoptic gospels, the woman should not have divorced in the first place. She had committed adultery. To make sure that the woman was leading an adulterous life, John made her living with another man who was not her husband. But this was only a very superficial reading of the story. We would meet more exciting things very soon.
Return to the story, the Samaritan woman was amazed at Jesus' ability to know her private life. She concluded that this Jewish man must be a prophet. Then she asked where they should worship God, in Mount Gerizim or in Jerusalem (John 4:19-20).
I was curious. I raised a question. Why, out of so many possible questions, did this Samaritan woman ask a prophet where people should worship God? Nobody was able to answer this question. Deacon Chau commented that perhaps this question had been in this woman's mind for a long time. Therefore, when opportunity arose, she asked Jesus. Only God knows why she had such a question in mind.
Deacon Yung briefly commented on Jesus' answer about worshipping God in Spirit and Truth (John 4:23-24). He brought out the Trinitarian dimension of this answer. We should worshipp God the Father in the Holy Spirit and in the Son (the Truth). The group did not follow up on this point. Perhaps it was too theological.
Then Deacon Chau described a new and exciting image of this scene: Jesus was wrestling verbally with this Samaritan woman!
First, Jesus asked for water to quench his thirst (John 4:7). The woman protested (John 4:9).
Then, Jesus told her that in fact, he wanted to give her water instead (John 4:10). The woman teased Jesus that he had nothing to draw water. Who do you think you are? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob? (John 4:11-12).
Then, Jesus enticed her that the water he intended to give her would be living water, quenching her thirst forever (John 4:13-14). That would save her the trouble to come out at the most inconvenient time to draw water everyday. The woman wanted the water now (John 4:15).
Then, Jesus dealt her a fatal blow. He knew that she was living in adultery. Therefore, Jesus told her to call her husband along to get the living water (John 4:16). Of course, the woman defended that she had no husband (John 4:17a).
Then, Jesus revealed her private life (John 4:17b-18). The woman had no more defence and asked the worship question (John 4:19-20).
This image is beautiful. No wonder the scene took place here in Jacob's Well because Jacob had wrestled with God before he returned to meet his brother Esau (Genesis 32:24-32).
Oh my God! It suddenly dawned on me that like Jacob, like this Samaritan woman, I have been wrestling with God. I have been stubborn and refused to confess my sins.
Oh my Lord, when will You hit my weakest spot to unarm my defence? Come! Hit me and beat me up! Amen.
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