Homily for Lent 3
March 8, 2026
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
A pastor
was once preaching about humility, and he spoke about how Jesus humbly rode
into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday. He was urging people to approach God
as humbly, and asked rhetorically, “Do we come into church on a donkey?” A woman
in the back pew pointed to her husband and called out, “No, but I came into
church with one!”
Frequently
when Jesus wants to speak of spiritual things, people can only think of earthly
things. He says that He is the living bread, and people ask, “Where’s the free
food?” He tells Nicodemus that we must be born again to enter Heaven, and
Nicodemus is left wondering how it’s possible for a full-grown man to re-enter
his mother and be born a second time. And today is a similar theme of Jesus
speaking spiritually, while the Samaritan woman is thinking only of solving
earthly problems. But gradually, bit by bit, she comes to the realization of
who Jesus is and what He’s offering…and it is far better than unlimited water.
First,
some background. In 922 BC, the Kingdom of Israel split in two. The tribe of
Judah remained in the south with one other tribe, while the other 10 stayed in
the north and became the nation of Israel. But a couple centuries later, the
Assyrians attacked Israel and carried them off to exile. Into the now-empty
land, they settled five foreign pagan tribes, each of whom brought their own
pagan gods to the land.
When
Israel was able to return in the 520s BC, they found their land occupied. But
unlike the tribe of Judah, who separated themselves from their pagan neighbors,
Israel began to intermarry with the pagans and corrupt the pure Jewish
bloodline – these people became known as the Samaritans, after their largest
city of Samaria. As a result, the Jews would not allow the Samaritans to worship
in Jerusalem – instead, they had to set up a separate temple on Mount Gerazim.
This is why the Jews and the Samaritans had such animosity – the Jews saw the
Samaritans as dirty half-breeds who had corrupted the worship of God with
paganism.
But as part
of the Father’s perfect plan, Jesus was to reconcile all people with God, even
these dirty half-breeds. It says that Jesus “had to” pass through Samaria. It
wasn’t a necessity, since most Jews just took an alternate route around the
country of their enemies – but He “had to” in the sense that this was the
Father’s plan. He rests at a well – if you know the Old Testament, you know
that the patriarchs – Isaac, Jacob, Moses – met their wives at a well. Resting
here is a deliberate choice, because Christ is going to try to win over her
heart. Christ’s Bride is the Church, and this Samaritan woman will be a prized
member.
She
comes at noon, alone – a strange occurrence, because in Jesus’ day women drew
water in the cool of the morning and evening, and always in groups for safety.
To come alone at noon means this woman is an outcast. Jesus breaks with
convention on every level – He converses with a woman alone, a Samaritan, and
asks for something that would break Jewish purity laws – to share a cup of water
together.
The
woman is initially confused by the request. But Jesus tells her that He has a
greater gift: living water. In Jewish parlance, “living water” simply means
running water, like a brook – this is a much more sanitary option than the
stagnant water of a well. So she is intrigued, and hopeful that she will no
longer have to perform the task of drawing water. But, again, she
misunderstands – Jesus is speaking of the Holy Spirit, which is like Living
Water – the Spirit causes all virtues to grow in us like water grows plants, and
cleanses us of sin like water cleanses the body. The woman responds cynically –
but also ironically, as she asks, “Are you greater than Jacob, who gave us this
well?” She is expecting Him to say no – when in reality, He is far, far greater
than Jacob.
So Jesus
speaks about her illicit marriage situation and reveals the five husbands. This
is a symbol of those five pagan nations with whom the Israelites had
intermarried. Instead of remaining faithful to the true God, the Samaritans had
committed spiritual adultery with pagan ones. The woman, recognizing that Jesus
is a prophet, asks Him a theological question. She’s not trying to change the
topic so much as she sees an opportunity to settle the great dispute that had
been raging for five hundred years between the Samaritans and Jews: how should
God be fittingly worshipped?
Jesus
answers that, currently, the Jews have it right: the Temple in Jerusalem is the
place to worship. But He also tells her that this is coming to an end – there
will be a new right worship of God: the Holy Mass. And we know that in 70 AD, a
generation after the death of Christ, the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed and
never rebuilt. Because we are now, right here at this very Mass in
Monroe, giving God the worship in spirit and truth. We can call the Mass “true
worship” because the Mass will last until the end of time – there will never be
another form of worship more pleasing to God. The Jewish sacrifices were only a
shadow of the Sacrifice of the Mass, which makes present in an unbloody way the
Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary. The Cross is re-presented here, which makes
this is the perfect offering, the true worship, and it will last until the end
of time. We sing at every Mass, “We proclaim Your Death, O Lord, and profess
Your Resurrection, until You come again” – the Mass will never end until Christ
returns. Literally at every single minute of the day, somewhere in the world,
the Mass is being offered. What the prophet Malachi stated in the Old Testament
has been fulfilled in the Mass: “For from the rising of the sun even unto its
setting, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense
shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering.”
The
woman then talks about the Messiah, and Jesus responds with a powerful Greek
phrase: “Ego eimi”. We translated it as “I am He” but it literally means “I AM”
– the Divine Name. Recall when Moses met God in the burning bush, he asked God
His Name, which was “Yahweh” – I AM. This means that God is the source of all
existence in the universe, that He is Being Itself, and that all time is
present to Him. And this very Creator God is made incarnate in Jesus Christ,
sitting by a well in front of this loose woman from a half-breed tribe.
We could
go on, but I think there are two practical takeaways from this Gospel. First,
it doesn’t matter what we’ve been through or what we’ve done, but God is
constantly seeking to win your heart back to Him. You could be an outcast, an
adulteress, a public sinner, from the “wrong race”, but Christ thirsts for your
love, and is reaching out to you at this very moment. The woman came to faith
and repentance, and then became a passionate evangelist as she told everyone
about Jesus – no matter your past history with sin or rejection, you are
also loved, called to holiness, and given a share in His mission of leading
souls to Heaven.
Second,
how we worship is important. I meet many people who say, “Oh, I have a great
relationship with God, but I don’t go to Mass.” We cannot have a good
relationship if we ignore how He told us to praise Him! Jesus was clear about
the proper way to worship God when He gave us the Eucharist and said, “Do this
in remembrance of Me.” So the Mass is the highest act of worship we can engage
in, and if we wish to have a right relationship with God, then the Mass is the
way to give Him the praise He deserves.
This
story of Jesus meeting the Woman at the Well is a powerful story – not a
physical miracle of Jesus, but an even more valuable interior miracle of an
outcast woman finding faith, hope and healing in Christ.
