In today’s Gospel reading Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman at the Jacob’s well. In the Old Testament, wells are meeting places, especially a secret meeting of lovers. Abraham’s servant found a wife for Isaac by a well; Jacob met his wife, Rachel, by a well. From a treatise on John, ‘A Samaritan Woman Came to Draw Water,’ by Saint Augustine, the Samaritan stands for the Church, the Bride of Jesus, ‘she is a symbol of the Church not yet made righteous. Righteousness follows from the conversation. She came in ignorance, she found Christ, and he enters into conversation with her.’ As a Samaritan woman, she came from a foreign people, not part of the Jewish people hence, ‘she is a symbol of the Church. The Church was to come from the Gentiles, of a different race …’ The reflection for us especially during this season of Lent is that, we must recognise ‘ourselves in her words and in her person, and with her give our own thanks to God. She was a symbol, not the reality; she foreshadowed the reality, and the reality came to be. She found faith in Christ, who was using her as a symbol to teach us what was to come.’

The Samaritan in the normal way of man or woman came to draw water and encounter Jesus. At the well, Jesus says to her, “Give me water to drink. For his disciples had gone to the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman therefore says to him: How is it that you, though a Jew, ask me for water to drink, though I am a Samaritan woman? For Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans.” Lent of Remembering invites us to welcome Jesus for a change at the well of our pride and wealth, well of our religion and ignorance, and well of our unbelief and seductive culture.

Jesus is asking us for a drink, a proposal to have faith in Him. Jesus is thirsting for our faith and he promises a better drink, a better faith that is incomparable to what the world’s wells can give. Though rich, Jesus is in need of a Church that will be married and remain faithful to Him because WITHOUT Jesus the Church is a monument and lifeless with no living water. Jesus answered her and said: If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” perhaps you might have asked him and he would have given you living water. The prayer is that, may we know the gift of God, that is the Holy Spirit and surrender our pride and ignorance for our salvation and deliverance in Jesus Christ.

In Jesus’ response to the statement of the Samaritan woman when she was asked to “Go and call your husband,” that she is unmarried, Jesus was very clear and precise. Jesus said, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.” God is calling the church to develop prophetic ears and heart in trust and obedience to Christ’s teachings. The story of the Samaritan woman invites to us to abandon our water jar of pride, ignorance, and human limitations that hinders our soul winning for Jesus Christ. The Samaritan woman as a symbol of the church today points to unmarried Christian that is increasingly developing to unmarried church, Rather than marrying to Jesus, like the Samaritan woman, today, many are married to wealth, pleasure, honour, power, pride/material things. The question is, what is the Church and many Christians in general following today in hope of finding joy, love, and relevance. The sad news about the Samaritan woman which resonates with many Christians and the church today is that, we are very busy with different processes and meeting of maintaining the church but guilty of no relationship with Jesus. Busy in church work, but guilty of no marriage, a genuine, renewing, and multiplying relationship with Jesus.

What and who are you married to that is not making the church and the nation to be married to Jesus Christ? Today, Jesus is proposing marriage to His Bride, the Church. Enough of our marriage to the world and the seductions of today’s culture and values. Jesus is asking for a drink of water, our faith in Him, what will you offer from your wells of pride, ignorance and wealth? Sincerely, there is nothing to offer, all that Jesus want from us is total surrender, repentance, trust and to remain faithful to Him and His Word. It is only in JESUS CHRIST will human race find happiness, healing, peace, and the “spring of water welling up to eternal life.”