Third Lent Sunday, Year A
Theme: Wall-Breakers 破壁者
In order to protect their own lives and wealth, emperors in ancient times mobilized their subjects to build walls. Since their subjects were also their property, emperors should also build walls to protect the lives and property of their subjects. But they were unable to build walls around their kingdoms. They could only afford to build fortifications to protect the most important cities, such as their capitals and more prosperous cities. Though the famous Great Wall of China is not included in the list of Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it is the only human artefact visible from low Earth orbit with the naked eye under favourable viewing conditions. A couple of years ago, an economic super-power ordered a Great Wall to be built alongside its southern border to prevent illegal immigrants from entering her country. Its success is a matter of opinions.Nowadays, other types of cities mushroom on the Internet. Many netizens build their homes in a variety of social media. Some totalitarian countries in the world, which want to “protect” their commoners from the poisoning of hostile ideologies, attempt to build Great Walls to hole their commoners in but are not quite successful. Many international enterprises want to protect their lucrative and sensitive data from hacking but to no avail. In short, building walls is not a good enough option to protect one’s life, wealth and power.
On the political level, people draw lines to demarcate their private turfs, warning trespassers to stay away lest they would be punished. For example, gender discrimination and ethnic discrimination, to name just two. The line sets up two groups of people, the “we” and the “they”. Similarly, defining a “poverty line” will divide the “have’s” from the “have not’s”. Drawing these lines serves many purposes one of which is to round up some scapegoats to bear the brunt of public fury. Of course these lines are fluid, depending on the political climate. But once drawn, it is extremely difficult to remove and the wounds incurred are impossible to heal in time. On the psychological level, such branding would deeply implant into the victims’ psyche, setting up a wall inside them so that their self-esteem would be low and they lose hope of getting better. In short, they despise themselves and give up fighting.
Previously Jesus had antagonized the Jewish authority in Jerusalem with His cleansing of the Temple (2:13-21). In order not to further frustrate them, losing the opportunity to redeem them, Jesus returned to Galilee and passed through Samaria where an ordinary Jew would avoid “For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans” (4:9b). Yet, the disciples bought food in the town! In most cases, Samaritans would be hostile not to mention extending hospitality to a crestfallen Jew. On the other hand, the Samaritan woman was in no better condition. She must have been a public scandal of the town because of her marrying one man after another for five times. By the time she met Jesus, she was cohabitating with a man without being properly married (4:18). Perhaps she was past her fertility age or had been proven sterile! Her coming to draw water at noon (4:6c) indicates that she was trying to avoid people. Had her self-esteem been positive enough, the Samaritan woman wouldn’t care what the town people gossiped about. Yet she cared, showing that she had given up fighting and joined the town people to despise herself!
Now, the merciful Lord took the initiative. Yet, it wasn’t a gentle or polite request as expected but an imperative, “Give me a drink” (4:7b). Obviously, Jesus intended to provoke a defensive front from the woman in order to engage her in further dialogue. In response, the Samaritan woman put up two walls, one gender one ethnic (4:9a). How did Jesus break through these two artificial walls? Whatever defence and walls humanity put up, there are more basic needs to meet, physiological as well as spiritual. Jesus kept inviting, drawing her more and more to the open field. To paraphrase Jesus’ words, “God sent me to give you living water” (4:10), he managed to brush aside the two walls by appealing to her physiological as well as spiritual needs! The woman would have lost hope in God’s loving care had Jesus not brought up the possibility of receiving the gift of God as well as the convenience of not needing to draw water from Jacob’s Well every afternoon (4:15)!
At this point, the woman was concerned more with the physical aspect of thirst and inconvenience. The concept of God needed more time to emerge. But Jesus had all the trump cards in His sleeve. Casually, suggesting that she was not strong enough to carry so much living water, Jesus told the woman to call her husband to help (4:16). When she denied she had a husband, Jesus broke her defence by revealing her marital history (4:18). How could a total stranger possibly know her privacy unless this man came from God! “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet” (4:19)
Brethren! Though we partake in the prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ through our baptism, I have to stop here because we are not God. Knowing what is inside the innermost part of a person’s heart belongs to God. So, let God be God and we keep to our stations. But at least, we have learnt a little about how to break walls down. We are confident that we can because no wall is impenetrable. There will always be cracks somewhere somehow. When we are patient and cautious enough, with the help of God, we are able to discover the cracks and break the walls down to liberate the victims inside. May God help us. Amen.
God bless!
2020 Reflection
Picture Credit: tpcfamily.org
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